Adux
09-03-2008, 11:07 AM
Editorial: Rehman Malik is right about Al Qaeda’s three-in-one challenge
The adviser to the interior ministry, Rehman Malik, has made a statement that should mark a major departure from policies overtly and covertly followed by the government in the past. He said on Monday that “Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is an extension of Al Qaeda”. He explained that Al Qaeda couldn’t move in the tribal Areas without the facilitation of the TTP, and that “the TTP is a host to Al Qaeda and is their mouthpiece”. He went on to also describe the movement of Al Qaeda’s deputy leader, Ayman Al Zawahiri, from the TTP-protected Tribal Areas and Kunar and Paktia provinces of Afghanistan. He said Pakistan narrowly missed capturing Al Zawahiri in recent days, most probably during the operation in Bajaur.
Pakistan’s official position in the past has been at pains to describe “three distinct entities” in Pakistan in the shape of the Afghan Taliban, Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda. It was said in the past that no Afghan Taliban had ever been kept under official protection in Pakistan and that the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, was spreading disinformation when he accused Pakistan of sheltering them in Balochistan. On the other hand, Pakistan admitted responsibility for the Pakistani Taliban and said it was doing everything possible to prevent their infiltrations into Afghanistan. About Al Qaeda, the accepted wisdom was that its leaders Osama bin Laden and Al Zawahiri were located somewhere on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a “notional” rather than a factual point of view.
The official policy, therefore, has been to “talk” to the local Taliban and arrange “peace deals” with them, while having nothing to do with the Afghan Taliban whose leader Mullah Umar may or may not be in Pakistan, just like the Al Qaeda leaders. The war Pakistan was waging therefore was against Al Qaeda and the foreign Taliban and not the local Taliban who could apparently be made to mend their ways. The civil society slogan aimed against former President Pervez Musharraf was that Pakistan was fighting “its own people” in the Tribal Areas and that this was really America’s war that Pakistan was fighting on its behalf. State institutions also participated in this debate through retired intelligence officers who mostly spoke against the policy of fighting America’s war against the Pashtun people.
Mr Rehman Malik has thankfully rejected all that self-serving nonsense. The clubbing together of the two kinds of Taliban and their patron Al Qaeda, as we have long advocated in these columns, is a correct final conclusion although it is likely to be opposed by the usual suspects in the media and many angry ex-servicemen and civil society types. That fact is that a dozen authoritative books on the subject have confirmed the presence of the “troika” of terrorism that is working in lockstep in Pakistan. This rephrasing of the problem that Pakistan is facing puts forward a realistic diagnosis of the problem of terrorism while putting the government and army on notice to formulate an effective strategy to confront the three-in-one challenge.
The policy of “trifurcating” the problem of terrorism has not worked. In fact it has put the diagnosis of the problem back to front; and the nation at large has swallowed the line that action against Lal Masjid in Islamabad in 2007 was an “act of savagery against innocent people”. The truth is that Lal Masjid has always figured in the official statements of the Al Qaeda leadership and the Taliban followed the order of battle that these represented to them as obedient soldiers. The “trifurcation” also forced Pakistan to involve India more in the internal disorder of Pakistan than warranted, and thus gave Al Qaeda a free run. The local Taliban leaders, all “alumni” of Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/images/smilies/smile.gif under the Taliban, unleashed a reign of terror in the Tribal Areas to convert the local population into servitude of Al Qaeda. Economic blandishments were not long in coming: Al Qaeda pays more to its Taliban recruits than the government does to its paramilitary recruits!
