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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Is Pakistan doing its part in the war on terrorism |
| 2005-09-20 |
| Police commandos burst into an all-girls madrassa here in what was meant to be a dramatic example of Pakistan's commitment to cracking down on Islamic extremism and religious schools that promote it. But the July 19 raid turned into a debacle. Caught without their veils, the teenage girls screamed — and then rallied. Grabbing mops, brooms, stones and knives, they drove the commandos out. The retreating police fired back with tear gas. The girls staggered into the street, where the melee continued; 62 students had to be hospitalized after the police beat them with batons. The target of the raid was extremist mullahs from Islamabad's Red Mosque, which runs the school and is famous for organizing anti--American, pro-Taliban demonstrations. No one was arrested, and police even missed a chance to nab one of the mosque's top clerics: Hours before the raid, Abdul Rashid Ghazi had been in police headquarters for a routine meeting with the commissioner. "They could have arrested me there," Ghazi says. So goes Pakistan's campaign against homegrown religious extremism: considerable drama, few results. President Pervez Musharraf has taken huge risks — he has survived two assassination attempts — to hunt down al-Qaeda fugitives. He has sent thousands of troops to battle militants along the lawless border with Afghanistan. But his government has been reluctant to go after its former allies: the Taliban in Afghanistan and groups that have fought a proxy war against Indian troops in disputed Kashmir. It also has been slow to crack down on madrassas that teach intolerance and glorify jihad, or holy war. As a result, Pakistan is still turning out young militants burning to kill and die for their extreme interpretations of Islam. Pakistani forces also have been unable to find two of the world's most-wanted men — Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar — after four years of searching. The fugitives are believed to be hiding along the Afghan border. Musharraf's pledge to eradicate extremism is coming under closer scrutiny four years after the U.S. began its military campaign to topple the Taliban. A recent upsurge in Taliban attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan near the Pakistani border is raising questions about the degree to which the militants are receiving sanctuary, training and supplies inside Pakistan. There also is concern that the militants might be getting support from rogue elements of Musharraf's own security services. "It's very obvious (the militants) are interfering in Afghanistan," says Gen. Abdul Manan Farahi, head of counterterrorism at the Afghan Interior Ministry. "They are coming into Afghanistan from Pakistan. They are being trained in Pakistani madrassas." Pakistani officials reject the criticism. "We should not be accusing each other," says Jehangir Karamat, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States. Although Pakistan once supported the Taliban, the government insists it has no incentive to do so now. "Pakistan has absolutely nothing to gain from a destabilized Afghanistan," Karamat says. Pakistan is developing its southern port of Gwadar in anti-cipation of increased trade with Afghanistan and central Asia. "This can happen only when Afghanistan is at peace," says Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's military spokesman. Pakistan has dispatched more than 80,000 troops to hunt militants along the rugged Afghan border. They've captured 700 al-Qaeda suspects and endured heavy losses: 270 Pakistani troops killed, another 600 wounded, Sultan says. But Pakistan has been more aggressive rounding up foreign al-Qaeda fighters than militants with origins closer to home. Musharraf "has been making a distinction between al-Qaeda, the Taliban and homegrown Pakistani groups," says Husain Haqqani, a visiting scholar from Pakistan at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. Sultan says only 46 Taliban leaders have been arrested. Pakistan's military, which overthrew an elected government in a bloodless 1999 coup that put Musharraf in power, has old ties to the Taliban and to domestic extremist groups. The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based, non--profit organization that works to prevent conflict, reported that hundreds of militants were detained — but then released. Militant groups re-formed under new names, most madrassas never registered and militant leaders continued to operate openly, the report said. In the most extreme example noted by the International Crisis Group, the government allowed Sunni extremist Maulana Azam Tariq to run successfully for parliament in 2002 even though he was facing terrorism charges. His political career ended when he was gunned down in October 2003. In many madrassas, textbooks and teachers promote intolerance against different sects and religions. Even in public schools, textbooks glorify jihad and warn children to be ever vigilant against enemies of the state. "Intolerance is deeply ingrained in the culture," says Mariam Abou Zahab, a French expert on Pakistan. Worries about Pakistan's madrassas grew after the July 7 London bombings. At least one of the four suicide bombers had visited a Pakistani madrassa before the attacks; he and two others were Britons of Pakistani ancestry. In June, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, set off a diplomatic furor when he pointedly said he didn't believe bin Laden or Omar was hiding in Afghanistan. The implication was clear: The fugitives had instead found sanctuary in Pakistan. Musharraf challenged skeptics to "please come and show us where he is." "The Pakistan government is playing a double game," says retired U.S. diplomat Dennis Kux, author of The United States and Pakistan 1947-2000: Disenchanted Allies. "It is a firm ally in the war on terror," he says, "but at the same time wants to preserve its options to use the Taliban." Musharraf can't risk moving aggressively against homegrown extremists. "He is walking a tightrope," Zahab says. His government has marginalized secular democratic political parties and forged a partnership with a coalition of religious parties. "Both Musharraf and the Islamic parties have a stake in the continuation of the current policies," says political consultant Hasan Askari Rizvi. "Even if the Pakistani government wished, it could not fully control the extremists," Kux says. "For too long it coddled them or just looked the other way. Moreover, Musharraf, I assume, fears pro-Islamist elements in the military. Otherwise, he would not back down every time he says he is going to put the lid on madrassas or take other measures that offend the extremists." The Pakistani public, inflamed by scenes of civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, is increasingly hostile to the U.S.-led war on terrorism and Pakistan's official support of it. Musharraf may be taking an even greater risk by making tentative overtures to Israel, a close U.S. ally shunned in most of the Muslim world. He met briefly with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last week at the United Nations. "We want to try to influence Israel to establish a Palestinian state," the Pakistani president said in an interview published Saturday in the Arabic-language Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. "We won't have a role if we don't deal with them." "There is an increasing gap between the state and society," says Muhammad Waseem, political analyst at Islamabad's Quaid-i-Azam University. "The state is supporting America. The society is increasingly anti--American. If the government ignores the public sentiment, it can't be legitimate." After the London bombings, Musharraf repeated the pledges he'd made 3Âœ years earlier. Pakistani police began another roundup of extremist suspects — a campaign that included the ill-fated July 19 assault on the girls school. The government last month passed an ordinance requiring madrassas to register. Musharraf's critics are waiting to see whether he pushes ahead this time with the registration and regulation of madrassas, something religious groups pledge to resist. "What one looks for is evidence, not rhetoric," says Samina Ahmed of the International Crisis Group. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 "There also is concern that the militants might be getting support from rogue elements of Musharraf's own security services." Shocked I tell ya...shocked! |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2005-09-20 10:02 |