Americans have been applying lot of pressure for a full/fledged operation in North Waziristan but do we have to obey them and help them in implementing their anti-Pakistan agenda? Also do we have to throw more and more of our soldiers in the US war on terror while the US and its gang are withdrawing theirs?
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The people of Pakistan are genuinely
proud of their armed forces for safeguarding them against a much bigger
enemy, India, whose dream of Akhand Bharat (United India) forced it not
to accept the existence of Pakistan as a viable state. Moreover, the
Kashmir issue, which the treacherous British left while departing the
sub-continent, by deliberately handing over to
India the Muslim-majority areas that
provided access to Kashmir, has further served to aggravate relations between the two countries.
Apart from mistreatment of Muslims in
Indian-held Kashmir, India's hold over the
territory also enables it to divert our share of water. The gifting of
some of our rivers to India by the self-promoted Field Marshal Ayub Khan
also weakened our position and frequent wars between two countries
further spoiled the relationship, over and above the other harm he did
to Pakistan.
We all know that even though separation
of East Pakistan came about more as a result of mistreatment of
Bengalese by West Pakistanis, with the final act being the
non-acceptance of Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman's mandate by our leaders, it is
a fact that India trained Mukti-Bahini, and going further, did intervene
in East Pakistan militarily, which it had no business doing. The
triumphant claim of the then Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, of
having avenged 1,000 years of Muslim domination, does testify to the
feeling of Hindu leaders towards Muslims, which does not seem to have
gone away, even after more than six decades. While at people-to-people
level, one may find goodwill in both countries but at the government
level, there remains a cold-blooded Indian aggressiveness, which shows
no sign of going away. This is more than evident when we consider the
fact that despite all the 'burst of goodwill' from the Indian side
demonstrated by broad smiles and warm hand-shakes, there has been no
progress on any of the issues, including Siachin, where both the
governments pay dearly in men and money, with India refusing even to
accept Pakistan's sensible suggestion of demilitarization of the
glaciers. Even after many rounds of discussions by delegations of both
countries, claimed to be held in a 'friendly' atmosphere, the end
communique only expresses a 'resolve' by both sides to continue the
discussions and to solve the problem through peaceful means.. What we
often see is that our over-confident, and under-experienced negotiators
start issuing very optimistic statements about the end-result but are
proven wrong subsequently.
Obviously, if Indians see another chance
of damaging Pakistan, and this time the more dominant and powerful part,
they can hardly be expected to lose it. Like training Mukti-Bahini, they
are now sponsoring, aiding and abetting the anti-Pakistan elements in
Afghanistan, and through them, in Baluchistan and elsewhere in Pakistan.
So while outwardly showing a change of heart, the Indians are doing all
within their power to destabilize and dismember Pakistan. According to
the latest news, under Indian influence, which would of course have been
backed by its sponsor the United States as well, the World Bank has
offered funding to induce Pakistan to take up the Dasu power project in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and delay for ten years the multi-purpose and
strategically more important Diamer-Bhasha project.
Except for the short spell when Taliban
were in government, our relations with our other neighbour, Afghanistan,
have also not been smooth because they did not, and still do not, accept
the Durand line and see us as occupying part of their country, the
region formerly called North-Western Frontier Province. This is what
prompted the Afghan representative at the United Nations to oppose
Pakistani membership of United Nations back in September, 1947. By the
way, Afghanistan was the only country that opposed the resolution.
Afghans anger at us can also be gauged by the fact that their parliament
voted to remove defence minister Abdul Rahim Wardak and Interior
Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi for failing to counter (alleged)
cross-border attacks from Pakistan, with defence minister having already
resigned his job. Surprisingly, these elements are least bothered over
the killing, even beheading, of our soldiers in cross-border attacks
launched by terrorists from their safe havens in Afghanistan.
