Opinion - Editorials

A terrorist siege in Pakistan

THE RISING FREQUENCY of the terrorist attacks in Pakistan in the past few months indicates that the country is coming under a destabilising internal siege. It is becoming increasingly clear that Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf, faces an utterly complex challenge in trying to protect his Government and the country itself from the turbulence of cascading political terror. The latest car-bomb explosion outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi may have laid bare the calculus of terror at work in some significant ways. In taking `credit' for this attack, which claimed the lives of at least 11 Pakistanis and injured over 40 others, `Al-Qanoon', a previously unidentified group, is reported to have cited both the Musharraf administration and the United States as the enemies. The group, whose name translates as `the law', is said to have claimed that the latest terrorist strike was only a "preview, with more to follow". More importantly, the stated aim of this self-styled outfit is to wage a holy war against not only the U.S. but also Pakistan's present regime with its alleged reputation as Washington's "puppet-ally". Surely, there is no conclusive evidence at this stage about the existence of `Al-Qanoon' and about its claims concerning the latest Karachi blast. However, the objective ground realities in Pakistan are of a nature that will not preclude the pursuit of a terror-agenda of the kind that this group is reported to have boasted about. This aspect accentuates the current crisis in Pakistan.

A noticeable political pattern defines the recent episodes of international terrorism inside Pakistan — the abduction of an American journalist in Karachi last January and his subsequent murder in a grisly manner, the attack on foreign worshippers at a church in Islamabad's diplomatic enclave in March, the apparent suicide-bombing that killed several French defence personnel outside a hotel in Karachi in May, and now the car-bombing raid outside the U.S. mission in Karachi itself. Pakistanis, too, have been killed in these gruesome attacks, most noticeably in the latest case. Yet, the intended political message to Gen. Musharraf's friends in the West cannot also be missed. While it is not clear whether all these acts of international terror can be traced to a solitary source or a coalition of terrorist allies, the game plans behind these attacks reflect an aim of driving a wedge between Gen. Musharraf and the West, most notably the U.S., at this juncture.

Gen. Musharraf has gradually come to acknowledge that Pakistan owes it to the international community to rein in the terrorists of the Taliban-Al-Qaeda `school of thought' and also the anti-India terrorists with an ostensible stake in the Kashmir `cause'. In doing so in the context of the changing realities of the ongoing international drive against `globalised' terrorism, Gen. Musharraf has pragmatically sought to prove that Pakistan, under him, will be an intrinsic part of an overall anti-terror solution in the future and not an element of the problem itself. Now, it is this evolving equation between Islamabad and the larger international community that a network of terrorists, which seems able to strike at will within Pakistan, is clearly seeking to disrupt. Whether or not the anti-West Al-Qaeda has established links with the anti-India radicals in Pakistan, those opposed to Gen. Musharraf may really want to not only avenge his support for the U.S. in its war against Al-Qaeda but also undermine his recent pledge to cease permanently all terrorist incursions into India. Given the magnitude of such an evident agenda, Gen. Musharraf must be urged consistently by the global community to stay the anti-terror course. He must not be allowed to turn back.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• No escaping accountability
• A terrorist siege in Pakistan
• What next from New Delhi?
• A new socialist venture
• Let her be No. 2
• Whiff of fresh air
• A point made
• Ready expertise
• A model Indian
• Science or power?
• Modi and his reforms

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu