Terrorism

“Most Muslims are not fundamentalists, and more fundamentalists are not terrorists, but more present day terrorists are Muslims and proudly identify themselves as such.” writes Bernard Lewis in ‘The Crisis of Islam’. But Dr. Martin Luther King logically said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Terrorism has no absolute and globally accepted definition and its interpretation can easily be used or abused to suite particular needs. The adage that “one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter” reveals the wide range of variations in its interpretation but, if simply stated, terror is extreme or intense fear. It is a psychological state, which combines the physical and mental efforts to create dread and insecurity.

GLOBALLY ACCEPTED DEFINITIONS:

“Acts committed with the aim of seriously intimidating a population, forcing a government or international organization to abstain from performing any act, or seriously destabilizing or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country or an international organization.”

“Any action constitutes terrorism if it is intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act.”

State Terrorism to counter terrorism:

when the whole world is in the cruel jaws of it, this reality cannot be curtailed through the more terrorism by the state ; as many countries of the present world are trying to do it in this way. The obvious examples of Kashmir and Palestine speak horrors of inhuman acts. The relative term ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’ is also fully involved here. The freedom movements ofPalestinians, Kashmiris and the Chechens have been branded through the Western media as terrorist movements.

In order to counter terrorism countries are unilaterally adopting the same attitude (definition), which the US has set for them – pose the opposition as terrorists in front of the world and attack them unilaterally. Israel as well as India’s state-terrorism falls in this scenario. As in the current imbroglio of Middle East Crisis, Israel’s unilateral attack over Lebanon – just to search its two beloved and loyal soldiers – has further deteriorated the situation.

Interior Motives Of US War On Terrorism:

If we take a look of Political disputes like Iraq, Afganistan, the Interior motives of war on terrorism are:
To get hold of natural resources of Muslim countries, either by the policy of friendship or confrontation.

To malign Muslim freedom struggles like movements going on such as in Kashmir, Chechnya, Palestine.

To damage the ideologies of Islam specially Jihad to project Islam as a religion of intolerance. The fear factor is that Islam still is spreading in the West at a faster pace, 4500 embraced Islam after 9/11.

To stop the rise of orthodox Muslim governments. They are doing it in the name of democracy.

They are changing the elected governments. e.g. Iran’s government, is being isolated by imposing sanctions. They are there to protect monarchies in Gulf States and a Military rule in Pakistan.

To ensure a greater Israel on Arab Land for the satisfaction of American jewfish lobby.

To spread its own culture. If a nation dies it’s a national death but if a nation dies of cultural death, it’s all over. The United States is permeated its culture in the countries on the name of terrorism. As in Iraq, they made dance clubs in the Green Zone. The uniform of new force of Iraq i.e. identical as it matched with USA.

To check the nuclear technology of the Muslim countries like Iran and Pakistan.

Cause of terrorism in Pakistan:

The sectarian anti-Shiite militant groups like the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan were preaching hatred against the Shiite Muslims and employing some terrorist activities. The extremist sectarian intolerance came to Pakistan only after the 1979 revolution in Iran. The Iranian revolution emboldened the Shiite Muslims of Pakistan against their suffering at the hands of anti-Shiite groups. This was further aggravated when a Sunni-dominated Iraq with the backing of the USA and Saudi Arabia waged a war upon Shiite dominated Iran. A specific form of terrorism termed “sectarian terrorism,” which in turn is a major cause of rise in religious extremism and intolerance in Pakistani society.


The Soviet Afghanistan War was the most critical event responsible for spreading militancy and intolerance in Pakistan. In order to fight proxy war against the Soviets, the US and the Arab countries provided the funds for arming the Mujahideen who were motivated for battle through religious propaganda urging them to expel the infidels from Afghanistan. The aftermath of the Soviet withdrawal exposed the damage, transformation of violence, and weaponisation into Pakistani society. The armed freedom struggle surfaced in Kashmir during the eighties gave the resistors a continued reason to be present in the region, which was exploited by Pakistan. Therefore, after 9/11, when a gag was put on these fighters, they turned their guns towards their adopted country.

The internal factors:

Pakistan is fighting against the menace of terrorism on both the fronts; external as well as internal. The derailing of democracy has had a profound impact on Pakistani society. One cause is political deprivation, political alienation, leading to hopelessness, and sense of powerlessness, which then leads on to these terrorist acts. In reality, the economy of Pakistan, replete with corruption, has disturbed the distribution of wealth. Dishonesty, bribery, the drug trade and other malpractices are common to make easy money. Black moneyhas created new moneyed class in the society distributing the balance of social structure.

