Will Pakistan be fragmented?

Sandwiched between United States, European, Israeli and Indian designs and Pakistani Quislings.

By Latheef Farook

(November 02, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Will Pakistan, the only Muslim nuclear country, be fragmented as it was done in Iraq? This is the common fear among Pakistanis in view of the forces-United States, Europe and Israel, which turned Iraq and Afghanistan into slaughterhouses, are responsible for the deepening quagmire unfolding in Pakistan.

Pakistanis fear that the US led war on Islam and Muslims, under the guise of fighting war on terrorism, AlQaeda and Taleban, is extended to Pakistan .They are putting the Pakistani government of quislings against Pakistanis threatening the very survival of Pakistan. India remains an active partner in this US led conspiracy to destabilize yet another Muslim country.

President Barack Obama signed the 7.5 billion dollar aid package in mid October 2009 demanding Pakistan to launch military strike against its Pashtun tribes in wild South Waziristan. Pakistanis consider the numerous conditions linked to the aid package as insult to their country and many described the aid package as a Big Bribe that will go into the usual pockets.

Within days President Asif Zardari obediently unleashed a ferocious ground and air attack, using American-upgraded F-16s and helicopter gunships, indiscriminately killing, among the others, innocent civilians and destroying their shelters in the South Waziristan region amidst public outrage accusing the government of betraying Pakistan's national interests at home, in Afghanistan and in Kashmir.

Hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, children and the aged were made refugees overnight with no food, water or any other essential as it happened in Swat Valley in April this year.

Under this mercenary military offensive on Washington’s orders, the Pakistani government also permitted US to secretly create a mercenary army inside Pakistan pushing the military to the point of revolt.

United States, European and Israeli designs on Pakistan.

It appears that the American strategy in Pakistan is to Pakistani government against Pakistanis, provoke a civil war and plunge the country into chaos to neutralize its nuclear arsenal that has been US neoconservatives’ urgent priority. The Americans are not interested in Pakistan or its people. They only wanted collaborators and quislings and they found a willing partner in the Asif Zardari government.

Some accuse US of playing double game by financing the Taliban and demanding the government to fight the Taleban . Justifying this fear Pakistani daily “NEWS” stated that the US-led NATO forces vacated more than half a dozen security check posts, together with some posts close to North Waziristan, on the Afghan side of the border, just five days before the Pakistani military offensive began.

This facilitated Afghan Taliban to cross over to Pakistan and support fighters in striking back at the Pakistani security forces in the troubled tribal area-raising many eyebrows in the government and military circles. Shocked and intrigued by its timing the NWFP government and civilian and military officials alerted Islamabad.

Pakistanis consider America to be the greatest threat, worse than the arch rival India, to their sovereignty and independence .They are aware that already a map showing a truncated Pakistan has been in circulation and the ever growing collaborations among India, Afghanistan US, Europe and Israel.

Aggravating this fear, US plans to build the second largest embassy in the world in Islamabad, after its embassy in Baghdad, and reportedly demanding indirect veto power over promotions in Pakistan's armed forces and intelligence agency-ISI. This crude attempt to exert more US influence over Pakistan's 617,000-man military has enraged the armed forces and set off alarm bells.

Dealing with the US-European, Israeli and Indian conspiracy to destabilize Pakistan columnist Atif F Qureshi stated that;

* The ’surge’ in American troops in Afghanistan accompanied a ’surge’ in terrorism in Pakistan. While the Afghan Taliban never threatened Pakistani sovereignty, since 2001 thousands of innocents have been killed in a wave of suicide bombings in Pakistan that ‘coincidently’, began only after the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in 2001.

* The Afghan occupation is deliberately extended into Pakistan and both countries are treated as a single ‘battlefield’ called AfPak .This is laughable because one is war-torn and primitive while the other has a sophisticated civic society .The purpose is to enable American forces to strike into Pakistan.

