Why this selective war on terror?

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=187658
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Farhat Taj

The government of Pakistan and the Army are engaged in the “Rah-e-Nijat” operation against Baitullah Mahsud and his network in South Waziristan Agency. The military spokesman and director general of the ISPR, Major General Athar Abbas, announced that the preparatory phase of the decisive operation against the militants was already underway and the operation would be taken to its logical end.

This operation should have been launched much before, at the time when Baitullah launched his campaign of terrorism in the name of Islam on the Pakhtun in Waziristan. Baitullah should have been killed or arrested long ago and his network destroyed. He and his terrorists have wreaked havoc on Pakhtuns’ lives and properties and have insulted the Pakhtun culture and way of life. He and his gang of militants have disrupted life through acts of terrorism all over Pakistan. An operation against him is good news.

But the Pakhtun, especially the people of Waziristan, are deeply concerned how selectively the Pakistani Army is dealing with the terrorists. It seems there are “good” Taliban and “bad” Taliban in the sights of the generals in the military establishment. The Pakhtun wonder whether their slaughter, sufferings and even the genocide-like situation that they face is a source of any concern for the elites of Pakistan. They ask why the army is after Baitullah Mahsud now, and, most importantly, why the army is silent on other terrorist leaders who have exposed the Pakhtun to the utmost savagery. Yes, the Pakhtun want to know what the army’s policy is on the three terrorist chiefs and their networks based in Waziristan—i.e., Maulvi Nazir, Hafiz Gul Bahadur and, the deadliest of them all, Jalaluddin Haqani, a national of Afghanistan. The army high command’s silence on the three terrorists is sending a very upsetting message to the Pakhtun and a wrong signal to the world at large.

The message to the Pakhtun is this: the terrorists are Pakistan’s strategic assets to deal with India in regional power politics. That the generals of the Pakistani Army will not offend them by interfering in what they are doing to Pakhtun lives and properties as long as they restrict their acts of terrorism to Pakhtun territories, but the military will use the full might of the state against them the moment they cross the other side of the Indus to launch acts of terrorism in Punjab and Sindh. That the blood of people on the other side of the Indus is more precious than Pakhtun blood, and Punjabi and Sindhi cultures are much more valuable than Pakhtun culture. That the military will not tolerate anyone disrupting educational activities in Punjab and Sindh, but will not make a fuss over the destruction of schools by the terrorists in Pakhtun area. The terrorists have made jihadi madrasas all over occupied Pakhtun territory so as to leave Pakhtun children with no option to go to the madrasas to become suicide bombers and foot soldiers of the violent jihad, so Pakhtun children better go to those madrasas. It is as if the international gangs of terrorists can do whatever they wish to Pakhtun culture and lives. It is as if all this is tolerable in the name of national security interests. On the other hand, it is as if the state security paradigm will be mortally threatened when a terrorists chief expands his outreach beyond Pakhtun territories.

This is a very dangerous message. It may threaten the foundations of the federation of Pakistan.

There are already a minority of hardline nationalist Pakhtun who believe that the army and the Taliban terrorists are two sides of the same coin. They insist that those Pakhtun, like myself, who believe that the two can be separated live in fool’s paradise. They argue that the Pakhtun must strike a deal with the US across the border in Afghanistan to get rid of the Taliban, and also so that they backing they get can be removed. Silence over the activities of Maulvi Nazir, Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Jalaluddin Haqqani is adding to the grievances of the Pakhtun against the establishment. Unlike Baitullah the three have not attacked the state and society in the wider Pakistan – but they have trapped the people of Waziristan in an anti-civilisation. Isn’t it the responsibility of the Pakistani Army to break the trap of the anti-civilisation?

The message to the international community is equally dangerous—i.e., Pakistan is not controlling the terrorists who have openly declared a war on the world in the name of Islam. All the three Waziristan-based terrorists — Maulvi Nazir, Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Jalaluddin Haqqani – are part of the Shura-e-Ittihad-e-Mujahideen, a grand international alliance of Pakistan- and Afghanistan-based terrorist organisations. Osama bin Laden is their patron-in-chief and Mullah Omar their central commander. The alliance has made public vows to attack “enemies of Islam” all over the world. Clearly, the “enemies of Islam” means the US/NATO forces and the governments of all Muslim states which are opposed to violent jihad.

Maulvi Nazir, Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Jalaluddin Haqqani are in fact more dangerous than Baitullah Mehsud, for the simple reason that the danger they present is to the whole world while Baitullah is concentrating on Pakistan alone. By their actions, the likes of Nazir, Gul Bahadur and Haqqani invite the anger of the whole world to Pakistan. And in fact such a state of affairs on serves to strengthen the argument of those anti-Pakistan elements in the international community who wish to see Pakistan declared a terrorist state or a failing state.

The state must clearly declare its policy on the three Waziristan-based terrorists. Are they seen as enemies of Pakistan or strategic assets? They are enemies of the Pakhtun. Enemies of the Pakhtun must be declared enemies of Pakistan, because the Pakhtun are an integral part of the federation. The Pakistani Army must kill or arrest the three terrorists and destroy their networks mainly in North Waziristan. Jalaluddin Haqqani, if not killed, must be deported to Afghanistan along with his entire family in North Waziristan. And this includes his son, Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is wanted by Interpol.