The attack on Pakistan’s Kamra air force base, for which the Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility, is one more sign — as if more were still required — that the country’s enemy lurks within its boundaries. Militants wearing air force uniforms infiltrated the base that is rumoured to house a part of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, in a manner reminiscent of the May 2011 raid at PNS Mehran, and at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi two years earlier. Armed with RPGs and automatic rifles, and wearing suicide vests, they damaged one aircraft at the base and killed at least one air man. Though the militants were eventually eliminated, the question Pakistan should be asking is why no lessons were learnt from the earlier attacks. Only two days ago, in an address at the Kakul Military Academy on Pakistan’s Independence Day, Army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said the country needs to fight terrorism and militancy for its own sake. But it is unclear how far the military has addressed the spread of radicalism within its ranks, or if it even sees this as a problem. After the PNS Mehran incident, a journalist who wrote that militants had developed extensive links within the Navy paid with his life; the Pakistani media openly blamed the country’s Inter-Services Intelligence for the killing. In the latest instance too, the attackers seemed to have insider knowledge of the sprawling air base located at Attock in the Punjab province. A Pakistani newspaper had only a few days ago warned that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan was planning a raid on a PAF base, giving August 16 as a possible date, but even with such specific information, the military was caught unawares.
While General Kayani’s remarks and a much-speculated upon military operation in North Waziristan cannot be ruled out as triggers for the attack, the problem really lies with how the Pakistani state continues to see some militants as useful to strategic regional objectives, with others to be tolerated so long as they do not undermine Pakistani interests. The differentiation between “good” and “bad”’ militancy has led to such deep-rooted confusion that it is no longer clear to anyone what those interests are. Otherwise, let alone the Laskhar-e-Taiba that targets India, why should a state and its political class tolerate a group like the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, that kills with impunity citizens of a particular religious denomination? Addressing the roots of extremism, militancy and terrorism will need nothing less than an overhaul of the ideological drivers of the Pakistani state — the reliance on an exclusivist reading of Islam, the negation of provincial aspirations by a Punjab-centric establishment, the domination of the military — but the country is clearly not yet ready for this.
The enemy within Pakistan is not the "militants" but her world view.The fierce opposition of the legal profession (whose heroic struggle restored democracy)to abolish the 'heresy laws' and its support to the assassins of the Punjab minister illustrate the ideology of the intelligentsia. Though M.A. Jinnah pleaded for a secular, democratic Pakistan, his dismissal of the secular, democratically elected government in the NWFP and the incarceration of the Khan brothers did not set the right precedent. Z.A. Bhutto, the most informed and popular leader after the Quaid i Azam-Baba i Qaum, declared Ahmadiyas as non-Muslim! General Zia incorporated militant Sunni Islam into the military and government. The brazen attack on a military installation purportedly housing nuclear weapons portends the future - as the US withdraws and foreign aid dries out.
India would do well to join like minded neighbors and world powers to protect her independence and way of life.
It is true that ,today pakistan has traped in its own mesh.What was done by him in last five decades,he is now getting those ripen fruits.
As long as General Kayani is in power in Pakistan, nothing is going to happen to Tahreek-e-Taliban, Lashkar-e-Jhanvir, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terrorists. General Kayani is more powerful in Pakistan than the civilian government. All the dollar assistance received from the US is directly going to the military, rather than the civilian government. General Gayani need the terrorists to get more dollar assistance from the US under the pretext of stopping terrorism and cross border attacks against Afghanistan and India. The general is playing this dangerous game with the support of the Prime Minister Nawab Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party and Imran Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaaf political party. Unless Pakistan become a secular democracy or secular military dictatorship, there is no way the terrorist threat in/from Pakistan can be contained. Unless the Pakistan civilian government asserts its power over the rogue military, there is no hope of stopping terrorism in/from Pakistan.
It is the right time for pakistan govt. to take strict auctions against terrorist activities. It is an alert to pakistan that in future it may face similar attacks by its own countrymen. It is good to see pakistan free from terror organizations in an era where the doors are open for strategic growth and cooperation with the countries like India, United states, Afghanistan...
You have rightly pointed out that the enemy lies within the boundaries
of Pakistan. The problem with our western neighbour is that it is yet
have a strong democratic political set-up since independence and in
absence of that, the country have nurtured and is still nurturing
obscurantist idealism bereft of logic and relevance of today's world.
The Islamist chauvinists are lording over the executive, ISI-military
establishment and in Judiciary. This is really a tragic part of the
story. The sane elements in Pakistani society is highly outnumbered,
as a result, the world have witnessed the proliferation of
multiplicity of radical groups like Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan,
Laskhar-e-Taiba & Lashkar-e-Jhangvi etc. in the soil of Pakistan.
No news coming from Pakistan can be believed unless corroborated by completely independent unbiased observers. As such, we don't know what happened or even whether something happened. As for numbers of dead on either side, one certainly can't believe only one Pak jawan died. Also, was damage restricted to one plane?
If the attack did take place, it could not have happened without "insider" help, and the insider could be either ISI or an extremist group within the army.
“question Pakistan should be asking is why no lessons were learnt from
the earlier attacks” is easy to answer, because the society is at war
with itself. Every aspect of Pakistan including defense forces is
saturated to alarming extent with indoctrinated brain washed Islamists,
thanks to Zia. The situation is very alarming with no easy solution.
How do any one make people of Pakistan to realize that a religion
founded thirteen hundred years back cannot possibly provide solution to
problems of twenty first century society? There is nothing much out
siders do but to watch as helpless spectators, the country speeding to
a suicidal doom.
This is of the greatest concern to us all in India. It is bad enough Pakistan is a nuclear armed country; and, should Pakistan's nuclear base fall into the hands of extremist elements the potential for catastrophe on the subcontinent is multiplied a zillion times.
During the cold war, the main protaganists enjoyed a fifteen minutes or so of advance warning of incoming missiles; we do not enjoy the luxury of even a few seconds warning.
it looks that in the pakistan army, there are more potholes which needs to be plugged and there should be a cateye on and inside army and it is possible some intrduer in the guise of army may be moving
and talliban would have gone into army rank, to keep informed all the movements periodically.Instead of defending taliban, pakistan army must go all out of hunt and completely wipe out in the process even the genuine may suffer whihc u can not help.
Are there good and bad militancy?
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