STORY BEHIND ABBOTABAD OPERATION

| by PROF. ALI SUKHANVER

( May 01, 2012, Islamabad, Sri Lanka Guardian) In this world of ever strengthening socialization, all time sky-rising graphs of education and ever increasing standards of moral values, liberty, freedom and independence are the terms which are very much talked of but very little cared for. The more civilized a country seems, the more involved it is in ridiculing all these terms. Today stronger is the one who has more courage and determination to challenge the liberty, freedom and independence of others. The 2nd May of every year would always remind the whole of this world how once a so-called civilized nation exploited the trust and belief of one of its faithful allies in the name of war against terror. The Abbotabad operation is one of the worst examples of human rights violation as well as of challenging the liberty, freedom and independence not of a piece of land but of the whole nation. The people of Pakistan would never forget how their American friends played with their feelings and emotions and how they mitigated and humiliated all rules and regulations regarding diplomatic norms and traditions in the garb of the Abbotabad operation.

The facts and realities are altogether different. If someone on the earth was sheltering Osama, it was none but CIA. Osama was in fact a character portrayed, refined, supported and favoured by the CIA but later on this character became so popular among all the Muslims throughout the world that it became a threat to the CIA itself.

It won’t be an exaggeration if we call the 2nd of May, 2011 a turning point of relations between Pakistan and USA.This was the day when the relationship between both the nations entered into a blind alley with no way to come back. Most of the people in Pakistan still believe that the Abbotabad operation was simply an eye-wash; there was no Bin Laden, no Al-Qaeda and no member of the Bin Laden family residing there in Abbotabad. The Americans did murder Bin Laden, but not in Abbotabad; they arrested him from somewhere else, slaughtered him, and kidnapped his family and boarded them all in US helicopters and ultimately landed there in Abbotabad; and then the story goes on. People have a very strong argument in support of their opinion; if Bin Laden was really there in Abbotabad, the US troopers must have tried their best to arrest him alive and produced him in front of the media at a symbol of their victory, success and achievement. And in case it was not possible to arrest him alive because of his strong resentment, they could have made a movie of the whole operation. Moreover, in their heat and haste the US policy makers forgot all the norms of diplomacy and all the requirements of a sovereign state. They ordered their troopers to cross the border violating the sovereignty of Pakistan in an unlawful and illegitimate rather criminal way. The situation could have been very much different if they had taken the Pakistani authorities into confidence before acting upon this 007 type of action. Keeping the details of the Abbotabad operation secret from Pakistan reflects lack of trust and confidence on the part of US policy makers.

In short the whole of the Abbotabad Operation is being taken as an attempt of disfiguring and deforming the image of the security agencies of Pakistan including the army and the ISI. Since after the episode, CIA supported analysts are busy in concocting stories regarding the relationship between Laden and the ISI. They are trying to make the world realize that Osama Bin Laden had been taking shelter since long under the umbrella of ISI. But the facts and realities are altogether different. If someone on the earth was sheltering Osama, it was none but CIA. Osama was in fact a character portrayed, refined, supported and favoured by the CIA but later on this character became so popular among all the Muslims throughout the world that it became a threat to the CIA itself. On 24th August, 1998, Michael Moran writes in a New York paper, “At the CIA, it happens often enough to have a code name: Blowback. Simply defined, this is the term that describes an agent, an operative or an operation that has turned on its creators. Osama bin Laden, our new public enemy Number 1, is the personification of blowback. And the fact that he is viewed as a hero by millions in the Islamic world proves again the old adage: Reap what you sow.”

Pakistani residents rest in front of the final hiding place of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad Photo: AFP/GETTY

Whatever Osama was, either a CIA agent or the leader of Al-Qaeda, he is still a very popular and widely admired character throughout the Muslim world. In spite of the fact that Al-Qaeda is allegedly responsible for the whole-sale bloodshed in Muslim countries, people belonging to the Muslim countries never rank it as a terrorist organization. They love Osama, they love Al-Qaeda. For Pakistan in such a fragile and sensitive scenario it was something next to impossible to join hands with USA in its so-called war on terror which unfortunately later on proved a war against the Muslim world. World’s peace has always been the main concern and priority for Pakistan that is why it did it’s best possible to co-operate with the USA in this move against terrorism though it had to face unbearable losses in this regard. Pakistan sacrificed more than 35000 lives of its people belonging to its security forces as well as from common citizens. Financial losses of billions of dollars are other than the losses the Pakistani nation had to face in form of political instability and social disorder. It is a day light fact that if US claims any success in the war against terrorism, it could never have been possible without support and co-operation of Pakistan. From the arrest of Khalid Sheikh to the arrest of Abu Furaj a-Lebi; the story of Pakistan’s co-operation with US goes very long; but in return Pakistan got nothing except blames and allegations.Abbotabad hunting like episodes have simply nurtured an air of distrust and disbelief between Pakistan and US and surely in future Pakistan must not fall in the same pit. The Abbotabad operation must be the ending scene of the whole story where the curtain goes down.