Pakistan: The Real Threat

 

A Times of India editorial

12 Jun 2008

 

Fighting has broken out along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, with 10 Pakistani soldiers reported killed and nine wounded in a missile strike by Afghan forces.

 

The cause of the firefight appears to be militants launching a cross-border attack from the Pakistani side into Afghanistan, leading to Afghan retaliation.

 

Afghanistan's Taliban insurgency has been rolling on for close to seven years since the Taliban was driven from power.

 

For anyone who's wondering how the Taliban manages to successfully destabilise Afghanistan despite the presence of 34,000 US troops and 26,000 troops drawn from other countries, a study by the RAND corporation, an influential US think tank, provides an answer.

 

According to the study, members of Pakistan's intelligence services and its paramilitaries are supporting Taliban insurgents as they enter Afghanistan to attack Afghan, NATO and US forces.

 

The report warns that unless Taliban bases in Pakistan can be eliminated, the inter-national effort to stabilise Afghanistan cannot succeed.

 

But the fact that radical Islamic militants find refuge in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan is not a problem for Afghanistan alone.

 

According to US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Michael Mullen, if the US gets hit in a terror strike again the attack will originate from the Al-Qaida leadership in FATA.

 

The reasons cited by the RAND study for continued Pakistani support to Taliban militants is maintenance of a balance against India, as well as a Pakistani proxy in Afghanistan in case of a NATO withdrawal.

 

But that's a high-risk strategy to pursue. Islamabad concluded a peace deal with the militants, after which strikes into Afghanistan were stepped up.

 

Not only is there a high risk of counter-attacks by Afghan and US forces in Pakistani territory, giving sanctuary to jehadi militants destabilises Pakistan itself.

 

They will not confine themselves to the border but strike at Pakistan's heart, as seen from multiple terror strikes in Islamabad and Karachi.

 

The RAND study and Mullen's statement ought to focus minds on where the real terror threat emanates from. The US and the international community need to work with Pakistan's civilian government to isolate jehadi militants and deny them sanctuary. That would stabilise not just Afghanistan but Pakistan as well.

 

Source: Times of India

 

URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-terrorism-jihad/pakistan-real-threat/d/91