Mr Rehman Malik’s statement bestows clarity of mind to those in charge of facing up to Al Qaeda. His statement should signal a change of approach in the army without which Pakistan’s final victory over the agents of disorder will not be possible. If this marks a new phase, then Pakistan is well on its way to falling in line with how the world thinks about the global threat posed by the presence of Al Qaeda and its foreign warriors on Pakistan’s soil. It will rid Pakistan of the ambivalence that made President Pervez Musharraf look as if he was double-dealing with the world and with Pakistanis too. The operation in Bajaur gives all the signs of a correct diagnosis of the problem.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008/09/03/story_3-9-2008_pg3_1
The adviser to the interior ministry, Rehman Malik, has made a statement that should mark a major departure from policies overtly and covertly followed by the government in the past. He said on Monday that “Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is an extension of Al Qaeda”. He explained that Al Qaeda couldn’t move in the tribal Areas without the facilitation of the TTP, and that “the TTP is a host to Al Qaeda and is their mouthpiece”. He went on to also describe the movement of Al Qaeda’s deputy leader, Ayman Al Zawahiri, from the TTP-protected Tribal Areas and Kunar and Paktia provinces of Afghanistan. He said Pakistan narrowly missed capturing Al Zawahiri in recent days, most probably during the operation in Bajaur.
Pakistan’s official position in the past has been at pains to describe “three distinct entities” in Pakistan in the shape of the Afghan Taliban, Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda. It was said in the past that no Afghan Taliban had ever been kept under official protection in Pakistan and that the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, was spreading disinformation when he accused Pakistan of sheltering them in Balochistan. On the other hand, Pakistan admitted responsibility for the Pakistani Taliban and said it was doing everything possible to prevent their infiltrations into Afghanistan. About Al Qaeda, the accepted wisdom was that its leaders Osama bin Laden and Al Zawahiri were located somewhere on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a “notional” rather than a factual point of view.
The official policy, therefore, has been to “talk” to the local Taliban and arrange “peace deals” with them, while having nothing to do with the Afghan Taliban whose leader Mullah Umar may or may not be in Pakistan, just like the Al Qaeda leaders. The war Pakistan was waging therefore was against Al Qaeda and the foreign Taliban and not the local Taliban who could apparently be made to mend their ways. The civil society slogan aimed against former President Pervez Musharraf was that Pakistan was fighting “its own people” in the Tribal Areas and that this was really America’s war that Pakistan was fighting on its behalf. State institutions also participated in this debate through retired intelligence officers who mostly spoke against the policy of fighting America’s war against the Pashtun people.
Mr Rehman Malik has thankfully rejected all that self-serving nonsense. The clubbing together of the two kinds of Taliban and their patron Al Qaeda, as we have long advocated in these columns, is a correct final conclusion although it is likely to be opposed by the usual suspects in the media and many angry ex-servicemen and civil society types. That fact is that a dozen authoritative books on the subject have confirmed the presence of the “troika” of terrorism that is working in lockstep in Pakistan. This rephrasing of the problem that Pakistan is facing puts forward a realistic diagnosis of the problem of terrorism while putting the government and army on notice to formulate an effective strategy to confront the three-in-one challenge.
The policy of “trifurcating” the problem of terrorism has not worked. In fact it has put the diagnosis of the problem back to front; and the nation at large has swallowed the line that action against Lal Masjid in Islamabad in 2007 was an “act of savagery against innocent people”. The truth is that Lal Masjid has always figured in the official statements of the Al Qaeda leadership and the Taliban followed the order of battle that these represented to them as obedient soldiers. The “trifurcation” also forced Pakistan to involve India more in the internal disorder of Pakistan than warranted, and thus gave Al Qaeda a free run. The local Taliban leaders, all “alumni” of Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/images/smilies/smile.gif under the Taliban, unleashed a reign of terror in the Tribal Areas to convert the local population into servitude of Al Qaeda. Economic blandishments were not long in coming: Al Qaeda pays more to its Taliban recruits than the government does to its paramilitary recruits!
Mr Rehman Malik’s statement bestows clarity of mind to those in charge of facing up to Al Qaeda. His statement should signal a change of approach in the army without which Pakistan’s final victory over the agents of disorder will not be possible. If this marks a new phase, then Pakistan is well on its way to falling in line with how the world thinks about the global threat posed by the presence of Al Qaeda and its foreign warriors on Pakistan’s soil. It will rid Pakistan of the ambivalence that made President Pervez Musharraf look as if he was double-dealing with the world and with Pakistanis too. The operation in Bajaur gives all the signs of a correct diagnosis of the problem.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008/09/03/story_3-9-2008_pg3_1