Whose sinister game?

Pakistan is under attack, wants to play ostrich or desirous to give a monolithic response. Countries when formulate foreign policies apply three principles, one, policy should have high aims, the idealistic approach; second the policy should cater the ground realities, the realist approach, thirdly the policy should be humane,without hubries,thealtruistic aproach. Pakistan is left with Hobson`s choice, formulate a counterinsurgency and counter terror policy in the light of three principles of foreign policy. What Pakistan needs the most today is slogan given by father of the nation i e Unity, Faith and Discipline. These words never resonated with such an appeal before all the state institutions both formulated under statute and outside it have to unite in response, what can be a better response than the display of loyally, which the poor country is demanding from every denizen. Rise or fall for ever. Mend the rag or wear the tag. Whatever, it has to be done immediately time is not running out it is also running away.

At least eight people were killed and more than 40 were injured in a pre-dawn suicide attack on a CID police station at University Road on Wednesday.
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The deadly terrorist attack on Peshawar’s CID police station, which killed at least eight people, including four policemen, and wounded another some 39 civilians and cops, has largely elicited a public reaction that has almost become a fashionable prattle now. It is a revenge assault for Osama bin Laden’s killing is the spontaneous talk. But this inherently is a flawed argument for logic and hence unconvincing. Osama was murdered by the Americans; the Pakistan security forces had had no hand in his killing. The Americans themselves have said this in so many words over and over again. And the military leaderships have confessed this much too. Indeed, for this American adventurism, the Pakistani military is left with egg all over its face, with its image severely battered in the public eye for its competence, capability and preparedness to defend the country from hostile outside incursions and intrusions.Given this, Pakistani targets could be the last for any revenge assaults. Terrorist outfits may have declared not to spare Pakistan as well from vengeance. But logically their primary targets have to be the killers who have confessed to the murder, not the one innocent of it. Yet since Osama’s murder, it is the Pakistani targets that have mostly come under terrorists’ assaults. And, significantly, it is the security targets that they have picked on to attack specifically. They may have targeted a convoy of US Peshawar consulate with a bombing assault. But the terrible terrorist horror they have wreaked primarily on Pakistani security targets. First they murderously attacked the Shabqadar Frontier Constabulary training academy fatally, slaughtering some 65 recruits, apart from 13 civilians, and exacting a huge toll in injuries on both recruits and civilians. Then, they struck horrifically the naval Mehran airbase, and now the Peshawar CID station.  Clearly, this smacks of a deep sinister plan to weaken Pakistan’s security apparatus and degrade its military in the popular eye. Then, whose sinister game are they playing? Just consider this. When they attacked the Mehran base, by every account they went straight to the parked P3C Orion aircraft, making up the backbone of Pakistan Navy’s surveillance capability to keep an eye on any hostile movements of the navies in our neighbourhood, and instantly blasted off two of the planes. Some Americans may have been working on the base. And so were the Chinese. Yet the attackers didn’t go after the Americans; or for the Chinese, for that matter. Their target was primarily the prized naval surveillance and fighting asset. Now who had so briefed and tasked the terrorist attackers? Even if the speculation about some inside contact is granted for argument’s sake, the crucial question begging answer is who actually had conceived, plotted and executed the assault.  More bluntly, whose men the terrorists prowling our land actually are. They couldn’t be their own men. It is not even imaginable if they could afford the enormous cash and dumps of sophisticated weapons and war equipment that they demonstratively show themselves to be in possession of. They may indoctrinate unsuspecting gullible youth and recruit them for their thuggish vile pursuits. But mere motivation cannot be enough to perpetuate their murderous acts. Arms and money are required and in bundles, neither of which they can arguably muster up on their own. Then, who really are their financiers, arms suppliers and masterminds? Of course, the Americans and their allies, both western and non-western, would have it that it is al-Qaeda. But veritably it is now just a diminished and enfeebled entity, no matter how much build-up the Americans may self-interestedly give to a hermetic Osama holed up in a hideout as a-still formidable mastermind, fund raiser and manager of terrorism trade. Outfits owing allegiance to his ideology are independent regional or local entities, with their own chain of control and commands, paymasters and masterminds. And you cannot say that they actually are what they profess to be. And that goes for the thugs who are increasingly now targeting the security establishments and personnel in our own land. Now it is for our intelligence spooks to show them up for what these thugs really are and whose sinister game are they playing on us so viciously. But are these spooks up to the job? And are their political bosses alive enough to put them to this task? That surely is a billion-dollar question. But both must know the country is in the throes of a sinister great game and if they fail in their duty this nation is bound to land in hugely uncertain times with terrible consequences.