The US officials make terrorism sound like child’s play. That the Haqqani Network based in North Waziristan in Pakistan is being blamed for carrying out a protracted attack upon the heavily guarded US embassy and Nato/ISAF headquarters in Kabul does not sound very convincing. Doesn’t Afghanistan have enough of its own indigenous flavour and brand of terrorism flourishing inside its own borders with an unprecedented reach? Why should those in Pakistan go all out of their way to attack a target so far away when they have plenty of game inside Pakistan to feed upon and that they are doing too with an increased vehemence?
If the aim of this exercise is to pressurise Pakistanis into believing that terrorism is emanating only from within its territory and not from any other country in South Asia, then this tactic is unacceptable for being too transparent to remain credible.
Also astonishing is the argument that the terrorists from within Pakistan travelled precisely 200 kilometres from North Waziristan into Kabul and performed the deadliest attack in Kabul’s decade-long history and came back without being either checked or apprehended. If this piece of information is true, then it casts serious doubts upon the border security system and apparatus on either side of the border.
What difference has the surge after surge of Nato/ISAF forces made on the security horizon of the country before transferring powers to a much weaker and incompetent Afghan army? If the US forces are withdrawing from Afghanistan then who will clear the militant sanctuaries from Kunar and its vicinities? Why the sanctuaries in Afghanistan’s north-eastern province haven’t been on the US hit list? What plausible excuse do the US officials offer for exhibiting such great tolerance towards the strongholds of Maulana Fazlullah, Faqeer Muhammad, and Hakeemullah in Kunar and Nurisatan?
After the withdrawal of the Allied forces, who will dismantle the militant strongholds in these regions? Or are we to presume that they will remain as they are and that Pakistan will continue to face the reverberations of such an unstable state for a long time to come?
AYAANA MALIK
Islamabad
