The News On Sunday
Riddles and facts
A new book by two experts makes it clear that there is an immediate need to revisit Counter
Terrorism initiatives
By Aamir Riaz
Pakistan:Terrorism Ground Zero
By Rohan Gunaratna & Khuram Iqbal
Publisher: Reaktion Books, London
Pages: 320
Price: Rs 1245
From FATA to Karachi, Pakistan is continuously under the reign of terror. The target area is being shifted to the Southern port city of Karachi, where almost 90 percent of NATO shipments land, including vital oil. It was reported by Asia Times in its 12 August 2008 issue, "New Al Qaeda Focus on NATO supplies." Pakistan: Terrorism Ground Zero published from London in late 2010 too proves that fact. The work is co-authored by a Sir Lankan expert on counter terrorism and a young Pakistani. Rohan Gunaratna is a member of the Steering Committee of George Washington University’s Homeland Security. He is also Senior Fellow both at Fletcher School for Law and Diplomacy’s Jebsen Centre for Counter Terrorism Studies and the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, Oklahoma. The co-author Khuram Iqbal worked as senior analyst at the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, Singapore for three years. The book is a record of detailed analysis of the myriad insurgent groups working in Pakistan. Founder Director of the Combating Terrorism Centre at the U.S. Military Academy General Russ Howard said "this important work explains the terrorism complexities of Pakistan like no other book on the market".
"Counter Terrorism" is the latest of terms to describe the world and it can be compared with "Counter Communism" and "Counter Revolution" of the Cold War era. The world has witnessed the killings of thousands of intellectuals, writers, journalists, artists and peace activists in the name of combating Communism or Counter Revolution. Have we learned from such experiences of the past? When we check it at home, it seems that Counter Terrorism is heavily dependent on military solutions.
Counter Terrorism, however, has come under criticism over the accuracy of analysis and for misrepresenting facts. One fine indigenous example is linking al Qaeda and Taliban with 19th or 18th century Muslim leaders and their ambiguous viewpoints. For the consumption of their cadres, Islamists reinterpreted history and developed a thesis for their historical continuity. Some-times such reinterpretation expands into centuries, yet any researcher can detect historical jumps in it easily. Mujadad Alif Sani(1564-1624), Aurangzeb Alamgir (1618-1707), Shah Wali ullah (1703-62), Syed Ahmad of Rai Bereli(1786-1831), Jamiat Ulma Hind (1920), Jamiat Ulma Islam (1945) and Taliban (1992) cannot be treated as a united and contiguous whole by any means. Those who read original texts regarding these movements or personalities can easily find conflicting and 180 degree opposite views among them. It proves that counter terrorism initiatives are revolving around only military solutions rather than exploring them thematically.
In their introduction, the authors point out some reports about the presence of terrorists of Chinese origin in the FATA, especially the Uighur militants whom the Chinese government has long considered a security threat. That’s why in his recent visit, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao advices "double standards should not be employed". He is the first Chinese leader to address a joint session of Pakistani Parliament. "Terrorist activities in Pakistan are very complex and we have to view Islamabad’s pressure objectively," said Ye Hailin, an expert on Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The authors then give a 70 page detail and uptodate account of 12 organisations that have violent extremist groups. It includes LeT, LeJ, Jundullah, SMP, JeM, and MQM. Including MQM in the list may surprise some people, yet the authors are bold enough not to compromise on it. "The National Memorial Institute for preventing terrorism (MIPT), funded by the US Homeland security department , considered MQM a terrorist organisation and brackets it with dozens of other Pakistan based militant outfits". The authors also point out commando training of some MQM members by Sri Lankan Tamil separatists and South African mercenaries in the 1990s. The case is complex because MQM still holds Karachi and won the elections in 2008 in Karachi.
Americans want to leave Afghanistan in the next four years. From Karachi to FATA, Pakistan is in trouble due to extremism and terrorism. The most important battle in the "War on terror" is being fought in Pakistan. The book reveals intensity and complexity of the matter in detail. Leaving Pakistan alone in this horrible situation will repeat the 1990s. Who will be the ultimate winner? What will be the scenario regarding regional and global peace? Pakistan: Terrorism Ground Zero makes it clear that there is an immediate need to revisit Counter Terrorism initiatives.
