Indian Defence Review

Pic Source: https://www.pakistantoday.com.

Two visuals in the electronic media covering the Tehrik-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) besieging the Pakistani establishment headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan were ironical and comical at the same time. One showed thousands of radicals with their hands raised to the sky jumping up in unison and baying for ouster of the French ambassador to Pakistan.  This should be preserved by America’s Biden administration as forewarning of what the radicals in entire Af-Pak region will be doing after Taliban take hold of Afghanistan post US troop exit – baying for American blood.

Joe Biden justifies his decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021 on grounds that the original objective of preventing Afghanistan from being used as a launch-pad for terrorist attacks on the US is accomplished. He would not say if the objective is already accomplished, why wait for September 11. He would also not elaborate why the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) was not built up and armed all these years to take on the Taliban on their own. Besides, hasn’t the US been pumping ISIS into Afghanistan past several months knowing well that there have been instances of ISIS and Al Qaeda collaborating in Iraq-Syria? But spin doctoring narratives is natural for politicians and Biden is no exception.    

The second visual of the TLP protest was Imran Khan pleading that cutting ties with the French will hit the Pakistani economy even more, much that he has been painting a rosy economic future. But as mentioned lies are natural to politicians. The TLP has been demanding that Pakistan must expel the French Ambassador and Pakistan must have no economic dealings with France. Pakistan’s parliament has commenced debating a proposal to expel the French ambassador by April 20. The resolution also suggests that TLP which has capitalized on public anger over caricatures of the Prophet in French media could pose a major threat to Pakistan’s stability. Over a hundred have been killed in clashes with the TLP including at least four police officers. Some 11 Rangers were taken captive by the TLP. The protests had intensified after the government arrested Saad Hussain Rizvi, the 26-year old TLP leader in a pre-emptive move to scuttle his calls for large gatherings.

The irony is that Imran Khan’s administration which had banned the TLP recently has been forced to negotiate with it including for securing the release of the 11 Ranger hostages. Social media footage had earlier shown some of these captive Rangers bloody and bruised with bandages around their heads. But Imran’s troubles with the TLP are hardly over with the parliament debate on the resolution to expel the French ambassador yet to be concluded notwithstanding Imran’s call to western nations to criminalize blasphemy against Islam. The comical part is the resolution stating TLP can become a threat to Pakistan; one terrorist organization a threat to Pakistan? This is obviously to facilitate lifting the ban on the TLP. 

In October 2011, Hillary Clinton, then US Secretary of State in a joint press conference in Islamabad with Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan’s foreign minister had said, “It’s like that old story – you can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours. Eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard.” Clinton also said, “We (the US) know that trying to eliminate terrorists and safe havens on one side of the border is not going to work.” But this last part was never practiced by the US itself in Afghanistan – hunting terrorists in Afghanistan but not going after the snake pits across the border in Pakistan.  

Pakistan has been deflecting terrorists to India and Afghanistan but that was not all. It also catered for proxy boots on ground for countries like the US, China and Saudi Arabia. In recent times, Pakistani proxies joined those of Turkey to help Azerbaijan fight Armenia in the conflict against Azerbaijan. Imran Kahn who won elections with support of the radicals and had earned the title of ‘Taliban khan’ for good reason, one being that he gave  million of rupees to a university in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) for training the Taliban.

Today Imran faces a serious dilemma. To get Pakistan out of the ‘Grey List’ of FATF, bans and allied curbs were brought in against terrorist organizations, which however pseudo were announced officially. TLP too was banned knowing it had formed a party in the last elections and secured over two million votes. The Pakistani parliament in all probability will vote to lift the ban on the TLP but that will exposes the farce that Pakistan has been playing with the FATF.    

Imran was brought in as the PM by the Pakistani army on obvious behest of Beijing because Imran and his political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were opposed to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). But all opposition vanished after he was installed as the PM, making him the puppet to the army and a mascot of Beijing. It goes without saying that having completed 32 months in office, Imran will soon be wooing every terrorist organization with or without Pakistan getting off the FATF grey list in order to secure a second premiership. Whether the terrorist cauldron in Pakistan will brew in Imran’s favour or against Imran is another issue after US troops exit Afghanistan with TLP protests supported across Pakistan including by the Tehri-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).   

Pakistan’s capitulation to the radicals, TLP in particular, is more than apparent. The country is plunging into the abyss of snake pits it nurtured courtesy its military with General like Musharraf publicly boasting, “Osama-bin-Laden, Ayman-al-Zawahiri, Haqqanis are our heroes ….. We trained the LeT against India.” And radical politicians like Sartaj Aziz telling BBC, “Pakistan should not engage in a war with those (insurgents/militants) whose target is not Pakistan.” But then the TTP was raised by the Pakistani military and ISI but has now turned against the Pakistani establishment.

The Bible of the Pakistan Army is the book ‘The Quranic Concept of War’ authored in 1979 by Brigadier SK Malik. The preface of the book written by Allah Bukhsh K Brohi, former Pakistani ambassador to India, and introduction by  Zia ul-Haq, former President of Pakistan and army chief focuses on the concept of jihad within Islam; explaining it is not simply the domain of the military but of all Pakistani population. Most significantly, it justifies terrorism. That is why radical terrorist mullahs like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar are de-facto foreign policy spokespersons of Pakistan and act as advisors to the Pakistani army. One thing is quite certain that the US does not have to worry any more about Pakistani nukes falling into terrorist hands because the Pakistani army itself is equally radicalized.