* Wave after wave of callous and imprecise drone attacks murdering innocent civilians and riling up the Pakistani public who despair at their feckless government for being complicit in continual violations of the nation’s sovereignty and dignity.

* The never-ending American pressure for Pakistan to “DO MORE!” Though no nation has done or sacrificed more to combat terrorism in its own self-interest. The number of soldiers martyred, wealth spent and tears of widows and orphans shed remain testimony to the truth that those who claim that Pakistan is half-hearted in this effort are liars.

* The CIA-sponsored democratic farce whereby American engineered its puppets to seize the reigns in Pakistan’s recent elections. For those who still deny that the Pakistani elections were engineered, think for a moment how is it possible that the most corrupt and despised man in Pakistan’s entire history, Asif Zardari would become the president of Pakistan if the elections were truly and fairly democratic?

* Even though our ‘popularly elected’ politicians are in the pocket of the Americans, they remain frustrated that certain institutions in Pakistan remain out of their reach. The black propaganda targeting Pakistan’s patriotic armed forces, intelligence services and nuclear weapons arsenal reveals their obvious intent. Well aware that these are the only institutions that truly have Pakistan’s interests at heart, the public do not appreciate the Am-Brit campaign to malign them.

* The exposure of blatant double-standards is evident as America turns on the weapons tap for India, whom it wishes to turn into its 21st century ’slave soldier’ in order to counter China, while Pakistani officials are left dangling and must debase and humiliate themselves in order to ensure the delivery of a trifling number of F-16’s and helicopters to fight the same enemies that America is sponsoring.

* The CIA shield, protect and nurture anti-Pakistan insurgent groups on Pakistani soil. The so-called ‘Baluchistan Liberation Army and ‘Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’ are only a few of many of these groups base their insidious operations from inside US occupied Afghanistan.

The pockets of resistance demonstrate the existence of an honorable people who are not prepared to compromise on their dignity. The recent polling is cause for great hope. It proves what was never in doubt – the Pakistani population will not stand for these US violations of Pakistan’s sovereignty and national interest for much longer.

We know that we fear Allah more than we fear America, but the nation must now realize another profound truth – salvation does not lie in continued cooperation and debasement in front of America, but only in faith in Allah and is His Messenger (SAW). It is time for this nation to throw off its shackles and re-declare its independence.

Recently, in the officer's mess in Bajaur, the northern tribal region where the Pakistani Army is tied down fighting the militants, one officer told a visiting journalist that” Osama bin Laden does not exist”.

Explaining the American involvement in Swat Valley in last April columnist Bill Van Auken wrote in the website WSW on 16 September that;

There is mounting evidence that the Pentagon and the CIA are engaged in a war against the population of the region involving death squads, disappearances and torture. Swat Valley, near Afghanistan’s eastern border, provides a gruesome indication of the kind of war that the Pentagon and its local allies are waging.

The Pakistani army offensive in Swat Valley, carried out on the direct and highly public insistence of US envoy Richard Holbrooke, and senior American military officers, unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe. In what amounted to a massive exercise in collective punishment, many civilians were killed or wounded and some 2.5 million people were driven from their homes.

Now, the Pakistani military continues to occupy the area, carrying out a reign of terror in which individuals identified as opponents of the government and the US occupation across the border are being picked up and tortured to death.

New York Times stated on 15 September 2009 that with the military occupation of the Swat Valley “a new campaign of fear has taken hold, with scores, perhaps hundreds, of bodies dumped on the streets in what human rights advocates and local residents say is the work of the military.”

In addition to bearing marks of brutal torture, many of the bodies are discovered with their hands tied behind their backs and with a bullet in the back of the neck. In some cases, corpses have been beheaded. American officials have praised the Pakistani military for its campaign in the Swat Valley, with US Ambassador Anne Patterson visiting Mingora, Swat’s largest town, to congratulate the army.

