Stable or unstable: Pakistan remains a threat to stability in South – east Asia.

The Jihadis terrorizing the world today most probably began their careers as borderline psychopaths employed by the Pakistan Army to fight the American funded anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan, during late 70’s. After the war ended, US interest in this venture waned. However, the Pakistani Army recast these hired killers into the `Army of Islam’, a secretive Islamist army of the night, funded by rich Wahabbis in Saudi Arabia, and ready to fight a Jihad on a global scale. Thus the Jihadi army which had been raised to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, morphed into an anti-Shia domestic counter-subversion force in Pakistan, into a `Kashmir Liberation’ army, and finally into Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaida. At every step of this process, from its birth as an anti-Soviet militia in Afghanistan to its current form as Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaida, the Army of Islam was chaperoned by the Pakistani Army. Most major terrorist acts committed in the name of Islam bear the fingerprints of the Pakistan Army. On the domestic front the Islamist parties in Pakistan, which are in some sense the political end of the Army of Islam, were built up by Pakistani Army officers. Given General Musharraf’s meteoric rise in the Pakistan Army, and his ties to the Taliban and several religious groups in Pakistan, it is impossible to ignore that General Musharraf or people loyal to him know more about the Army of Islam than anyone else in the world.
Even United States of America is no longer safe from the fanatics like Ramzi Yousef and his relative Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who received the training under the Pakistani Intelligence (ISI) and Army. The former was the master – mind behind the bombing of World Trade Center in 1992 and the later was involved in the suicide attack on the financial nerve center of USA, i.e. 9/11 massacre. From 9/11 to till date every massacres formulated by Islamic extremists, has a Pakistani root.
After the liquidation of USSR, these Jihadis started inventing their new enemies all around the world, irrespective off how small or mighty may their opponent may be. They also proved to be an effective tool for their primary concern – “To bleed India through thousand cuts’. They consider Jews or Zionists, Crusaders or Christians, Hindus and even the Shias, as their major targets. Under the able military dictatorship of General Zia ul Haq and civilian government under former Prime Minister of Pakistan late Benazir Bhutto, they received equal and covert or overt support, both financially and logistically. Throughout the regime of former Prime Minister Nawaz Shariff, they received a thorough protection from the wrath of the western powers. Former US President Bill Clinton also insisted Pakistan Government and their military leaders for assistance in capturing bin Laden from Afghanistan, but only to receive a diplomatic rebuff.
It took ‘few hundred’ death or severely wounded, to shake up the conscience of our political leaders of India, after massacres in New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad by our half brother in near west. After 26/11, all of a sudden Government of India realized that only “condemning” terrorist attacks on Indian soil will never deter Pakistan from its nefarious design against India. Though whatever we have achieved till date that’s never justify the causalities we faced during those fateful days. Perhaps we are late but it is required to be acknowledge that “Its better be late than never”.
Pakistan army and security forces are neutralizing these extremists across its country in order to prevent their masters in their west to withdraw their generous financial aides and military support. And it is also because they cannot allow the USA lead NATO/ISAF/CIA forces operating within their territory, which may take Pakistan to further disaster and even its disintegration. This is what they are paying for their expensive harvest – religious extremism.
We must also recall that their trail has been found in China during Uighur uprising in Northern China and the suicide attack on elite Iranian National Guards in Sistan province of Iran. The attack carried out on the Iranian National Guards was carried out by a terror group named Jundallah (Soldiers of God). Iranian officials have accused Jundallah of receiving support form al Qaeda and Taliban in neighboring Pakistan. Pakistan’s home grown terror outfit Lashker e Jhangvi, carried out several attacks on Shia minorities across Pakistan.
There is no need of shredding crocodile tears on what ever is going on in Pakistan. It is because the situation there changes only to get worse for India, irrespective of their leadership. We can also recall that when the first Indo – Pak war was fought in the year of 1948 their head of state was a civilian named Liyaqat Ali Khan, in 1965 it was General Ayub Khan a dictator, in 1971 it was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto again a democratically elected head of the state and lastly the infamous Kargil War in 1999 when they had Nawaz Shariff as their Prime minister. The nuclear programs and tests were carried out by Pakistan under civilian leadership, in order to create a ‘power balance in South East Asia’. The second display of strategic defiance is affected by brazen show of Pakistan’s poor record on Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) proliferation to North Korea, Libya or Iran. The idea of WMD going to states in President Bush’s Axis of Evil scares people in Washington D.C. and when the visiting American official comes by to Islamabad, again General Musharraf assures him that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is `500% in safe hands’ and that is the end of that.
It is illogical to say that Pakistan must declare their nuclear assets or freeze them or limit their production. Instead of that, India must enhance its nuclear assets and technology so that if any country dares to carry out any such misadventure, their existence on the face of earth must become questionable. Our able political leaders and hugely capable military and security forces should also remain vigilant and ensure the safety of us, the civilians, and the sitting ducks, to keep the enemy at the bay. contd#