Zardari is even more afraid than Musharraf
24 September 2008
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Stephen Schwartz and Irfan Al-Alawi say the Marriott bomb in Islamabad shows how weak the new Pakistani President is in the face of the Talebanised sectors of this failing state
The sophisticated truck bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on 20 September, which took dozens of lives, was the latest incident in a campaign to destabilise the entire subcontinent. Most reports have blamed al-Qa’eda militants but the real blame for the crime belongs with the Talebanised sectors of the Pakistani armed forces and intelligence service (ISI), and the pusillanimity of the Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari, widower of the assassinated Benazir Bhutto.
The Marriott assault was clearly a sequel to the bombing less than three months ago, on 7 July, at the Indian embassy in Kabul, which was also devastatingly murderous. Pakistani authorities tried to deny the involvement of ISI agents, as detailed in communications intercepted by US intelligence services. Less obviously, the Taleban on both sides of the border between Afghanistan and the Pakistani North West Frontier Province (NWFP) are engaged in a full-fronted invasion of Afghanistan’s eastern neighbour.
The shift of the global Islamist terror front from Iraq to Afghanistan has less to do with opposition to the Western presence supporting Hamid Karzai than is commonly supposed. The intent of the fundamentalists (claiming to act in the interest of extreme Sunnism) is to radicalise the whole of Pakistan or, failing that, to effect a third partition of the subcontinent. Following the split between Pakistan and India in 1947, and the secession of Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) in 1971, the Pakistani Taleban, as the radicals are increasingly known, will settle for nothing short of full control of the NWFP.
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Joe Camel
September 25th, 2008 8:04pm Report this commentI would like to ask the authors of this analysis, Stephen Schwartz and Irfan Al-Alawi, a couple of questions.
(1) They say (quote): “The Pakistani Taleban, as the radicals are increasingly known, will settle for nothing short of full control of the NWFP.” But why would they be content with just the NWFP, when they appear to be engaged in a bid to gain control of the whole of Pakistan?
(2) They examine the conflict in the light of political parties, personalities, Islamic sects, and the various jihadist factions and their ideologies. Would it not have been interesting to add something about the rivalries between the different ethnic groups ¯ in particular, between the Punjabis, said to be heavily over-represented in the Pakistani army and in the ISI, and the Pashtuns, who make up a considerable proportion of the population in the frontier region, and on both sides of the border? The president of Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai, is a Pashtun. Does this ethnic identity have nothing to do with the fact that the Taliban are fighting against him?
William
September 28th, 2008 2:53am Report this commentMessrs Schwartz and Al-Alawi know a lot about the ISI. Perhaps they can tell us about the ISI links with 911, particularly why the leader General Mahmoud Ahmad was in Washington at the time. Meanwhile Swat is in NWFP and therefore not a FATA district, and how is Kurram - a FATA district - also in the NWFP?
We need a more solid story. This is too much of a hotch potch. Also how should Pakistan be "second" to Iraq in an Anti Jihad war? Iraq should never have been "first" as "Jihad" clearly followed "Anti-Jihad" there.
I guessed that Pakistan with its knowledge of English and western connections, and anti-imperialist history, was an obvious source of Jihadism. However our (British) diplomats should be concerned with pursuing and maintaining peace with Pakistan not fomenting Jihadist-led or Antijihadist-provoked confrontations. We should withdraw all troops from the region and encourage our allies to do the same.
If some evil nutcase wants to fly a plane into a building in the USA how can a war to the death with 45 million Pathans and their allies stop him? Is anyone free and sane any more?
r.krishan
September 28th, 2008 2:33pm Report this commentpakistan was blue eyed boy of the west, and continues to be a favorite even now.there is a thousand year conflict of islamising india, the first part having een achieved. pakistan is an ethnicalyy cleansed state which west cosidered legitimae. from maghreb to indonsia an islamic power is rising and the west willlive only 0nsufferance.
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