Geopolitics

General Kayani and Future of Pakistan - I
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Issue Courtesy: Aakrosh | Date : 26 Aug , 2011

This unrest forced the army chief to visit many military establishments to answer questions about the American raid that killed bin Laden and the role of the Pakistan army. According to the Washington Post, Kayani took queries for three hours after a 45-minute address to the 5th Corps in Karachi. The questioners focused on the perceived affront in Abbottabad — and why Pakistan, in the words of one officer, did not “retaliate.”12

The slain journalist Syed Salmeen Shahzad claims in his new book that Islamization of the Pakistan army is only at the middle and higher level, which implies that it is only the committed who could have leaked privileged information.

In a meeting with US Senator John Kerry, Kayani is said to have relayed the “intense feelings” of the rank and file.13 A US news daily reported that a young army captain who was guarding the Abbottabad house in which bin Laden was staying was “perplexed” by the killing. He articulates the view that it was impossible for his own men in uniform to have “overlooked” the presence of bin Laden in that area. At the same time, he expresses support for his superiors in the hope that a few of them might have hidden bin Laden. After all many of his own friends and colleagues had died while fighting al Qaeda operatives in South Wazaristan and FATA.

Even more interesting is the view being circulated in Pakistan that bin Laden was not killed by US special forces, but that he died of natural causes in Afghanistan. And that he was brought to Pakistan and “killed” there to embarrass Islamabad.14 The shock that Pakistan got when bin Laden was killed has now been replaced by an effort to gloss over the lapses and contradictions that abound policy making in Pakistan.

The Attack on PNS Mehran

An editorial in the Dawn makes the point that no militant organization has since the attack on GHQ in Rawalpindi in 2009, shown such audacity and meticulous planning as witnessed in their blitz launched on PNS Mehran in Karachi on 23 May 2011. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan  said the strike was a reprisal attack for US raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The attack raised the stakes immensely for the security forces to guard against future attacks on military installations, also raising the specter of a terrorist strike on Pakistan’s nuclear facilities.

That it is not the first time that militants have targeted the Pakistan Navy and its establishments is well known but less understood is the ferocity with which the latest attack on Karachi took place. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed that its force of 8-20 armed men had attacked the base.15

Editor’s Pick

It was a well planned military operation, with the target was chosen for its value, intelligence gathered about its location and internal layout. The arrest of former SSG commando Kamran Malik, his brother and his accomplice may have something to do with the revelation of internal layout plans, but the larger problem is penetration of the armed forces by terrorist/fanatic elements. The slain journalist Syed Salmeen Shahzad claims in his new book that Islamization of the Pakistan army is only at the middle and higher level, which implies that it is only the committed who could have leaked privileged information.

Shahzad is reported to have claimed to feel threatened by the ISI because of a report he had filed in October 2010 about Taliban leader Mullah Baradar being captured in Karachi by the authorities with U.S. help. He had been questioned by the ISI then.

In the aftermath the international media rightly flagged the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. An Associated Press write up states that “A serious breach of the security perimeter could lead to calls for a unilateral American move to secure the Muslim world’s only nuclear weapons … while that is unlikely, a scenario that includes more attacks on Pakistani security installations, possibly nuclear ones, is not.”16

Killing of Saleem Shahzad

The disappearance and killing of Saleem Shahzad at the end of May was the second issue that impacted on the military and in particular, the ISI. His disappearance occurred two days after he wrote a story for Asia Times Online saying that the al-Qaeda had attacked the naval base in Karachi on 22 May 2011 after talks had broken down between the al Qaeda and Pakistan navy. In his report, Shahzad claimed that al-Qaeda had carried out the attack in retaliation for the arrest of naval officials suspected of links with the terrorist group.

Shahzad is reported to have claimed to feel threatened by the ISI because of a report he had filed in October 2010 about Taliban leader Mullah Baradar being captured in Karachi by the authorities with U.S. help. He had been questioned by the ISI then. After that meeting, Shahzad had sent an email to Human Rights Watch researcher, Ali Dayan Hasan, articulating his fears. As a result, the general perception is that it is the ISI which had a hand in doing away with an inconvenient journalist. According to Hameed Haroon, President of the All Pakistan Newspaper Society, Shahzad had received at least three death threats from various ISI officers in the last five years.17 Eight months ago, when Shahzad wrote about al-Qaeda and Taliban he was summoned to the ISI headquarters for an interview.18

In his book ‘Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11: Inside the Taliban and Al Qaeda’, released 10 days before his death, Shahzad showed how the 26/11 attack plan was originally planned in an ISI special cell, and then abandoned. He shows correspondence that proved a former major and LeT operative Major Haroon Ashiq had picked up the plan from Ilyas Kashmiri, and then took charge of the logistical planning of the 26/11 attacks.19

Continued…: General Kayani and Future of Pakistan – II

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The views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of the Indian Defence Review.

About the Author

Bhashyam Kasturi

Bhashyam Kasturi has written extensively on terrorism, intelligence systems and special forces, in Indian and international journals/newspapers. He is the author of the Book Intelligence Services: Analysis, Organization and Function.

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