Snakes in the grass

The Frontier Post(EDITORIAL)
The Razmak Cadet College students' kidnapping was a grieving episode, no doubt. But no lesser was it a damning demonstration of intrinsic baseness of the thugs, prowling the country's northwest, defiling it with their meanness, vileness and thuggery. But much more reflective is it of the reality that the military campaign in Malakand is succeeding as had it earlier in Bajaur and that the thugs are now on the run, desperately trying to throw the state's military power off balance, fearing it would otherwise catch them wherever they are. By every consideration, they are presently starkly disoriented, dispirited and in a state of disarray all over. These scums of the earth are definitely looking in a sure demise, with the state's military power pressing ahead with its advantage intently and unrelentingly. But for the military to succeed it is imperative that these thugs' fountainheads of sustenance be mothballed. Unless those wellsprings are dismantled, it is a sheer wishful thinking that these wicked characters would ever go out of their vile business. For the time being, they may stand badly mauled. But with their lifeline of cash and arms supply staying intact, they surely will revive and stage a comeback vindictively. Hence that sustenance pipeline has to be snapped at any rate. But that is where the Islamabad establishment has been found wanting so far. It is not unknown that it is in Afghanistan where from originates the murderous lifeline of these thugs. Yet this establishment has made no issue of it the way it should have so far, at least publicly. According to our officialdom's own accounts, American, Indian and Russian weapons have been found from the hideouts of Fazlullah's thug brigade. Who had supplied these to them? Certainly, it can't be Pakistan's army or its intelligence agencies. The suppliers have to be others. Who are they? Surely, our state security apparatus cannot be ignorant of this. It definitely knows all about them. But regrettably it is so loath, indeed so fearful, of naming them. Why indeed is this establishment so furtive when the masterminds, financiers and handlers of these thugs are playing havoc with our innocent people's lives and limbs, with our polity's stability, security and cohesion, and with our country's solidarity and integrity? Now for quite a time, we are hearing from the Americans that our tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan have become the epicentre of global terrorism, where another 9/11 strike is being planned on America and its western allies. The British are also saying so. The Indians, too, have joined the chorus, cunningly and willfully. But does Baitullah Mehsud send his suicide bombers to America or Europe? Doesn't he send them to our own cities alone to kill only our own children, our sisters and mothers and our own men folks? And where was Swati thug employing for slaughtering the innocent and beheading the security personnel? In America, Britain or Afghanistan? Weren't his bandits killing our own people alone? Who indeed are the godfathers of these thugs who lately have been increasingly attacking our security establishments and personnel? Doesn't this sound diabolical and sinister in intent? Then why is the Islamabad establishment just keeping mum and fearing speaking up the truth? After all, what are those Indian consulates in Afghanistan sitting on the periphery of our western border doing? By no diplomatic canon can their locations be justified? Why have the Americans who are Afghanistan's real rulers taking no notice of it, and are rather all praise for India's role in Afghanistan? And where have the hundreds of thousands of foreign-supplied weapons, mostly American, disappeared unaccountably from the armouries of the Afghan defence ministry and of the coalition forces? Wherefrom are Baitullahs, Fazlullahs and the thugs of their ilk getting mountains of arms along with money for their thuggery? Who is running this mammoth terrorist network from behind-the-scene against Pakistan and its people? The ISI chief recently on an official visit along with a Pakistani delegation was grilled on every American forum tendentiously on one accusation or the other. But isn't the right candidate for this grilling the CIA chief? Shouldn't he be grilled here in Pakistan on every forum for his agency's patently dubious role in waltzing terrorism afflicting this country? The Islamabad establishment must insist on it. We are nobody's slave, or a client state.
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Dated: Wednesday, June 03, 2009, Jamadi-us-Sani 09, 1430 A.H.