Resolve ‘Af-Kash’

Thursday, July 23, 2009
Ahmed Quraishi

Three things have never happened before. Afghanistan has conceded over the weekend that anti-Pakistan terrorists and separatists have safe havens on its soil. India accepted last week it was feeding terror in Balochistan. And CIA drones have begun targeting the area of Baitullah Mehsud. The new CIA move is a result of Pakistani officials accusing some lobbies in Washington of protecting Mehsud for the past four years.

What we are seeing now is not everyone coming clean. What we are seeing is the result of nearly one year of quiet pressure from Pakistan on its allies in Washington. It started in a secret meeting in Rawalpindi in July 2008 where Admiral Mike Mullen and CIA number two Stephen Kappes were told that some CIA activities inside Pakistan contradicted stated US government policy. There is credible information that the Pakistani military handled this matter with the Americans through military channels after reluctance shown by President Zardari in confronting Washington, Kabul and New Delhi. In this sense, Prime Minister Gilani’s bold talk with his Indian counterpart on Balochistan last week was a break from his party line.

The strength of Pakistan’s position can be gauged from the fact not a single Indian official chose to contradict US top diplomat William Burns’ call to India to reduce the activities of its consulates in Afghanistan. Mr Burns reportedly shared some evidence Pakistan provided confirming that the Indian ‘consulates’ were little more than intelligence outposts for exporting terror to Pakistan’s tribal belt.

The credit for these new developments also goes to the new policy thinking within the Obama administration which apparently is questioning the entrenched lobbies in Washington responsible for some of the failed US military and intelligence adventures in the region.

Over the weekend, Iran’s state-run media has shown a televised confession by the brother of Abdulmalik Rigi, the leader of the Jundullah group that claims to be based in Pakistan. Islamabad helped Iran arrest the brother. “Abdulmalek and his group,” says the brother, “had a purpose to sow discord among Shia and Sunni on the orders received from the US. He said his brother “had held several confidential meetings with CIA agents in Karachi and Islamabad,” according to Iran’s PRESSTV.

This should help us understand who has turned the Afghan soil into a base for exporting terror to neighbouring countries, including China’s Xinjiang. The other thing this shows is that foreign governments or at least their spy agencies have created Pakistan-specific terror groups over the past five years as leverage against the perceived Pakistani support for the Afghan Taliban. In other words, the fake Pakistani Taliban and the various terror groups in Balochistan were a payback for us for our alleged support for the Afghan Taliban.

Pakistan needs to come clean on this for good. Pakistan cannot press a button to stop the Pashtun tribes of Afghanistan from attempts to sideline them and keep them out of power in Kabul. This problem has to be resolved inside Afghanistan. We should push for this because this is also upsetting Pakistan’s Pashtun and destabilising us. The US needs to rethink its support to Kabul’s warlords and individuals who have failed the American project in Afghanistan. Instead of trying to eliminate legitimate Afghan parties like the Taliban and Hekmetyar, it is better to bring them aboard.

The other thing is Kashmir. The anti-India actions there are not a Pakistani creation. They will continue, fester and invite reaction from Kashmiris and Pakistanis on Pakistani soil unless resolved.

It is better for the United States and India to resolve Afghanistan and Kashmir than to create proxies against Pakistan.

The writer works for Geo TV. Email: aq@ahmedquraishi.com