Opinion - Editorials

Grim facets of terror

THE DASTARDLY MURDER of at least 14 persons, including 11 French nationals, in a car-bombing mission in Pakistan's premier city of Karachi on May 8 and the killings in an obvious suicidal attack near Tel Aviv in Israel a day earlier have brought into a sharp focus some gruesome facets of the borderless politics of terrorism. In fact, the sequel of these two acts of heinous crime does seem to underline the need for a concerted international drive against terror. However, the circumstances of the two separate episodes as also the apparent motives of the untraced masterminds in each of these cases do indeed vary. The terrorist strike near Tel Aviv is only the latest in a recent series of aberrant actions aimed at aggravating the unresolved political crisis of coexistence between the Palestinian people and Israel. At stake is the basic political demand for the creation of a Palestinian state — an old and persistent issue that has come to acquire a new dimension in the present context of the U.S.-led campaign against political terrorism of direct relevance to America's interests across the globe. If the shock waves of the latest carnage in Karachi have also been felt on the wider international stage, the focus of attention has much to do with another aspect of the global struggle against terrorism — the heightened challenges that the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, encounters in sustaining his alliance with the U.S. in its ongoing war against Al-Qaeda inside Afghanistan, which falls within Islamabad's geopolitical range, and also elsewhere.

Not yet investigated is the calculus of terror behind the targeted murder of the French nationals in the new outrage in Karachi. Yet, it seems inevitable that the international community should view the crisis that faces Gen. Musharraf now as another litmus test of his political will and ability to stay the anti-terror course. He had openly set this course last January in the context of America's strategic moves against Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda and in the aftermath of the terrorist atrocity against India's Parliament. Now, acutely controversial indeed is the manner in which Gen. Musharraf won a domestic referendum hardly two weeks ago to extend his hold on Pakistan's presidency for another five years. However, there has been no withering of the goodwill for him within the political establishments in Washington and several other world capitals. This reality is linked to the string of assurances that he has held out regarding his anti-terror pronouncements. In a critical sense, he has pledged to roll back Islamic radicalism which is rampant in sections of the Pakistani civil society and to prevent its export. Of direct relevance to the international community's desire to combat terrorism is the fact that Gen. Musharraf has reaffirmed these commitments in the wake of the abduction-murder of an American journalist in Pakistan early this year and after the terrorist attack on a church for international worshippers in Islamabad last March.

Gen. Musharraf must now devise ways to reassure the global community of his unflinching commitment to a brave new vision of Pakistan as a terror-free and moderate Islamic republic. He has done well to begin this process by seeking the cooperation of France in unravelling the new terrorist crime. Pakistan's interests will be best served by transparent and credible investigations of the recent attacks against international interests on its soil. Significant progress has surely been made in the case about the American reporter's murder. Now, with India dismissing the ridiculous allegations about its possible complicity in the terrorist killings of the French nationals, who were engaged in improving Pakistan's defence capabilities, the strong suspicions of Al-Qaeda's involvement cannot be pushed to the background.

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