So, on one side, we have a neighbour
Afghanistan, that sees us
occupying its territory, and on the other, India, that perhaps wants to
undo what is left of Pakistan, to complete its revenge for 1,000 plus 65
years. Also, while in 1971, India's only partners were Bengalese, this
time round they have on their side the Afghans, as well the world's sole
super power the United States and its gang who, encouraged by their
devastation of Iraq, and overthrow of Col. Muammar Qaddafi, are now
active against Syria, Iran and of course, Pakistan, the strongest
militarily and the only nuclear power in the Muslim world. After seeing
all this, it would only be a fool who would believe that the United
States and its gang's plan for the region is to stabilize Afghanistan
and leave.
With this background information, it
comes as a shock to learn that our forces are planning to launch
operations in the North Waziristan soon, perhaps as early as after Eid.
There was a time not all that far back
when the western press was giving sort of hourtly updates about
Taliban’s march towards Islamabad, leading to the
ultimate takeover of the government by the militants, and US President
Barack Obama had started fearing fall of our nuclear weapons in
Taliban’s hands. However, our armed forces pushed them back and regained
control of the troubled areas in a short space of time. Still, we have
got to remember that the armed forces did not succeed in eliminating
terrorists altogether many of whom relocated to other regions, even
moving to the cities in Pakistan, and some shifting to Afghanistan. We
know that at the time of operation in
South Waziristan, ISAF forces had
vacated their checkposts on Afghan side of the border, in order to give
the militants a chance to escape and are even reported to have
air-lifted important militants allied with them, moving them to safe
havens in Afghnistan. We also have to remember that 35,000 civilians and
over 5,000 soldiers died in these operations as well as in retaliatory
suicide and other attacks by the militants. Hundreds of thousands of
tribesmen were forced to leave their houses as a result of these
operations and had to suffer all sorts of hardship. Seeing all this, I
shudder to think about the consequences of North Waziristan operation
which could turn into sworn enemies even those who do
Pakistan no harm. I know that
for a long time, the Americans have been applying lot of pressure for a
full-fledged operation in North Waziristan but do we have to obey them,
and help them in implementing their anti-Pakistan agenda? Also, do we
have to throw more and more of our soldiers in the US war on terror,
while the US and its gang are withdrawing theirs?
Another disappointing factor is that our
approach remains the same, relying on traditional methods like the use
of foot soldier, tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery, attack helicopters
and the F-16s, which cause lot of casualties on both sides. The drones
which are the most effective tools in inaccessible areas, are not part
of our arsenal. Our efforts at acquiring these appear to be concentrated
on developing our own after blunt refusal by the United States to supply
these to us. We surely could have better and speedy results if we
collaborated with Iran, China and Russia. India has also embarked on an
ambitious drone programme and so should we, because our need is far
greater, and immediate. We also have to greatly improve our intelligence
systems and prepare for cyber wars. It is a matter of shame that even
for North Waziristan operation, intelligence from ISAF is considered to
be vital, perhaps because they know the region inside out by having
established their intelligence network there. This was also confirmed by
the US defence Secretary Leon Pannetta when he said that having
established their own intelligence systems, they do not need help from
Pakistan to conduct drone strikes.
Also, in view of what the Americans and
their gang did, and are still doing, to Muslim countries, it is
essential that our people act independently, in the best interest of
Pakistan and Pakistanis, instead of dancing to the tunes played by
others. We showed some defiance after the Salala attack by closing the
NATO land routes but some obviously foreign-assisted cross-border
attacks, greatly increased traffic between Washington and Islamabad, a
few visits by the killer-general John Allen, payment of just over one
billion dollars out of a few billion owed on account of coalition
support funds, and the political landscape seems to have changed
altogether. It is some measure of our standing in the Muslim world that
as a group of Egyptian protesters pelted Hillary Clinton's motor-cade
with eggs and tomatoes, one of them held a placard which read "Egypt
will never be Pakistan."
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By S.R.H. Hashmi
The Statesman
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