Saudi Arabia has arrested 19 people
including 12 Pakistanis in the ongoing probe in suicide attacks in three cities
of the Kingdom. The three suicide attacks on July 4, which were carried out
near the Medina mosque, the second holiest shrine of the Muslims, near the US
consulate in Jeddah and near a mosque in the Shia dominated Saudi city Qatif, had
killed 7 people and injured many others.
On July 5, Saudi Arabia identified the
Jeddah bomber as a Pakistani national who had migrated to the Kingdom 12 years
ago. Saudi nationals were found involved in the other two incidents.
Apart from the direct involvement of a
Pakistani national, what is important here is the number of people detained in
the aftermath – 12 Pakistanis out of the total 19 detained!
Pakistan is yet to response. And Saudi
Arabia is not the first country.
Terrorists killed 22 people in an attack on
a Dhaka cafe on July 1. The Bangladesh government has blamed Pakistan for the
attack. It refused to accept the theory of IS’s claims and said the attack was
perpetrated by a home-grown terror outfit which gets active support from
Pakistan’s ISI – the notorious intelligence agency that is seen as a terror
export organisation in India. In fact, Bangladesh has always blamed Pakistan
for promoting terror activities in the country and had expelled some Pakistani
diplomats few days ago on the suspicion of being under-cover arms dealers.
On July 7, Iran, which shares border with
Pakistan, blamed Pakistan for death of four Iran Border Guards who were killed
on July 7 in a terror ambush from across the border in Pakistan. Iran
consistently blames Pakistan for being negligent and complicit in allowing its
soil to be used by terrorists fomenting unrest in Iran, especially in its
border province Sistan-Balouchestan.
Then Afghanistan is another country that always
blames Pakistan for terror activities on the Afghani soil – from across the
border in Pakistan – be it the attack on the Afghan’s Parliament building in
Kabul or countless suicide attacks in Kabul’s diplomatic area and in other
parts of Afghanistan. And why not – every terror group active in Afghanistan
has got refuge in Pakistan – including the Taliban, the Al Qaeda and the
Haqqani Network. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has on record said that “war has
been declared against Afghanistan from the Pakistani territory”.
For India, Pakistan is the terror factory
that is responsible for every terror activity in Jammu & Kashmir and in
other parts of India. The most wanted in India are public figures in Pakistan.
Even the world accepts the use of Pakistani soil in launching terror attacks in
India – with terror strikes in J&K, in Mumbai, in Delhi, in Pathankot –
just to name a few.
Across the Pacific, in the US, one of the
worst terrorist attacks post 9/11 - in San Bernardino, California that saw 14
dead - was perpetrated by a Pakistan born couple who reportedly got radicalized
under the influence of a Pakistani preacher.
Even Pakistan’s claimed all-weather friend
China is not free from this terror taint that emanates from Pakistan. It has
been a long held suspicion that terrorists in the China’s Muslim dominated
region Xinjiang, that again shares border with Pakistan, find passage and safe
haven in Pakistan.
Yet Pakistan behaves as if it is the leader
of the Islamic countries of the world – proudly flaunting its ‘Islamic nuclear
bomb’ credentials.
The reality that we all in India realise is
– Pakistan is a nation that has always used terror as its state policy. Saudi
wealth may be the resource behind many terror organizations in the world but it
is the Pakistani soil that is harbouring countless terrorists – from Al Qaeda
to Taliban to LeT to JeM to Haqqani Network and many other smaller terror
outfits.
A
FRACTURED NATION – BUT A NATION OF DOUBLESPEAK
Pakistan is a fractured nation. Its
political chaos, lost in its military juggernaut has made the country
directionless. The perpetual disagreement among its controlling institutions
failed to check insurgency in its restive provinces and now it has engulfed the
whole country. Its civilian government cannot control it and its all powerful
military has other considerations – like promoting “good terror” to destabilise
India and running a propaganda machinery to show India as a demon that is out
there to devour Pakistan.
Pakistan has created monsters of terrorism
that are the threatening the world, including the Islamic countries. Pakistan
sheds crocodile tears saying it is the biggest victim of terror and presents
the supporting data but it does nothing to crackdown on the many terror groups
that use the Pakistani soil to perpetrate terror in other countries – a terror
network that has created havens even for many anti-Pakistan terror groups that
refuse to bow down – so much so that now unless it is a news of some very big
terror strike, the international media doesn’t notice it.
Afghanistan President Mohammad Najibullah
had warned Pakistan of Taliban’s grave dangers saying its flames would burn
Pakistan. Soon Taliban swept Afghanistan and killed Najibullah in a public
display of brutality. Pakistan created Taliban and now Taliban is trying to
undo an already chaotic Pakistan. Isn’t it?
FOR
HOW LONG THE WORLD WILL ALLOW PAKISTAN TO FOOL EVERYONE!
The United States had agreed to extend for
one year the aid to Pakistan to fight terrorism on the condition that it would
stop differentiating between good and bad terror. And the country’s most
powerful person, the Army chief of Pakistan Raheel Sharif had extended this
promise during his US visit. Yet, many big terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and
Masood Azhar, directly implicated in heinous terror acts in India, are roaming
free and are even ‘respectable’ citizens there. We saw the Pakistani
government’s attitude that allowed bail to Zaki-ur Rahman Lakhvi, main handler
of the Mumbai 26/11 attacks, on technical grounds. This is when the US has put
a bounty of US$ 10 million on Hafiz Saeed. This is when Masood Azhar, then
lodged in an Indian jail, was ‘exchanged’ in a hijacking incident. Isn’t
Pakistan taking Uncle Sam for a ride? Or Uncle Sam is allowing it to happen?
And many other countries who support Pakistan?
There is no reason for the world community,
for us, to think that the US is not aware of it. But apart from putting a
reward and occasional back channel assurances, we don’t see any aggressive
posturing by the US. Should we go by the explanation that when the US lawmakers
demanded Pakistan to stop differentiating between ‘good and bad terror’, it was
meant only in the context of Taliban and the AfPak theatre? Is it for the same
reason that no other country, not any NATO nation, or any other nation from any
grouping of the world countries question Pakistan for its terror credentials?
When Pakistan is a haven for terrorists operating in so many countries, why
can’t the world community take a coordinated action to pressurise Pakistan to
crackdown on the terror infrastructure present in the country?
Hillary Clinton, the then US Secretary of
State, had warned Pakistan sternly on its doublespeak on terrorism. Hillary’s
blunt message delivered in Islamabad in October 2011 was: “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.” That was some five years ago yet Pakistan has kept a blind eye
and is still doing the same, harbouring many snakes while trying to crush only
a few.
©SantoshChaubey