Aamir Riaz is a researcher & editor
Dawn
www.dawn.com/2010/12/26/non-fiction-amid-speculations.html
Non-Fiction: Amid speculations
InpaperMagzine
Reviewed By Safiya Aftab
THE ‘war against terrorism’ in general, and Pakistan’s increasingly complex role in it in particular, have been the subject of much speculation, analysis, and scholarly research in the West. This book is the latest addition to a growing genre, which in the past has featured books by writers such as Ahmed Rashid, Zahid Hussain and Imtiaz Gul to name just the Pakistani authors. As such, it faces a tough competition.
Rohan Gunaratna is a well-respected name in security studies and his affiliation with the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has served to add to his international standing in the field. Khuram Iqbal is a young researcher at the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies in Islamabad, a think-tank which has begun to make a name for itself in the field of studies on security and terrorism.
The PIPS Annual Security Report, which details incidents of terrorism in the country is in particular an invaluable resource for those tracking such events in Pakistan. The book is thus the result of collaboration between an academic and a researcher with grassroots contacts with security personnel, journalists and political activists in the country.
The book is clearly aimed at an international audience, and to some extent assumes zero or at least limited knowledge of Pakistan’s political and security developments over the last decade. A brief introduction and a more detailed first chapter are thus devoted to setting the scene, even providing a brief overview of how Pakistan came into being.
The authors then hit their stride, going on to describe the intricacies of what constitutes that amorphous group, the Pakistani Taliban popularly known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan or the TTP. The detail of investigation is impressive, as it includes a discussion on the genesis of this umbrella group, and then goes on to give brief backgrounds of each of the major commanders, as well as the TTP’s ‘group affiliations’, which appear to go far beyond what can be gleaned from newspaper commentaries.
A similar typology is then carried out for what the authors call ‘mainland Pakistan’ terrorist outfits (a somewhat unfortunate phrase as it implies that the TTP is physically restricted, which the author’s own analysis suggests is not the case). Once again, the level of detail is impressive, and the author’s effort to track down details on groups and individuals who do not feature in the headline news is commendable. These typologies are unnerving for the Pakistani public, as they serve to expose the reach of such outfits, and their successful efforts to establish cross-linkages as well as international support.
The authors go on to analyse how the city of Karachi features in the ‘terrorism landscape’. This is possibly the most interesting chapter, going as it does into meticulous detail about how the city’s myriad armed groups are organised, and the distinct objectives and operational strategies of the major actors.
The authors talk about the developing nexus between political, criminal and terrorist outfits, but here their research is somewhat superficial as they do not really manage to lay bare how the linkages are formed and what they lead to.
They also fail to touch upon the city’s presumed role as epicentre of the financing of illicit activities — possibly because such networks are hard to trace. Nevertheless, the book may have benefitted from a discussion with officials from the State Bank’s Financial Monitoring Unit which is attempting to identify and take action against money-laundering networks.
Thus far the book is mainly about documenting the myriad terrorist groups in Pakistan — a useful exercise in and of itself — but not very analytical. The following sections of the book, although more brief than the preceding ones, attempt to place the earlier typologies in context.
In effect, once the authors have presented the facts and figures on the range of actors in the terrorist fold, they then speculate on how this activity will affect the region and Pakistan. They speculate that India will continue to face threats from Pakistan-based groups, but they do not say much about the enormous political fallout of possible future attacks. This is a major omission, as analysts have had time to study the continuing impact of the Mumbai attacks which have essentially de-railed the bilateral peace process.
More positively, the authors have highlighted the probability of increased tensions with Iran due to the activities of Jundullah, which has recently been active in Sistan-Baluchestan province of Iran. Once again, a more in-depth analysis of what this means for the region would have been interesting, given the fact that Pakistan’s proposed economic ties with Iran, which were to feature energy sector cooperation in particular, are going nowhere.
The book ends with an account of the motivations of suicide bombers, with some details of their recruitment and training. This is interesting, but should really have been part of the discussion on the TTP, highlighting suicide attacks as a specialty so to speak, of this group.
Overall Gunaratna and Iqbal have done an excellent job of documenting the different strands of terrorism in the country. This book would form an excellent base for those interested in more in-depth analysis of specific trends, such as possible impacts of terrorism emanating from Pakistan in the region. It helps to understand something about the actors when such research is being envisaged, and this book fills an important gap, in that it is a one-volume summary of all national players.
Pakistan: Terrorism ground zero
By Rohan Gunaratna and Khuram Iqbal
Reaktion Books, London
ISBN 978 1 86189 768 8
352pp. £19.95