This factor alone is ideal for the infiltration of terrorists in various segments of society. The sense of deprivation among the small provinces, their feelings of social injustice and discrimination are serious indicators of imbalance. Polarization based on various castes, classes, religious affinities liable to be manipulated by the anti-state forces. The prevalent system of education is a colonial legacy and has not been completely customized to meet the ideological, modern, scientific and progressive needs of the country. It also does not address the ideals of Islam to rise above the narrow divisions, at times the media communicates manipulated news and ideas, which causes sensationalism, ‘Madrassas’ centres of hate-preaching to young minds is the critical part of the problem. The economic factor has been a major cause of religious exploitation of a sizeable segment of middle/lower middle class of the society.

The ‘Zamindars’ and ‘Jagirdars’ own 32 per cent pf the privately cultivated land. Due to the increase in general awareness, a suppressed community often rises violently against this injustice leading to extremism in the society. A weak judicial system and judiciary are also responsible for these unwanted tendencies. The judiciary is often criticized for inefficient performance on account of fear, favor and corruption. Digital registration of the national data base is a major security. (NADRA) has been established, it is still found wanting. Incomplete facility is a contributory factor in harboring terrorists/miscreants responsible for the rise of militancy.

CAUSES at international level:

Unresolved political disputes: In the hot disputes of the world, Muslims are involved. No effort has been made to resolve these issues e.g. Kashmir, Palestine, Iraq, Afganistan, Chechnya.
Ineffectiveness of UNO: The world body formed after the Second World War. “To avert any other international war. The disputes if resolved in UNO, the terrorism was not prevailed as it is.
Universal law of cause-and-effect:




State terrorism will produce obviously terrorism.
Double standards of the West: On one hand, previously when Afghan Jihad was going on- they were projected as heroes and then became terrorists. Distrust between Muslims and the westerns. Extremist activities by some terrorist groups, like Al Qaeda. The pride of US as being unipolar. The Muslim world is victim of illiteracy, ignorance, poverty, intolerance and sectarianism.

Terrorists Groups in Pakistan:

Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen were formed to wage Afghan Jihad. After the Soviet Afghan war, these two groups merged to form Harkat-ul-Ansar (HUA) redirecting their focus towards supporting the militancy or freedom struggle in Indian held Kashmir. Pakistan not realizing the future consequences was content, as these groups were fighting the freedom struggle.

A combination of all these factors related to the Soviet Afghan War, the Iranian revolution, the Kashmiri freedom struggle, Pakistan’s socio-political conditions, and Madrassas sponsored by Arab countries made Pakistani militant groups a force to be reckoned with. The Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) is an anti-Shiite radical sectarian group. One of the militant offshoots of the SSP isLashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ), which focuses primarily on anti-Shiite attacks and was banned by the government in August 2001.Another terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) has openly declared war against the US. Pakistan outlawed JEM in 2002. The Lashker-e-Tayyiba (LT) began as the militant wing of the Islamic extremist organization Markaz Dawat-ul-Irshad (MDI), which was formed in1987 among others by Abdullah Azzam; a Pakistanian religious scholar. The LT has conducted a number of operations against Indian troops in Jammu Kashmir since 1993 and claimed responsibility for numerous attacks. Pakistan’s socioeconomic conditions helped these organizations and groups recruit the militants and turn into forces.


Today, all these and other religious extremist and terrorist groups complicate the problems for Pakistan’s war on terror. Today these groups are often exploited by the Taliban and Al-Qaeda to commit the terrorist acts against the sensitive targets inside Pakistan in retaliation to the army’s operations against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda

How did Taliban remerged:

Many Taliban escaped the hunt at the time and went underground mixing up in the local Pashtuns with their weapons intact. They later re-emerged in the past two years and have inflicted heavy losses on coalition forces as well as Pakistani forces. The first reason for re-emergence of the Taliban is that the US at the time of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEP) never considered Taliban as the core enemy versus the Al-Qaeda. Therefore, the focus of the US forces after the fall of the Taliban government remained on Al-Qaeda rather than both.