Now the Pakistani government replicates this bloody campaign in South Waziristan. A similar offensive is already underway in the Khyber Agency, site of the Khyber Pass, a key route for supplies to the US occupation force in Afghanistan.UN officials report that 100,000 people have been displaced by the attack.

There is every reason to suspect that the wave of disappearances, torture and death squad assassinations in Pakistan are also “made in the USA”. US Special Forces “trainers” are operating on Pakistani soil, instructing Pakistani forces in the kind of tactics that yield the bound and battered bodies dumped in the streets of Swat.

Indian design to destabilize and, perhaps, further divide Pakistan

It is common knowledge that India wanted to destabilize and partition Pakistan from the day it came into being in 1947. India played a crucial role in breaking up Pakistan and creating Bangladesh in its eastern wing facilitated by the blunders of the Pakistani’s ruling elite.

India, hand in glove with American installed Hamid Karzai’s puppet regime, has 14 consulates in Afghanistan from which RAW operates and the US has turned a blind eye. Pakistan has stockpiles of evidence against Indian consulates in Afghanistan used to fund terrorism in Pakistan through Baitullah Mehsud’s TTP as well as Brahamdagh Bugti and his Baluch Liberation Army-BLA.

According to DAWN, a dossier containing proof of India’s involvement in “subversive activities” in Pakistan was handed over by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh during their meeting at Sharm el-Sheikh in July 2009.The dossier, broadly covering the Indian connection in terror financing in Pakistan, is also said to list the safe houses being run by RAW in Afghanistan where terrorists are trained and launched for missions in Pakistan.

The dossier also mentions an India-funded training camp in Kandahar where Baluch insurgents, particularly those from Bugti clan, were being trained and provided arms and ammunition for sabotage activities in the Pakistani province. Although the information given to India is being kept highly secret, broad outlines of the dossier available with Dawn reveal details of Indian contacts with those involved in attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team and the Manawan police station,” the newspaper said.

“Operatives of RAW who remained in touch with the perpetrators of the attacks have been identified and proof of their interaction has been attached,” it added.

A description of Indian arms and explosives used in the attack on the Sri Lankan team has been made part of the dossier, besides which the names and particulars of the perpetrators, who illegally entered Pakistan from India and joined their accomplices who had reached Lahore from Waziristan, have been mentioned, the report said.

Here is what Christine Fair of RAND Corporation had to say about what the Indian consulates are up to in Afghanistan and Iran:

“I think it would be a mistake to completely disregard Pakistan’s regional perceptions due to doubts about Indian competence in executing covert operations. That misses the point entirely. In addition, I think it is unfair to dismiss the notion that Pakistan’s apprehensions about Afghanistan stem in part from its security competition with India. Having visited the Indian mission in Zahedan, Iran, I can assure you they are not issuing visas as the main activity! Moreover, India has run operations from its mission in Mazar (through which it supported the Northern Alliance) and is likely doing so from the other consulates it has reopened in Jalalabad and Qandahar along the border. Indian officials have told me privately that they are pumping money into Baluchistan. Kabul has encouraged India to engage in provocative activities such as using the Border Roads Organization to build sensitive parts of the Ring Road and use the Indo-Tibetan police force for security. It is also building schools on a sensitive part of the border in Kunar–across from Bajaur. Kabul’s motivations for encouraging these activities are as obvious as India’s interest in engaging in them. Even if by some act of miraculous diplomacy the territorial issues were to be resolved, Pakistan would remain an insecure state. Given the realities of the subcontinent (e.g., India’s rise and its more effective foreign relations with all of Pakistan’s near and far neighbors), these fears are bound to grow, not lessen. This suggests that without some means of compelling Pakistan to abandon its reliance upon militancy, it will become ever more interested in using it — and the militants will likely continue to proliferate beyond Pakistan’s control.”

Confirming the Indian support to TTP in Pakistan The Foreign Policy magazine said: “The Indians are up to their necks in supporting the Taliban against the Pakistani government in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” a former intelligence official who served in both countries said.

