For quite some time the US has been mounting pressure on Pakistan to deny safe haven in Pakistan to the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Haqqani group terrorists. The US has convincing information that the terrorists operating against the state forces of Afghanistan and the US-led NATO forces in that country run away to Pakistan to hide in their safe havens and avoid being apprehended or engaged by the official forces. Pakistan, as is her wont denies having to do anything with the terrorists operating in Afghanistan. Not only that, she profiles herself as the victim of terrorism and garners huge amounts from the US in the name of financial support to fight terrorism on Pakistani soil.
Afghan Taliban are the mainopposition legions fighting the US and State forces in Afghanistan. When Osama bin Laden was attacked by the Americans in Tora Bora mountains, he managed to flee Afghanistan along with a large number of Taliban and established his headquarter somewhere in Waziristan on Pak-Afghan border. He continued the fight from his hideout there and the Pakistanis knew his whereabouts though they feigned ignorance. Ultimately, the Americans found him hiding close at stone’s throw from the GHQ in Rawalpindi. And still the Pakistanis say they did not know that Osama was in such a close proximity of the GHQ.
Three individuals newly designated by the US are Rahman Zeb Faqir Muhammad, Hizb Ullah Aslam Khan and Dilawar Khan Nadir Khan with close connections with known terrorist organizations like LeT and Taliban etc. All of them are reported to be involved in raising and providing funds for terrorist organizations. From some of the details provided by the US Treasury, it appears there is a wide network of fund raising for terrorists in a number of countries in the world more especially in the Gulf. It is not clear whether the littoral countries provide funding or that these are used as conduits for transfer of money. It will be reminded that only some months back the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India also unearthed the hawala racket that was providing money to the separatist leaders in Kashmir to foment insurgency.
Apparently, funding for the terrorists does not come from one individual or one organization. Extremists have a design to approach the donors. They play the religious card and in most cases they invoke religious sentiments among the donors telling them that Islam is in danger because the west and the modern world are arrayed against it. In doing so they are able to concoct stories and lies to convince the donors that they are fighting for the right cause. It is their policy to profile Muslims as victimised people in different parts of the world and thereby legitimize armed uprising against the duly and legally elected Governments.
Pakistan’s problem is that she has taken the lead in institutionalizing terror as the part of state policy. She calls the terrorists as “non state actors” thereby trying to absolve her of the accusation that she is providing logistic support to them and allowing them to export terror to the other countries, especially the neighbouring countries, with the tacit purpose of destabilizing social and political order of these countries. In yet another alibi of sorts Pakistan has created the bogey of good and bad terrorists. What she actually claims is that Pakistani wing of Taliban against who Pakistan army is fighting in the Waziristan are bad terrorists because they are fighting against an Islamic state whereas the terrorists who sneak into Kashmir and fight the Indian troops are good terrorist because they are fighting against a non-Muslim Government. India has been repeatedly telling Pakistani rulers that patronizing terror and terrorists on her soil is a very dangerous game because at the end of the day, terror begins to consume its own children. That is precisely what is happening in Pakistan.
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