Confronting Terrorism (Part 1)
Like inflation corruption has become an inescapable part of our daily lives. That Pakistan has not reached economic apocalypse because of this evil is only a miracle. One of the fundamental premises of democracy is that all transactions must be open for detailed public scrutiny, so it is hardly any surprise that the present regime will never allow elected public representatives to function in the service of the masses. The concept of having elected local representatives at the grassroots level is anathema to those who use democracy to foster their own corruption. This lack of transparency and accountability allows corruption to proliferate and flourish. It turns our so-called democracy into a total farce. With all due respect, the honourable judges of the Supreme Court delude themselves when they hold the Constitution to be sacred amid this sustained onslaught against democracy.
Corruption in Pakistan supports and has morphed naturally into organised crime. In the urban areas, this takes the form of such things as operation of land mafias, water mafias, transport mafias, sand mafias and “protection” rackets. In the rural areas the feudal lords criminally monopolise the civilian administrative mechanism to hold sway over the population in virtual bondage. The local police is fully involved and, exceptions aside, a full partner in both corruption and organised crime. The United Nations defines “organised crime” as “large-scale and complex criminal activity carried on by groups of persons, for the enrichment of those participating and at the expense of the community and its members through ruthless disregard of any law, including offences against the person, and frequently in connection with political corruption.”
The nexus between illegal underworld and the economics of parallel illegal markets creates a parallel society outside the control of the government, guessed at by the intelligentsia but the public generally remaining largely blissfully unaware of and/or indifferent to their activities. In Pakistan, this has successfully infiltrated into the higher reaches of the government. From circumventing rule of law, they have become “rule of law” itself. The Swiss letter is an excellent example of how the executive and the elected parliament are fully involved in subverting rule of law. To understand how criminals function in the name of law, just look at the list of political luminaries and bureaucratic functionaries involved in the “ephedrine case” based out of the office of the chief executive of the country.
Employing contract labour, our factories have no unions. Because Illegal immigrants have no recourse to justice, our industrialists fully support organised crime to ensure their own profit. Exploitation of illegal labour for organised criminal activities undermines countries’ social fabric. The prevalent tax evasion in Pakistan supports large-scale money-laundering, manipulation and monopolisation of financial markets, use of legitimate industries like construction and mechanised garbage-collection, bringing drugs into cities. Their “businesses” include prostitution, human trafficking and extortion. Does this sound familiar to those living in Karachi?
A recent UN report says organised crime had revenues of $2 trillion last year, double the military budgets in the world combined. With increasing inordinate influence in the politics of the country, they will eventually erode the foundations of civilised society.
The law enforcement agencies, Rangers and intelligence agencies have given credible proof to the Supreme Court about the involvement of all major political parties in the coalition in Sindh employing thugs to carry out targeted killings. The provincial administration is itself an accessory by giving administrative cover to such activities. Other than coalition partners, the PPP, MQM, ANP and PML-F, it is not for want of trying that the PML-N (and others) do not have militant wings. Militant gangs using the cover of politics are into terrorism of the non-jihadi kind. The Supreme Court did exercise control for some time by putting in place a legal mechanism for monitoring. This cover allowed the Rangers to capture a large number of persons carrying out targeted killings. Like in every other case before them, the Supreme Court intervention has tended to wane, with the situation again worsening in Karachi.
Today’s suicide bombers may be mostly of Muslim origin, but terrorism has no religion or nationality. Japanese pilots made their aircraft into flying bombs in “kamikaze” (divine wind) attacks during World War II against US warships in a desperate effort to break the stranglehold of the US Navy over the Pacific. Today’s “divine” bombings are an aberration. They are driven by warped logic and are in reaction to the real and/or perceived failures and shortcomings of society in dispensing equitable justice and providing good governance. Uniformed, uneducated youths are used virtually as cannon fodder by unscrupulous religious deviates. One may well ask them, have they sent any family member to this certain death?
Terrorist groups need arms and money. Terrorists are motivated by ideology and criminals by greed, and the linkages include money-laundering, fabrication of passport and identification documents, provision of safe houses, supply of explosives. “Organised Crime” provides couriers who can smuggle drugs, arms and human beings across countries and regions. Collaboration includes money earned from drug trafficking supporting both criminal and terrorist activity. Terrorist organisations can include common criminals with special skills or access to networks or criminal opportunities.
Emulating terrorist groups, criminal groups can turn ideological over time. Tactical to strategic connections include logistical support and even some ideological overlap. It may be impossible to destroy the logistical network supporting terrorist groups without striking major blows at supporting criminal networks. With increased criminal activity replacing ideology, profit and greed are main motivation for operations of some terrorist groups. The more staunchly ideological jihadists use drugs trade as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself, making them less ambitious and probably more capable of evading law-enforcement agencies. Illicit operations render militant cells more vulnerable to detection. Remedial measures include improving police capability to locate and disrupt criminal networks.
In the flush of “victory” after the end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, we set aside logic and reason. Some “adventurers” of the armchair-strategist kind became gung-ho in encouraging this religion-derived militancy. Justifying Kashmir as an excuse, why did they go as far afield as Morocco and Mindanao? Scores of organisations set up shop under their monitoring, if not control, it became profitable to be considered a “jihadi.”
To say that we were (and are) ambivalent in curbing religious militancy is to be charitable. We blurred the distinction between religion and nationalism. We adopted a “divide and rule” policy within Pakistani politics, our intelligence agencies, attempting to marginalise mainstream political parties and contriving to have the combined MMA win more seats than all the individual religious parties had ever done previously. Who gave these mindless individuals the right to hand over our future to religious ideologues who have no understanding or patience with anyone who does not adhere to their myopic interpretation of religious strictures?
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