Dr. Sudershan Kumar
The inclusion of Pakistan in grey list of countries, who are involved in terror funding and financing from June 2018 onward has sent ripples of shock waves to authorities in Pakistan. It is a known fact that before the meeting of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on 22nd February 2018, Pak delegation had tried for non inclusion. Pak team’s argument with 35 member states was that, they have already frozen the terror funding, however the complete crack down on terror groups is too hard, could not convince the members states for non inclusion. United States had said that mere freezing of assets is not sufficient, they wanted a decisive and sustained action on ground to address their concerns. Needless to mention here that FATF member states had earlier also kept Pak on grey list between 2012 to 2015. Still Pak leadership did not learn any lesson out of it. It is second time that the FATF members states have decided to keep Pakistan in watch list till June,2018. If it happens in June it will have severe effect on Pakistan’s 300 billion US dollars economy. They will be subjected to extreme scrutiny from regulators of financial institutions. This will further have impact on their trade. Therefore, one needs to answer a question what prompted Pak army and ISI to adopt a strategy for creating terror sanctuaries in Pakistan. What is the root cause of terrorism in Pak? To find answers to these questions, one will have to turn the pages of history.
After Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan Pakistan’s Generals had developed a false notion that by pursuing guerilla warfare they could compel the powerful Soviet army to leave Afghanistan. Further acquiring tactical nuclear weapons through unfair means with support from China and North Korea has emboldened them to use same strategy and tactics to annex Jammu and Kashmir from India without realizing that Indian army is in commanding position along the LOC and is well versed with terrain, climate, culture geography and has might to thwart the nefarious designs of Pakistani army and ISI. Hence Pak army and ISI ‘ s strategy of using these terror hubs against India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh has not only failed, but it proved counter productive for them and pushed their society in radicalization, fundamentalism and terrorism. It is also a fact that radicalization produces terrorists. Therefore, the process of radicalization can be explained in the form of pyramid, on the top there are active terrorists in the middle there are religious and political organizations and in the bottom are missionaries, Islamic organizations and young innocent minds. The link between the three stages of the pyramid creates enabling environment for youths to join militancy. The input for the bottom of pyramid are madarassas, where large number of Pak children are enrolled for religious preaching. In fact the radicalization in Pak society started its roots in the first decade of establishment of Pakistan in the year 1953 in the form Anti Ahmedia groups in Punjab province of Pakistan. But it gained momentum in early 1980 when Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan against the wishes of Afghans. As a result nearly 3.5 million Afghan refugees fled the country and took shelters in the neighbour areas of Pakistan. These Afghan refugees were trained by Pak army and ISI at the instance of Western power and some Arabian countries to fight against the Soviet troops. General Zia ul Haq then Pakistan’s dictator opened large number of madarassas in Pakistan to train these Afghan Mujahideen to fight against Soviet army. As on date there are 80,000 madarassas on Pakistan’s soil, out of which nearly 171 are in Lahore and 71 are in Islamabad. Nearly 15 to 20 percent madarassas are funded by religious organizations and their funding is arranged from donations from Saudi Arabia and other Arabian countries. These madarassas provide free education and bear the expenditure of boarding and lodging. In Pak society, the general mind set of the people is backward, they are not aware of the progress around the globe. Large number of Pakistani are living in small villages and towns. They face feudalism, poverty, lack of awareness and illiteracy. So they have only one choice to enroll their young children in madrassas. As a result millions of Pakistani childrens are enrolled in these madrassas. Thus, they act as a source of hijacking the minds of youngsters and hypnotizing it with extremism. It is an irony of fate that the young minds, whom one should have trained for building a nation through the power of education have been put into violent extremism. This has pushed Pak society, which one’s appeared to very progressive under the influence of Sufisim, in to sectarian violence communal hatred and intolerance for other sects. As per unconfirmed reports there are nearly 232 religious /extremists organizations,12 terror groups, 32 transnational organizations and four extremists groups active in Pakistan. These groups are mainly responsible for spreading terror in neighbouring countries bordering Pakistan. . They are mostly affiliated with fundamentalists and patronized by Pak army.
The author is of the view, it is high time that powerful Pakistan army generals should take the bold initiatives to curtail radicalization (the mother of terror organizations),otherwise Pak will be included in grey list from June onward. This will have serious repercussions on Pakistan’s economy, society and sovereignty. The sagging Pak economy already under heavy dets from China and suspension of aid from America will further move towards melt down.The Chinese will fully exploit these precarious conditions in Pakistan and will infringe on its sovereignty by offering bail out packages in the form of loans against their assets.On the other hand Pak society,which is multi- ehthnic with varying sects
will get pulverized under the weight of sectarian violence, communal hatred and in tolerance against other sects The ripples of this will be felt in the neighbouring countries also. Pakistan will emerged as failed state.
(The author is former Director General DRDO & Special Secretary MOD, GOI)
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