“The same anti-Pakistani forces in Afghanistan also shooting at American soldiers are getting support from India. India should close its diplomatic establishments in Afghanistan and get the Christ out of there.”

Afghan officials have also confirmed that India is using Afghanistan to stir trouble in Pakistan.“India is using Afghan soil to destabilize Pakistan and Afghan security agencies are unable to stop Indian intervention due to absence of centralized government mechanism”, said Afghan Government’s Advisor, Ehsanullah Aryanzai on sidelines of Pak-Afgan Parliamentary Jirga at a local hotel on April 2, 2009.

Pakistani Taleban using American, Nato, Indian and German weapons

An Islamabad datelined report by Akhtar Jamal Wednesday, 21 October 2009 stated that: Reports reaching here confirm that hundreds of militants from Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and other associated groups are equipped with most sophisticated American, Indian and German weapons.

According to a survey the weapons in the possession of these militants included U.S. made M249 automatic machine guns, U.S.-made Glock pistols, Indian hand guns, FN Browning GP35 9mmx19mm, Indian automatic machine pistols GLOCK 17 9mmx19mm, Indian machine guns Heckler & Koch MP5A3 9mmx19mm, Indian made Sterling L2A1 sub machine guns, Israeli licensed Indian made UZI 9mmx19mm sub machine guns and German Walther-P1 pistols.

During Swat operation, a number of the Indian army used Vickers-Berthier (VB) light machine guns were also recovered. The recoveries of Indian designed weapons were not astonishing for Pakistan. However, what was more surprising is that the U.S. and German weapons were recently introduced in the Waziristan area.

Ruling Elite

Pakistan’s ruling elite comprising the armed forces, bureaucracy, feudal landlords and capitalists never learnt any lesson. In fact, within a quarter century after Pakistan was created they created the conditions, exploited by India and other hostile forces, to create Bangladesh.

Columnist Ahmed Quraishi pointed out that “ fake democrats produce a fake democracy. This is what our westernized Pakistani elite and some of the self-styled ‘liberals’ in our media don’t understand. A Parliament filled with feudal lords who rape the women of the peasants on their lands and operate secret prisons, and then come to the Parliament in expensive shiny cars and jewelry thanks to political parties where another set of feudal run them as family grocery shops - this is no democracy.

Accusing main political parties and their leaderships of undermining the existence of Pakistan Dr. Hasan, co-founder of the Pakistan People’s Party with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1967 said:” over the years, they have failed to understand that the state of Pakistan is unraveling. The administrative structure of the state is no longer capable of ensuring the performance of the basic duties of the state, mainly the protection of life, property and dignity of the people, dispensation of justice to all citizens as equals, semblance of equitability in the distribution of wealth and assuring a sense of belonging to the Balochs, Pashtuns, Sindhis and Punjabis that the Government at Islamabad is their Government.

The gulf between the rich and the poor has widened enormously. Ninety-eight per cent of the population is in a state of despair and frustration and has lost hope. The wealthy 2 per cent, armed with foreign passports and visas with huge wealth stashed abroad, are ready to leave the country any time.

The old grievances among the provinces of Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and NWFP have reached all time high. Cooperation at the federal level has disappeared; complaints and prejudices have taken the place of patriotic fervor.

What had begun in the early years of Pakistan as grievances and complaints between East and West Pakistan, between the Bengalis and Punjabis, has now been replaced by tensions between Punjabis, Sindhis and Mohajirs and between independence-seeking Balochs and Pashtuns.The absence of cooperation between the provinces has snowballed, making Pakistan a fragile state.

It was under this unfortunate circumstance Asif Zardari was elected as President showing the depth to which the state assemblies had descended. Zardari is neither a politician nor a professional. He was known as the husband of assassinated prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, twice elected as prime minister and dismissed on both times on corruption charges. Zardari, better known as Mr. 10 Percent, has been accused of corruption, fraud, underworld links and even murder. Even after elected president, he was implicated in several scandals including an alleged submarine deal for Pakistan navy.