Whereas the US and NATO moved into Kabul and Northern Afghanistan, which was comparatively peaceful, no serious efforts were made to extend toward South, where the Taliban got an opportunity to regroup in their stronghold. It was only in 2004/2005 that the Canadian and British forces were moved to Kandahar and Helm and respectively. This lapse of two to three years allowed the Taliban to regroup as a force. At the same time, India, in retaliation to the December 13 terrorist attack on its parliament, amassed its forces on Pakistan’s border to take advantage of the prevailing anti-Pakistan international environment. Pakistan was forced to move its armed forces to the eastern border to protect its integrity. Taking advantage of the situation on both sides of the border, the Taliban were able to regroup in south and east Afghanistan as well as in Pakistan’s tribal areas. The last UNSG report on Afghanistan highlights that the corruption, opium production, lawlessness, and human rights violations are all on the increase. There are numerous internal and external factors, which make the war complex particularly for Pakistan. The regional dynamics, culture, customs, treacherous andinaccessible terrain with porous border are main features of the area and the people.

Interests of external players in Afghanistan:

The main US interest is to stop the spread of religious fundamentalism and terrorism coming from Afghanistan. It is also in US interest to check the flow of narcotics emanating from poppy fields of Afghanistan. The presence of US forces in Afghanistan is aimed at long desired policy to contain China. The economic issue that drives Washington’s interests is the potential oil resources of the Caspian Basin region. Russia wants to protect the vulnerability of bordering the CARs against the threat of Islamic extremism emanating from Afghanistan. India wishes to exploit the prevailing international anti-terrorism sentiments to her advantage. However, India would like to benefit from proposed oil-gas pipeline project running through Afghanistan and Pakistan to meet her fast growing energy needs.Iran has a major concern in protecting the interests of Shiite minority in Afghanistan; therefore, predominately non-Pashtun government in Kabul is in Iran’s strategic interest. It is in Iran’s interest that Afghanistan should remain relatively unstable, so as to strengthen the case for running the pipelines through Iran. The CARs particularly Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan would like to see a stable Afghanistan to enable them to pass their oil and gas pipelines to warm water ports of the Arabian Sea.
Pakistan’s long term interests

Its foremost political interest is to see a strong, stable and united Afghanistan, with a Pakistan-friendly government. This will enable to laying of oil and gas pipeline from the CARs through Afghanistan to Gwadar. The continuous stay of the world’s largest number ofrefugees in Pakistan for more than two decades has resulted in serious socio-economic and political problems. Wheat, rice, sugar, tea and livestock are smuggled into Afghanistan. Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to revive a plan for a trans-Afghan gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan. Pakistan can also benefit simultaneous from the agricultural and industrial products of the CARs at cheaper rates. Pakistan can get the military technology and equipment from these states at much cheaper rates.

Pakistan’s support

A number of sectarian organizations was banned and their assets frozen to curb sectarian terrorism. Madrassas reforms were undertaken. A major effort was launched to revamp the law enforcement agencies by better equipping and training them, a program was launched to prepare the database of all the nationals of the country under a newly established organization National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).

The government directed the expulsion and extradition of all foreign students. Most of these students in the Madrassas of tribal areas were directly or indirectly linked with Al-Qaeda. At the international level, the government cooperated with the UN to curb the menace.

To allow the use of Pakistan’s airspace and bases for OEF, Pakistan air force provided necessary infrastructure and logistic support. The US air force A-10 aircrafts were allowed to operate from selected Pakistan air force bases.

Impediments in Pakistan’s War on Terror in Tribal Areas;

It is very difficult to guard every inch of ground to eliminate cross border movement of the militants. This problem is further compounded by the weapon-friendly culture of the area, easement rights that allow free cross border movement of the Tribal without any documents add to the complexities. The local religious leaders are also a source of irritation for the operations by the army. The army is generally accused of not doing enough to stop the cross border movement of the Taliban. The other external factor is thegrowing Indian influence in Afghanistan’s cities bordering Pakistan, which is playing a negative role in the war against terror. To check cross border movement of militants is another important factor. The effective sealing of such porous is only possible if strong measures are adopted on the border by both sides.



WHAT TERRORISM HAS DONE (International perspective)?

Victory of Obama as sign that the Amricans has rejected Bush’s doctrines.

It started after 9\11. Bush administration had got chance “to become world safer”. But it did in opposite manner.

Worldwide fear- Mariot Hotel, Murder of Benzir, Mumbai attacks, Pak-India tension, London bomb blasts.

Economic losses to the world. Increased defense budget

The United Nations was sidelined. The prestige attached to UNO was ended.

The Muslim country’s nuclear ambitions were strictly checked. As in Iran. As in Dr. AQ Khan’s case.
Huntington’s Clash of the Civilizations. This theory came to be true. “ The battle line would be drawn on tenets lines of civilization.” As Jews v/s Muslims, Hindus v/s Muslims, Islam and the West etc.

