The crucible of extremism
A detailed account of the seething mass of militants and jihadis who find a haven across the Afghan border
CHRISTINA LAMB
PAKISTAN: Terrorism Ground Zero by ROHAN GUNARATNA and KHURAM IQBAL
Reaktion £19.95 pp320
The recent assassination by his own bodyguard of Salam Taseer, one of Pakistan’s leading moderate politicians and governor of its largest province, and the subsequent rose-throwing public support for his killer, ought to be a wake-up call for the world that the country’s extremists are moving centre stage.
It almost certainly won’t be. Military officials and politicians trying to secure an honourable exit from Afghanistan all repeatedly state that Pakistan (and its sanctuaries for the Taliban) is the real problem. But nobody knows what to do about it.
One could argue that the United States has given billions to Pakistan since 9/11 for what seems little return. On the other hand, in comparison to the $105 billion a year America is spending in Afghanistan, the recent $12 billion over five years allotted to Pakistan is chicken feed.
The problem is that nobody knows which side Pakistan is on. Not only does it allow safe haven to the Afghan Taliban and refer to Al-Qaeda-allied warlords such as Jalaluddin Haqqani as ‘‘strategic assets’’, but no country is more responsible for the terrorist attacks of the past 10 years.
Some years back I wrote an article in this paper entitled All Roads Lead to Pakistan, pointing out that there had been Pakistan involvement in every terrorist attack from and including 9/11, the mastermind of which, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was Pakistani and living in Karachi. The trend has continued. Pakistan is the Mecca for any would-be terrorist, hence the title of this book. However, as its authors point out, Pakistan is also a victim of terror; over 8,600 Pakistanis were killed or wounded in terrorist attacks last year, more than the 7,000 civilian casualties in Afghanistan. The country has lost 3,000 soldiers fighting terrorists since 9/11 - more than the 2,293 total lost by the international forces in Afghanistan.
How to deal with this? Well, this book doesn’t really help, but rather shows the scale of the task. Written by two terrorism experts- one based in Singapore and one (Khuram Iqbal) in Islamabad- it is the first detailed analysis of all the militant groups operating in Pakistan. It’s a daunting array. I thought I followed this subject closely, but Rohan Gunaratna and Iqbal have ones I had never heard of.
Like most analysts, they describe Pakistan’s tribal areas (FATA) bordering Afghanistan as the most important terrorist sanctuary in the world. It is, they say, the location for the operational and ideological leadership of Al-Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Islamic Jihad Group, the Libyan Islamic Fighters Group and a dozen others, all under the protection of the Pakistan Taliban, or TTP. Confused? The authors have barely started. The next thing to know is that the Pakistan Taliban is not monolithic but has many splinter groups, some motivated by anti-Americanism, some by class differences. Others are local, such as Muqami Tehrik-e-Taliban. Then there are those of traditionally warring tribues, such as the Mehsuds and the Wazirs.
All these groups use FATA not just as a sanctuary, but as a laboratory for developing improvised bombs (IEDs), a propaganda centre churning out videos, and a training base for guerrilla warfare, suicide bombings and would-be jihadis from British and America. It’s not surprising that unmanned aircraft (drones) have been pounding these areas – there were 118 strikes last year.
The tribal areas are poor and backward, and the average per capita income is just $500 a year. The only real industry is smuggling. The terrorist groups who have moved in get their funding from extortion, kidnappings and drugs. TTP maintains its control of the region with a reign of terror, killing more than 700 tribal elders and breaking down traditional power structures.
If all this wasn’t bad enough, there is the growing phenomenon of the Punjab Taliban. And then there’s the sprawling uncontrolled mega-city of Karachi, with its alphabet soup ethnic and religious organizations with militant wings. Karachi is crucial to Nato’s efforts in Afghanistan as more than 80% of its supplies come through the city’s port. Yet, according to this book, the city’s counterterrorism police have no means of monitoring phone calls, and its budget in 2008 for handling informants was just $6,000 a month.
It’s the stuff of nightmares. Perhaps fortunately for those wishing for a good night’s sleep, this is an academic book, based on media accounts and interviews, and is extremely dry. Don’t expect colour about what it’s like to live in these places. But it is an important work. There is no getting away from the fact that Pakistan’s military leaders do not believe American troops are in Afghanistan to stay, so cannot risk cutting off their support for the Taliban and the Haqqani group who may be part of the future power structure in Afghanistan.
What really comes across is how Pakistan has lost control of these groups. I used to think the Talibanisation of Pakistan was not a possibility (in elections, religious parties have never polled more than 10%). I thought, too, that the Pakistan Taliban had lost all public sympathy as a result of their flogging of a young girl in Swat, captured on video, and their misjudged attacks, such as that on the Sri Lanka cricket team in Lahore and the bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad. But, with no programme in Pakistan to counter the ideology of extremists and terrorist groups, perhaps we are seeing a generational change. The killing of Taseer two weeks ago, the hero-worship of his assassin, and the demonstration by 50,000 people in Karachi last Sunday in support of the blasphemy laws Taseer wanted changed, suggest the worst.
Christina Lamb’s books include The Sewing Circles of Herat Pakistan.
Terrorism Ground Zero is available at the Sunday Times Bookshop price of £17.95 on 08452712135
