Khawaja Asif’s wisdom

Fault lines aplenty

The Chinese have had some concerns about Pakistan’s seriousness in apprehending Uighur militants taking sanctuary in the tribal area. But Zarb-e-Azb has clearly impressed them; and they seemed happy enough when Defence Minister Khawaja Asif assured them that the militants were no more in Pakistani territory. Some have fled, the rest were killed, it appears. And there was a fair bit of truth in the main reasons for international terrorism that Kh Asif felt duty-bound to elaborate upon in Beijing. Lingering disputes like Kashmir and Palestine – especially the developed world’s indifference towards them – continue to breed hatred and terrorism.

However it would be naïve to attribute today’s mainstream international militancy to such ‘fissures and fault lines’, as Khawaja sb put it. It is true that much of the civilised world must bear the responsibility for the international paralysis on issues just like Kashmir and Palestine. Even now, there is violence in both areas, and the world seems not to care as Muslim blood is spilled to justify illegal occupations. But the terrorism of the al Qaeda, al Nusra, ISIS and company is of a different mould. On the surface they exploit typical Muslim grievances, but long years of the war on terror have proved that they are in fact proxy militias – created, funded and armed to carry out selective subversion, even bring down states.

Surely the defence minister realises how some such militias have their roots in the very tribal area he referred to during his speech. In fact, the model of the mujahideen perfected in the Afghan jihad provided the blueprint for later large scale implementation of the proxy-militia project. Since Pakistan is now at the forefront of the fight against terrorism, it brings valuable actionable experience to the table that our friends can benefit from. And the most important lesson is that if the international community really wants to nip the terrorism evil in the bud, it must first get a handle on numerous avenues of funding and arming that terrorists are able to exploit. Short of that, these fault lines will get further blurred as the cost in human lives continues to rise.