EFFECTS ON PAKISTAN:

Afghan refugees US military strikes the NWFP influences Taliban are increasing. Taliban elements and their mentors Al-Qaeda, moved into the major cities. It has forced the state to station many divisions of army for law and order at the cost of earning the opprobrium of “use of force” against its own population. The loss of foreign direct investment and tourism. Visa and job opportunities for Pakistanis from these areas to the Middle East are being increasingly curtailed. The rugged border terrain of nearly 1,500 km at the height of 10,000 to 15,000 feet, with no communication infrastructure, has enabled the foreign elements to fully exploit the situation. Pakistan has dispatched almost 70-80,000 of troops to the tribal regions. These governments are labeled as “un-Islamic”.

This preparation has to be dispelled that fight against terrorism is a new form of warfare where the attackers are insidious, elusive and yet create sense of create sense of intimidation and terror. As far as NATO operations in Afghanistan are concerned, they are limited by inadequate number of troops, and with difficulties of terrain primitive tribal culture, weapon stocks and drug money.The Taliban are resurgent. In fact, it is a cumulative effect of many factors: due to diversion of resources to Iraq war, NATO’s insufficient level of troops, rise in opium trade, limited control of Karzai government around Kabul, poor governance, high level of corruption and unemployment, lack of reconstruction, rise in violence and rampant warlordism. A nagging perception in some quarters in the West, especially the US, that Pakistan is not “doing enough”.



On the political side, Pakistan’s international political isolation ceased immediately and it assumed the role of frontline state yet again. Despite the AQ Khan nuclear proliferation crisis, the US gave Pakistan the status of ‘Major Non-NATO Ally’.

Debate in Pakistan- either war against terror is ours or of US.

Prolonged military rule of Mushraf aided by US. Acute economic crisis.

Pakistan has adversely affected by terrorism than any other country of the world. Although, Pakistan is a victim of terrorism is being labeled as a state sponsoring terrorism.

Lot of time and energy of Pakistan is being consumed to make world understand that Pakistan is not the sponsor of terrorism but it’s a victim, and while doing so it is being forced to make compromises on vital interests. Even the friendly countries like China, Iran, Indonesia started looking towards Pakistan with suspicion.

COUNTER TERRORISM STRATEGY:

Obama should avoid Bush’s policies of use of force to avoid further military and financial losses. Involving UNSC & OIC would be in the interest of US to minmise anti US sentiments in the Muslim world.

Interfaith dialogue can clear the misconceptions against each other.

Solution of issues like Kashmir and Palestine

The Muslims should discourage extremist groups in their social life.

Madressa reforms

Positive role ofworld media

“There is no silver bullet that can address global terrorism in all its complexity,” writes Dr
Maleeha Lodhi in “The Threats of all Threats”.

Every continent has seen acts of terrorism. Perpetrators belong to diverse backgrounds, ethnicities and faiths.

She proposed a broad-gauge counter-terrorism strategy based on nine ‘Cs’:
1) Comprehensiveness: A comprehensive, multifaceted strategy is needed that encompasses law enforcement, political, social, cultural, financial and diplomatic measures.

2) Consensus at the global level is required on a strategy incorporating both short- and long-term measures.

3) Causes and conditions that breed, encourage and contribute to terrorism must be objectively identified and addressed.

4) Confusion about the definition of terrorism and mixing every Muslim with terror is discourging.


5) Capabilities must be improved and national capacities strengthened across the spectrum to pursue terrorists and prevent terrorist activities.
6) Cooperative rather than coercive national and international strategies should be pursued so that the reaction to counter-terrorism measures does not compound the problem.

7) Civil liberties and principles of good governance must be upheld in the fight against terror, because real security can only be achieved through respect for human rights.

8) Civilization and cultural: dialogue and understanding including engaging in the battle for the hearts and minds, must become an integral part of global consensus-building to evolve a joint strategy. Such a dialogue must be premised on the understanding that the root cause of friction between civilizations are not primarily religious differences, but mainly issues of power, competing political and economic interests, policies and misunderstandings.

9) Conference at the summit level must be called to craft and coordinate an approach based on these elements.

CONCLUDING REMARKS:

• Today terrorism is complex in scope, even across the continents by non-state actors. Countering this multi-headed phenomenon requires a multi-pronged and sustained policy by the governments across the globe.

• Deprivation and an unjust political and socio-economic dispensation rapidly give rise to frustration.

• The remedy lies in a tolerant and democratic society. However to enable the United Nations to evolve an effective strategy for this purpose it is imperative to define terrorism that may be acceptable globally. Also make a distinction between terrorism and legitimate struggle for freedom and right of self-determination, the denial of which can breed terrorism and a threat to “peaceful co-existence”.