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Shades of '3 Idiots'... | PAKISTAN: 'I DIDN'T DO IT'! | Atul Razdan | 11/27/2011 12:12:55 AM |
| Ghulam Nabi Fai, an American national and the Director of the Kashmiri American Council (KAC), was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the fourth week of July this year in the USA. The FBI filed a criminal complaint against him, charging him with 'conspiring to act at the agent of a foreign principal', a damning indictment of the modus operandi of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Pakistan Government. The indictment prepared against Fai by the Department of Justice and the FBI is painstaking and outlines, with withering detail, the shenanigans of the ISI in channelling millions of dollars through Fai, for the manipulation of the debate on Kashmir in the USA. The process has thus started of Fai getting his comeuppance in the US, and the FBI affidavit details how the Pakistan Government and the ISI have attempted to subvert the US processes and system by the systematic use of money, including funds brought in through hawala channels . The cause of the Pakistan Government is not helped since Fai has reportedly admitted to the FBI, on interrogation, that he did receive ISI funds. The FBI have claimed that Fai's KAC and "Kashmiri Centres" in America are run by elements of the Government of Pakistan and the such elements, including the ISI, have been directly involved in the activities of the defendant Fai and that the latter had acted on the direction and with the financial support of such elements. Senior ISI personnel have been named in the affidavit, though they are not named as defendants. ISI Brigadier Javed Aziz is identified as Fai's primary handler and three others, Touqueer Mohammad Butt and Sohail Mohammad are said to have been in touch with him regularly since 2008. A third ISI operative, identified as "Abdullah" is also said to be in touch with Fai. The FBI tracked the funds sent to Fai and alleges that $500,000 to $700,000 per year were made available to Fai by the Government of Pakistan, through another front man, a Pakistani American by the name of Zaheer Ahmed, who is currently in Pakistan. Money is reported to be sent in donation cheques to Fai by businessman and doctor contacts of Ahmed and these contacts were later reimbursed in Pakistan through ISI slush funds. It is significant to note, however, that the US Government's action is being taken only for breach of American law, of attempts by the ISI and therefore the Pakistan Government, to subvert the American system and way of life, through the use of secret service and other funds. The fact that the attempt by Fai was aimed at undermining India is, as far as the US is concerned, coincidental and only of secondary importance. This shows continuity of American thinking that first became evident in the more famous David Headley case; the primary importance to the US is naturally the maintenance of their security. The benefits that accrue to India as a result of these cases are entirely coincidental and certainly not deliberate on the part of the US. Even such benefits accruing to India are, however, to be appreciated as they serve our purposes. `The Pakistan defence of the case is weak and refreshingly different from their normal reaction to charges by India of their actively and with malice aforethought, interfering in the situation (the evidence provided by India is believed by the rest of the world) in Kashmir. The normal reaction of Pakistan, when accused of fomenting insurgents in India is reminiscent of the comic character "Silencer" in the well - known Mumbai Hindi film '3 Idiots'. All accusations of misdeeds (by Pakistan), despite the almost malodorous evidence often left behind by them, are dismissed by their officials with the bland, almost cherubic " I (Pakistan) didn't do it"! A recent instance of such a stance is the statement of former Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Masood Qureshi in July 2010, to the Indian Foreign Minister, that Pakistan had "nothing to do" with the infiltration in Kashmir! Another instance of Pakistan acting the injured innocent came in May 2011, when US Special Forces, in a highly professional operation, killed Osama bin Laden in the cantonment town of Abbottabad (Pakistan). The entire Pakistani political and military hierarchy had reacted with total (and well dissembled) astonishment (?) at the US Forces finding Osama in Pakistan. This overt Pakistani reaction can be best described in a few succinct words of the famous British humorist P.G. Wodehouse ".... started like a nymph surprised while bathing"! Pakistan has been complaining to everyone who cares to listen (especially to the United States) that Pakistan itself is the victim of terrorism, and to the full agreement of the US, has been insisting it is fighting terrorism. The political