... aka
The Great Khan, who is the lightweight's lightweight...
’s departure for the US has been preceded by a most timely development: the arrest of Hafiz Saeed
...founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its false-mustache offshoot Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist organization in 2008 and Hafiz Saeed a terrorist as its leader. Hafiz, JuD and LeT are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Pak intel apparatus, so that amounted to squat...
, leader of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa
...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
and a UN- and US-designated global terrorist.
The holy man was apprehended on Wednesday by Punjab’s counterterrorism police while on his way from Lahore to Gujranwala to obtain bail in a terror-financing case.
There is a palpable sense that the government of late has moved its campaign against Death Eater groups into high gear, with over two dozen cases of terror financing filed earlier this month against JuD’s top leaders. The world is watching Pakistain’s actions closely, particularly in connection with JuD and Jaish-e-Mohammed; any perceived kid-glove treatment of them will feed into global misgivings that the country has a selective policy vis-à-vis holy warrior organizations.
The latest turn of events has therefore gone down well, with President Donald Trump
...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party...hailing the arrest of "the so-called Mumbai ’criminal mastermind’ after a ten-year-long search".
Pakistain must continue to plough ahead to put Death Eater groups out of business and prosecute their members under the provisions of the Anti Terrorism Act. Otherwise, Hafiz Saeed’s arrest could be perceived as little more than an opportunistic move calibrated to coincide with an important state visit.
Even more importantly, however, such a course correction has a critical bearing on Pakistain’s internal security and its future as a responsible member of the international community.
The countrywide crackdown against Death Eater groups a few months ago ‐ in which provincial administrations in Sindh, Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....
and Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
sealed or took control of hundreds of madressahs, schools, mosques, etc run by these organizations ‐ marked what appeared to be a definitive shift in the state’s approach. Interior Minister retired Brig Ijaz Shah confirmed as much at a presser on Thursday when he said the policy pertaining to suspected Death Eater organizations had undergone a change, for which the PTI government deserved credit.
It is unfortunate that such a reversal did not come about some years earlier when fears were repeatedly expressed both in political circles and the media that appeasement of certain Death Eater organizations carried inherent risks that would hurt Pakistain’s long-term interests.
History has shown that such groups cannot be ’managed’, nor their inherently violent proclivities turned on and off at will.
Moreover, all murderous Moslems at some level ‐ even those that are not pan-Islamist ‐ share an ideological affinity which leads them to enable each other, even if indirectly. Be that as it may, now that the state has resolved to eliminate them, it must close off every avenue that Death Eater outfits use to survive and proliferate. They should not, for example, be able to circumvent a ban on their activities by emerging with new names,
fake noses and henna wigs,
helmed by the same toxic individuals as before. Nor must they be mainstreamed into electoral politics unless they unequivocally renounce violence. Anything less will be a temporary reprieve.