Eric S. Margolis, a contributing editor to the Toronto Sun chain of newspapers, said in an article that;

“Zardari has been dogged for decades by corruption charges. Washington seems unaware of the fury its crude, counter-productive policies have whipped up in Pakistan. The Obama administration listens to Washington-based pro-Israel neo-conservatives, military hawks, and “experts” who tell it what it wants to hear, not the facts. Pakistan’s military, the nation’s premier institution, is being pushed to the point of revolt. Against the backdrop of bombings and shootings, come rumors the heads of Pakistan’s armed forces and intelligence may be replaced. Pakistanis are calling for the removal of the Zardari regime’s strongman, Interior Minister Rehman Malik. The possibility of a military coup against the Zardari regime grows. However, Pakistan is dependent on US money, and fears India. Can its generals afford to break with patron Washington?

It was in this context one should view Zardari’s military onslaught on his own people to please President Obama who began drone attacks, almost immediately after he assumed office, violating Pakistan’s sovereignty, killing hundreds of innocent civilians in the footsteps of his predecessor George Bush.

In fact in a report presented to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday 26 October 2009 ,UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Philip Alston described US drone strikes against suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

” My concern is that these attacks in Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan have often resulted in civilian deaths and drawn bitter criticism from local populations. Since August 2008, around 70 strikes by unmanned aircraft have killed close to 600 people in northwestern Pakistan,” said Philip Alston.

Meanwhile after Pakistan launched its military strike there were several deadly bomb explosions including the one on the International Islamic University in Islamabad and the market place in Peshawar.

Taleban denied responsibility. However, analysts were quick to accuse the notorious US security firm Blackwater, known for its heinous crimes - rape, torture and bombings - in Iraq and Afghanistan, perhaps aimed at putting the government and the so-called Taleban against each other.

Erik Prince, the founder and the boss of Blackwater ,world's most powerful mercenary army, accused in court papers of seeking to wipe out Muslims, views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the planet, according to a former employee. These Blackwater mercenaries are in Pakistan and the question is why did the Pakistani government allow them into the country?

In the midst, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Pakistan on a stormy three days visit on Wednesday 28 October 2009 to convey the Obama administration's support, praise the Pakistani government for its military offensive, and tackle rising anti-US feelings among the Pakistani people.

She was greeted with a sophisticated bomb in busy Meena Bazar market in Peshawar killing more than 107 people- most of them innocent women and children. Taleban denied. So the question is who planted such a sophisticated bomb?

She faced sharp rebukes from Pakistani citizens and journalist on the third day of her visit when a woman who chastised the US stating, “Using aerial drones to target terrorists amounted to "executions without trial." while another journalist said “we’ve been fighting your war”.

US appeared to be trying to push the government go beyond South Waziristan when she warned,” after South Waziristan, the Pakistanis will have to go on to root out other terrorist groups”. She never spoke a word about the devastating impact on the entire civilian population in South Waziristan forced to flee for their lives as villages and towns were literally being bombed into rubble.

The question is what next? Will Pakistan be next Iraq? How far the Pakistani government could go in killing its own people to please US?

It appears a poem by Khalil Gibran written in 1934, and now in circulation in e-mails, suit Pakistan’s current dilemma?

Pity the nation that raises not its voice
save when it walks in a funeral,
boasts not except among its ruins,
and will rebel not save when its neck is laid
between the sword and the block.

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox,
whose philosopher is a juggler,
and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking.

Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting,
and farewells him with hooting,
only to welcome another with trumpeting again.

Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years
and whose strong men are yet in the cradle.
Pity the nation divided into fragments,
each fragment deeming itself a nation.

Related Article: South Waziristan operation: The fallout worsens (Exclusive from Pakistan)

-Sri Lanka Guardian