establishment in the US is in full agreement and insists that Pakistan is an important ally in the US battle against terrorism. This is despite increasing evidence available to the US (the information has been gathered by the US intelligence apparatus) that Pakistan has been less than honest with them about its involvement with extremists. The Taliban was closely supported an aided by Pakistan, since the former's formation, to further its own ambitions. This being the era of Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, the United States and Pakistan collaborated in training and arming the Taliban into a formidable fighting force, in an effort to contain and destroy Soviet influence in the region. Money and America-supplied arms flowed in to bolster the Taliban. In the process, the radical Taliban improved its efficiency as a fighting force, The flip side of the coin was the networking that developed among various radical groups that got together to fight the 'jihad' in Afghanistan. The extremist element obtained an improvement in their fighting technology and posed a problem to their own governments when they returned home after the winding down of the Afghanistan war. Pakistan used many such mercenaries, Pakistani and foreign, to further Islamabad's agenda of keeping Kashmir on the simmer, if not the boil. There was a plethora of Kashmir-oriented jihadist groups in Pakistan, which were also unified into the United Jihad Council (UJC), also known as the Muttahida Jihad Council, by Pakistan's ISI to bring focus and unity in the activities of the groups. The deliberate promotion of Islamism as an end to political means was resorted to by the then Pakistan President Zia ul Haq and the Islamic extremist groups in Pakistan, which had, till the time of Zia, been latent, have since become more active. Having tasted political power in the Zia era, these groups naturally have grown more restive and started nurturing political ambitions, which have only grown over time. There is tremendous appeal among the people for Islam in overwhelmingly Muslim - majority Pakistan (there is absolutely nothing wrong in the appeal of the religion), but the tremendous proliferation of madrassas in the country (from 189 madrassas in Pakistan in 1947, reports on the internet estimate there some 28,000 such seminaries in Pakistan today) has added its own contribution to this phenomenon. Paradoxically, reports on the internet also claims that only 40 percent of the jihadist action launched from Pakistan is due to former madrassa students, which would mean that the remaining 60 percent of the incidents have come from either foreign jihadis present in Pakistan, from public school and government school students or by dropouts. Radical fundamentalism, therefore, seems to be part of the ethos of Pakistan's social structure. The US purpose in creating an effective anti Soviet fighting force in Afghanistan succeeded beyond measure; but there is no denying that both Pakistan and the US, as also the rest of the world, are facing the result of the genie being let let out of the bottle during the Afghanistan war days. Islamabad itself had helped create the forces which it says are "terrorising" it now. Besides, as far as India is concerned, the nefarious activates of Pakistan continue unchecked. Let it suffice to mention that Pakistan's so called "fight against terrorism" has never deterred that country from stoking terrorism in India. Since the US had helped in letting the genie out of the bottle, it has little option now but to declare Pakistan a valuable ally in fighting terrorism. At the same time, it may be appreciated that the US is keeping its options open, in following anti terrorist policies independent of Pakistan's interests, as is shown by the operation against Osama bin Laden and the criminal cases filed against David Headley, Tahuwwur Rana and Ghulam Nabi Fai. Both the US and Pakistan (the latter's sincerity to the cause of genuinely fighting terrorism is definitely suspect) have a gargantuan, if not impossible, task of getting this genie back into the bottle. Pakistan cannot continue to "blame the predecessor" and plead the current administration in the country is innocent of wrongdoing. The responsibility for stoking terrorism is collective and the Pakistan Government clearly has to accept the blame, instead of playing the (not so) innocent victim of the phenomenon. It is even more important for India not to be repeatedly taken by Pakistan's practiced pleas of injured innocence. It is somewhat difficult to believe that the Pakistan Government does not know what its agencies are doing.Written by Atul Razdan, a retired officer of the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency. Mr. Razdan is also a former journalist, who worked for the Hindustan Times. The views expressed in the article are his own. |
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