Mr Ahmed Rashid’s article originally published in Pakistan Today on March 6, 2011, is both confusing and self-contradictory. He asserts ‘For decades the army and the ISI have controlled the extremist groups….. But in recent years, the army has lost control of them’. Yet in another paragraph he asserts ‘The security agencies have unleashed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)…. on to the streets of Lahore.’ There is only one conclusion that a reader is forced to draw; that the army does not control its own security agencies. While there may be many takers of this theory in the West, but very few here in Pakistan. It is further hard to imagine as to how the army proposes to control post-NATO/US Afghanistan simply by unleashing terror on to the streets of Lahore. Perhaps only Mr Rashid could understand the direct link between Lahore and Kabul.
While the scribe is of the opinion that the army with all its resources is reluctant to take on the scrupulous elements because there may be support for them in its rank and file, yet it would be interesting to ponder what Mr Rashid’s analysis would be on army fighting battles in FATA and other areas, against those forces closely allied to scrupulous elements elucidated by Mr Rashid! An eminent writer and intellectual like Mr Ahmed Rashid could have written a much better piece had he not been playing to the West’s gallery.
TAIMOOR ASHRAF
Lahore
