Can’t fight ’em alone
One incident after another proves that strained relations between the US and Pakistan encourage and help the terrorists to implement their deadly agenda. The 19 hour Taliban assault on Kabul’s most heavily secured district, turning it into a battle zone and leading to the killing of 11 persons is the latest example of the sort. A few days earlier, a truck bombing against a NATO base in Wardak province had wounded 77 American personnel. Meanwhile, TTP attacks inside Pakistan have become more deadly and frequent after the deterioration of relations between the two countries in the wake of the US raid in Abbottabad in May. In Peshawar alone, 31 terrorism related incidents have been recorded since the event.
Secretary Panetta has accused the Haqqani group of launching attacks inside Afghanistan and subsequently escaping into safe havens in Pakistan. He has vowed to take retaliatory action. Utterances of the type won’t help. Cross border attacks by the terrorists are by no means from one side alone. The TTP elements sheltering on the Afghan side of the Durand line have launched several cross border attacks in Fata, killing and kidnapping people. Early last month, Taliban militants took 23 Pakistani children from Bajaur as hostages. Neither Nato nor the Afghan government has moved against the terrorists who are operating from safe havens inside Afghanistan. Panetta should have realised by now that fuming and fretting and putting pressure on Pakistan will not work. The arrest of senior Al-Qaeda operative Al Mauritani indicates that cooperation between the ISI and CIA can produce better results. Statements like Zawahiri being in Pakistan only add fuel to the fire. What is required is for the two sides to address the issues that continue to create bad blood between them.
Positive signals emanating from both sides over the past few weeks lead one to hope that sound judgment will prevail when Admiral Mullen meets Gen Kayani in Seville later this week. What needs to be realised is that the terrorists pose as much threat to Pakistan as they do to the US. What is worrisome is the tenacity and inventiveness displayed by the militants. This can produce lethal result in an environment marked by suspicion and hostility between Pakistan and the US.