Anti-Pakistan rhetoric

Carlotta Gall and her preposterous claims

In her latest op-ed titled ‘Pakistan’s Hand in the Rise of International Jihad’ carried by The New York Times, Carlotta Gall has fired a broadside, comprising baseless anti-Pakistan rhetoric. Carlotta Gall, the author of The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan 2001-2014 and currently the North Africa correspondent for The New York Times, apparently carries a personal grudge against the state of Pakistan and does not miss any opportunity in spewing venom against her nemesis. In her aforementioned book, too, she had surreptitiously concluded that Pakistan had sheltered Osama bin Laden till his assassination by US Navy SEALs on May 2, 2011. She had based her conjectures on interviews with certain retired Pakistani military officers, who when interviewed by this scribe, denied having volunteered any such information.

The current op-ed, written maliciously on February 6, 2016, on occasion of the Quadrilateral Process for peace in Afghanistan moot, was apparently aimed at sowing doubts in the minds of other participants against Pakistan. Quoting President Ashraf Ghani, she claims that unless peace talks with Pakistan and the Taliban produce results in the next few months, Afghanistan may not survive 2016. The onus of bad governance, corruption, internal political strife and gross mismanagement, apart from mass desertions from the Afghan National Army is also being laid squarely at Pakistan’s doorstep.

Carlotta has the gall to malevolently suggest that Pakistan facilitates the Taliban offensive and is even responsible for the creation of the Islamic State (IS) or Daesh. On the one hand, she acknowledges the efficacy of the major offensive by Pakistan Army in mid 2014, but concurrently she claims that the militants were tipped off early, and hundreds escaped. Many fled over the border to Afghanistan, just at the vulnerable moment when Afghanistan was assuming responsibility for its own security.

Who in his/her right mind would believe that Pakistan, which has suffered the loss of over 60,000 precious lives since 2007, in its war on terror, would rather eliminate the perpetrators of the bloody carnage than tip off the militants who have wreaked havoc in the country?

She alleges that the Haqqani Network, the most potent branch of the Taliban, moved from North Waziristan into the adjacent district of Kurram. From there it continues to enjoy safe haven and conduct its insurgency against American, international and Afghan targets. She asserts that Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani Network, and second in command of the Taliban, moves freely around Pakistan, and has even visited the Pakistani intelligence headquarters of the Afghan campaign in Rawalpindi. What could be further from the truth? She declares that the new leader of the Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour has openly assembled meetings of his military and leadership council near the Pakistani town of Quetta. She surmises that since he came to power last year, the Taliban have mounted some of its most ambitious offensives into Afghanistan, overrunning the northern town of Kunduz, and pushing to seize control of the opium-rich province of Helmand. Ms Gall conveniently ignores the fact that after the disclosure of the Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s death, Mullah Akhtar has had to fight the battles for ascertaining his leadership of the disgruntled factions of the Taliban, each jostling for supremacy.

In the same breath, Carlotta avers that Al Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, enjoys sanctuary in Pakistan — quoting a recent report (without disclosing it) she places him in the southwestern corner of Balochistan. According to her, he has been working to establish training camps in southern Afghanistan. She conveniently remains oblivious of the fact that Pakistan is fighting a fierce battle for the stability of Balochistan, which is going to house the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Pakistan cannot afford to have any insurgency in the once strife torn province to ensure that the mega project remains on track. As far as being in touch with certain militant leaders is concerned, every intelligence agency worth its salt including CIA, Mossad, MI 5, maintains contacts with miscreant elements to woo them away from insurgency so that a breakthrough can be achieved for peace.

Her contention about Pakistan’s role in the creation of Daesh is as preposterous as her other claims. Al-Qaeda was a creation of the CIA to combat the Soviets. The Taliban are an offshoot of the same effort. The madrassas she maintains that she visited were set up by the CIA and provided with jihadi literature to wage the holy war against the Soviets. That the CIA departed from the region, leaving the mujahideen, trained, motivated and well equipped to wage war against targets of opportunity including the Occident, is well documented and even acknowledged by former US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who now asserts that you can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours. Who nurtured the snakes in the first place?

Contending that Pakistan had a role in the rise of the Daesh is attempting to take the world attention away from the heinous role of the west in siring this new Frankenstein. Contemporary history is rather vivid in its recollection that Iraq was attacked under the false premise that Saddam Hussain was possessing weapons of mass destruction. After that country was razed to the ground, motley elements have been armed and motivated to combat the terror that slithered into the vacuum. Some of the same forces found the situation ripe to declare themselves to be the new harbingers of horror, death and destruction and assume the nom-de-plume of Daesh cannot be blamed on Pakistan.

Ms Gall maliciously recalls having travelled with a group of young Chinese Uyghurs Muslims from China’s restive northwest, who had spent months training in Pakistani madrassas, including a brief foray into Afghanistan to get a taste of battle. They were returning home, furnished with brand-new Pakistani passports, a gift of citizenship often offered to those who join the jihad. Why would the Uyghurs reject Chinese citizenship and attempt to return on Pakistani passports, knowing the strict and vigilant immigration and border control regimen of China?

Attempting to kill numerous birds with one stone, the “erudite” scholar is furtively attempting to drive a wedge between time tested friends China and Pakistan.