Jihad against terrorism

Publisher and Managing Editor IKRAM SEHGAL wrote these articles for THE NATIONwhich we are re-producing with thanks.

The beginning of the 21st century has seen, advances in science and technology force-multiplying terror as a deliberate creation of man. Terror was previously the domain of the unknown, the perception was that of animals in the jungle and of spirits in the night. High-tech equipment rapidly becomes obsolete as sophisticated terrorists innovate circumventing of their potency. What to talk about individuals and communities, entire nations can be held hostage to terror, case in point presently the mightiest nation on this earth, the US of A. Terrorism is a potent weapon for those who lack numbers and weaponry, money may be important but innovation overcomes that deficiency. The targeting of soft targets put forces of law and order initially in disarray because of the variation in the threat perception, the level and mode thereof. Organized criminal activity desires anarchy i.e. the collapse of the State’s machinery. The international terrorist has a far bigger canvas, the collapse of world order as is evident from the present dangerous split in the UN Security Council and NATO. The globalization of terrorism makes it difficult to counter terrorism, dominating it altogether is almost impossible. Countries without resources must depend upon each other for precise sharing of intelligence, denial of funds, sanctuaries and/or supply of weapons/equipment to terrorists as well as promptly addressing requests for extradition. On the negative side, countries like India are using the bogey of terrorist groups as either surrogates or motivated propaganda to achieve their own motivated objectives against adversary States like Pakistan, India has now started targeting Bangladesh also.
Look at the facts, on March 27, 2002 Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies (LEAs) launched simultaneous raids searching for terrorists in three major cities, nine in Faisalabad, three in Lahore and one in Karachi. Among the 27 foreigners nabbed were top Al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubayda and his associates. 10 foreign nationals with Al-Qaeda links were captured during the 15 raids conducted in Karachi on 18 May 2002. On consecutive nights between 27 - 29 May 2002, 11 were apprehended in Peshawar. In a shootout in a posh Karachi suburb on 11 Sept 2002, well-known Al-Qaeda leader Ramzi bin Alshib was captured alive while two Al-Qaeda militants were killed. All in all, out of the 700 plus Al-Qaeda/Taliban suspects being held by US authorities in Guantanomo Bay, nearly 450 individuals (Yemenis and Saudis making up more than 200) were captured by Pakistan LEAs in 125 or so raids all over Pakistan, making for more than 65% (i.e. two-thirds) of those presently in US custody. Contrary to Indian-manipulated world perception, Pakistan’s premier intelligence outfit, the much-vilified ISI, is leading that fight. If you look at the statistics, without the ISI the world’s war against terrorism would have gone nowhere. Al-Qaeda suspects have been targeted by LEAs all the world over, Pakistan is easily the country where the result has been well above expectations, it is a virtual Jihad. There is a long way to go, a number of hard-core suspects at large are believed to be using Pakistan as a sanctuary. These include, viz (1) Sheikh Saad Al Misri (Egyptian) whose wife is suspected to have medical treatment in Lahore (2) Khalid Shaykh Muhammad alias Mukhtar or Al-Mukh, a senior aide to Osama bin Laden (who is either a Kuwaiti or Pakistani citizen of Baloch origin) is believed currently Al-Qaeda’s “chief of operations” believed to be planning a large-scale attack against a western target (3) Hakim Al-Yemeni alias Oma Al Haderami alias Abu Omar alias Hakim (Yemeni national) is an Al-Qaeda facilitator suspected to be building a chemical and biological weapon programme (4) Abu Yaser Al Jaziri (either Moroccan or Algerian married to a Pakistani woman from Lahore) heads the business section of Al-Qaeda and (5) Abu Faraj alias Mahfuz (Egyptian), deputy to Khalid Shaikh, is head of Al-Qaeda’s North African network. Nevertheless Pakistan is not the safe haven it once used to be.
Many people believe 9/11 changed Pakistan’s stance, that is not true. Within 8 days of taking over (as far back as 20 Oct 1999), Gen Musharraf publicly annunciated his vision, to quote “to make the Islamic Republic of Pakistan a country where rule of law reigns supreme; where every Pakistani feels secure to lead a life in conformity with his religious beliefs, culture, heritage and custom; where a Pakistani from any group, sect or province respects the culture, tradition and faith of the other, where every foreign visitor feels welcome and secure”. A series of initiatives led to the Anti-Terrorism Amendment Ordinance being promulgated on 14 Aug 2001, nearly a month before the horror of 9/11. Fresh arms licences were banned in Feb 2001, prior to a country-wide de-weaponization campaign in June 2001 which netted over 160,000 illegal weapons.
9/11 intensified the regime’s campaign. On Jan 12, 2002, Gen Musharraf’s major policy statement spelt out measures to combat terrorism and ferret out extremism as well as militancy from society, affirming that Pakistan would not allow its territory to be used for terrorist activities against any country. Amendments to the Anti-terrorism Ordinance 2001 sustained the process of curbing terrorism and extremism, sparking a whole series of political, legislative and administrative means for the “war on terrorism”. These included viz (1) registration of Religious Schools (Deeni Madaris) to bring these under the mainstream educational system (2) police reforms, including better training facilities and establishment of forensic laboratories, to make them more effective and professional (3) making border controls more effective by computerization and use of machine readable passports and (4) banning extremist parties, including at least seven sectarian militant organizations and detaining their leaders. Since Jan 12, 2002 more than 600 such offices have been sealed countrywide and more than 2,200 militant activists detained. Unfortunately in their enthusiasm to better “performance” statistics, local police picked up many innocents, when they were subsequently released anti-Pakistan forces propagated it as “reneging” on the country’s commitment to combating terrorism. Specialized tasks have been given to different agencies in keeping with their respective prime missions. A major initiative has been establishment of National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) in the Ministry of Interior with similar cells manned 24 hours at the Provincial level for collection and collation of information. In contrast to world perception, ISI is leading the effort against terrorism with its Counter-Terrorism Centres (CTCs) coordinating all the operations. FBI and CIA have provided technical support with about a dozen plus operatives, none have been involved in actual operations.
Implementing anti-terrorism measures in line with UN Security Council Resolutions (being a signatory to 12 UN Anti-Terrorism Countries), Pakistan froze assets and accounts of entities and individuals of those listed by the United States. The State Bank of Pakistan cracked down hard on money-laundering (Hundis and Havalas), indirectly adding to Pakistan’s foreign exchange revenues (by an additional US $ 3 billion in 2002) by fund repatriation through normal banking channels. With extradition treaties with 27 countries, Pakistan has physically deported to the US suspects involved in (1) 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre (2) killing of two CIA officials at Langley, Virginia and (3) bombing of US Embassy in Kenya and Tanzania. Actively cooperating with Interpol, Pakistan is regularly sharing intelligence information about terrorism with other countries directly. Other than providing logistic support to the US campaign in Afghanistan, Pakistan has directly committed troops along the western borders with Afghanistan to deter Al-Qaeda remnants and deny sanctuaries to them, this despite (1) the threat posed by India’s deploying almost her entire armed forces on our eastern borders and (2) tribal sensitivities because traditionally regular army units do not enter tribal areas.
Our media machine may have failed badly in disseminating this Jihad against terrorism to the world, the fact remains that at the end of the day we have managed to turn a bankrupt self-injurious policy of adventurism on its head and replace it with “constructive engagement” in line with world’s expectations. In contrast to our stance three years ago, Pakistan has been waging a virtual jihad against terrorism.