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Cross border terrorism

As if we did not have enough problems on our plate already, what is happening as far away as Dagestan and Moscow is being laid at our doorstep, albeit indirectly. Russia’s Caucasian problems go back many centuries but they are keen to forget history and find new scapegoats. Imam Shamyl fought a 30 years war before he was subdued by the Tsar, nonetheless the Imam’s Chechnyan kinsmen took due revenge a hundred odd years or so later, humbling the once mighty superpower during the 1994-96 Russo-Chechnyan war. While Afghanistan was an independent State until it was made to “invite” aggression from Russia’s predecessor communist State, the Soviet Union, which was ultimately brought to its knees. The Russian unconditional withdrawal from Chechnya gave it de facto independent nation status but was humiliating and left deep scars on the Russian people who have neither forgotten the freedom fighters of Chechnya and Afghanistan nor forgiven them. Both the nations now seem to Russia to have come together in a new holy “Islamic” alliance to oust them from Dagestan. What started as a simple border incursion by a band of guerrillas led by the Chechnyan warlord, Shamyl Basayev, seems to have ramifications far beyond the normal. Unfortunately for Pakistan, we are being drawn into this controversy by events and personalities most of which (and whom) are not within our control. However, this has given a golden chance to India to try and pin the “terrorism” label on us by linking the Muslim freedom struggle in Kashmir as only a part of a wider “Islamic terrorism” initiative. On the eve of the United Nations General Assembly session they are propagating that Osama bin Laden has announced a holy war (Jehad) against India, this neatly coalesces with the fears of the United States and with that of Russia. Having priorities of terrorism, nuclear proliferation and drugs smuggling, US concerns as a Superpower coincide with that of Superpower-that-once was, Russia. If you add Chinese concerns about Islamic activism among the Uighurs of Sinkiang Province, Superpower threat perception came a complete circle. Or so you think!

What about the growing fears among the governments of Uzbekistan and Kyrgystan about guerilla groups, ostensibly trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan and operating on the mountainous fault line that runs through their borders and continues into Tajikistan and Turkmenistan with an enclave or two in Azerbaijan? Add that to the concerns of Iran about the Shia community in Afghanistan as represented by the Shia Wahdat and you come back to the wider question of the Taliban rule in Afghanistan as opposed by the “Northern Alliance” led by Tajik warlord Ahmad Shah Masood. That Osama bin Laden has sanctuary in Afghanistan, courtesy of the Taliban, is being used as a “smoking gun” to paint Pakistan as somehow being “collaborator”, as the chief provider of training and logistics to Islamic terrorism anywhere in the world. With JUI’s Maulana Fazlur Rahman and Sipah-e-Sahaba’s Maulana Azam Tariq using the Aabpara Market in Islamabad as a convenient Hyde Park to threaten to “kill all Americans on sight” if anybody touches Osama bin Laden, our enemies do not need to spend any money on “black” propaganda, it is being provided for them gratis.

For once the Foreign Office is on the ball, having rushed to condemn the terrorist acts in Moscow and Dagestan where bombs have destroyed large apartment buildings housing families of Russian armymen, among other civilians. This is as it should be, we cannot condone (or for that matter seem to be condoning) such terror anywhere. There is no doubt that the vast majority of Pakistanis support Chechnyans and they are sympathetic to their struggle to liberate Dagestan, there is a difference between genuine guerilla warfare and terrorism as a struggle for independence that targets civilians and we cannot seem to be in any manner supporting terrorism. The armed struggle on the Chechnya-Dagestan border is a regular conflict. As much as Osama bin Laden has caught the imagination of the Pakistani public, it must be remembered that the bombings of the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salam have to be condemned in the strongest possible language. Any liberation struggle has to be directed against uniformed opponents or those civilians directly in support of the war effort, not old men, women and children. Any attack on innocents has to be labelled a dastardly act in an unequivocal manner, as is the norm of any civilized society. The attack on the Breguet Atlantique by Indians MIGs in Pakistan territory was a deliberate act of terrorism, so is the Russian Air Force attack on civilian targets in Chechnya. We do support the Kashmir freedom struggle but it is directed against Indian Occupation Forces in Held Kashmir as well as their civilian surrogates as it has clearly been over the years. Uniformed persons taking part in brutal repression and subjugation of human rights are legitimate targets in an independence movement, however planting of bombs where innocents may get hurt or the targeting of civilians not engaged in counter-terrorism is an act of terrorism. Shamyl Basayev’s fight in Dagestan is legitimate, the bomb blasts that levelled apartment blocks in Dagestan and Moscow are not i.e. if they were planted by Chechnyans in the first place. After the Polish incident which Hitler staged to legitimise his invasion of Poland, the world has to be careful of such callous acts by countries which would target their own innocent people if it serves their greater designs. It is quite possible that the Russians are staging these incidents to build up both domestic and world opinion.

Our biggest problem is the information media. This is not only Mian Nawaz Sharif’s but Pakistan’s biggest disaster area. We have failed miserably in not only projecting Pakistan’s point of view but have also been unable to counter the adverse and blatantly false propaganda that has been churned out against us. There are two reasons for this; one is glaring lack of capability compounded by inefficiency and a lack of both commitment and intent. When any functionary’s personal agenda transcends that of the nation and its leaders, both are in deep trouble. In Pakistan there are too many PM-hopefuls and many look to come in through the back-door by building bridges with Pindi, putting priority on their own ambitions and the careers of their own close relations to the exclusion of all other motivation and interests. If Mian Sahib remains blind to such blatant personal agenda, he will not remain in power much longer. Add to that the fact that the RAW sponsored ZEE TV has led the assault against Pakistan in the electronic media, you have to ask the question, how is one expected to react to a hard-core ZEE TV person in a senior management position in our media? Whatever his antecedents, can we take the risk of his being at the nerve centre of our media strategy with complete access to planning and implementation? The taking up of cross border terrorism is a major threat to the integrity of Pakistan. We need a task force to engage in damage control. Already the Pakistan Army has been the target of vicious attack in the foreign media; the next step is to officially label us as the source of all Islamist terrorism in the world. Pakistan will not exist if we cannot maintain the sanctity of the Armed Forces. While one is certain that the concerned agencies will work overtime to dispel this for the sake of Pakistan and himself, Mian Nawaz Sharif has to get in professional management into the media even if he has to hire the likes of Saatchi and Saatchi, J. Walter Thompson, etc to viz. (1) contain and deflect adverse propaganda (2) counter such propaganda and (3) advise and help in re-structuring our media instruments to face the new challenges posed not only by the emerging situation but by high-tech advancement in the world.

Pakistan should wake up to the fact that “cross border terrorism” is the attempt to label us as originators of the latest weapon of war against our integrity and sovereignty and that we need to gear up our defences thereof as we are presently ill-equipped to counter the enemy’s assault.

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