| War on Terror | |
| 20 Mar 2010, NewAgeIslam.Com | |
| ISI- DGFI nexus: Islamabad continuing to back terror outfits? | |
By Sohail Arshad One important political development in the subcontinent went largely unnoticed by the political analysts in January. Just two days before Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India, an important minister in her cabinet Syed Ashraful Islam shocked India by disclosing the fact that the former BNP-Jamaat Regime had arranged a clandestine meeting between the former Pakistan president Perwez Musharrarf and the top leader and founder of ULFA, Anup Chetia while he was languishing in a Dhaka jail. Bangladesh's external intelligence agency, Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) had played an active role in arranging the meeting as a section of the DGFI officials was hand in glove with the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. Not only did Musharraf meet Chetia but also provided funds to him. According to Mr Islam, some officials of the DGFI and politicians of Bangladesh had received money from Pakistan to facilitate ULFA's anti-India activities from Bangladesh. Ulfa is also said to have received 15 truckloads of arms and ammunition from the ISI. It is widely known that ULFA is a separatist militant outfit which has been running militant and destructive activities in India, particularly in Assam. It had carried out a series of blasts in Guahati during the home minister P. Chidambaram's visit on the New Year's Day last year killing about 30 people and injuring dozens. The intelligence agencies had suspected ISI hand in the blasts. Therefore, in the light of Mr Islam's sensitive statements now it is quite evident that Mr Musharraf funded and sponsored the anti- India terrorist activities from the Bangladesh soil by taking some officials of DGFI and some politicians of Bangladesh into confidence. He had also arranged for the training of gullible Bangla youths in Pakistan who have since come back and waiting to carry out strikes in India. In this way Mr Musharraf was trying to take Bangladesh the Pakistan way. It is now clear that the former Pakistan president had planned to turn Bangladesh into another den of LeT and Taliban. Until now, India had claimed that the terrorist activities in India had been a joint work of the LeT and the ISI which was reiterated by the Home Minister Mr Chidambaram who recently said that all the terrorist organisations of Pakistan had the backing of ISI. Subsequent investigations and analyses had it believe that Pakistan's defence establishments and intelligence agencies have become infested and dominated by the jihadist elements and therefore have gone out of the control of the elected government. The top leaders of Pakistan also publicly admit that the Lashkar is a demon created by them which has gone out of their control. After the Mumbai attacks, the Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari had also presented the same excuse saying the Mumbai attackers and conspirators were 'non-state actors', suggesting that the government had no hand in or knowledge of the plan or the conspiracy. Sheikh Hasina should be commended for her initiatives to break the ISI-DGFI-ULFA nexus in her country by arresting and handing over top ULFA leaders including Arbind Rajkhowa to India last December and later signing three agreements with India to fight terrorism. Her political wisdom saved this region from becoming another terror zone. But in the light of the disclosures made by the Bangladesh minister, Zardari's statement seems to be a lame excuse. The investigations by the FBI in the Mumbai attacks have proved that the conspiracy for the attacks had been hatched two years ago, that is, during the president ship of Mr Musharraf. This leads to the assumption that Musharraf had planned a three-pronged attack on India. Now that it has come to light that Mr Musharraf was giving all kinds of support to the anti-India terrorist activities from Bangladesh, how can the possibility of his providing active support to the terrorist activities in Kashmir and in the preparations of the Mumbai attacks be shrugged off? During the reign of the former Pakistan President was the Kargil War fought; the attack on the Indian Parliament was carried out during his regime; the J&K assembly was attacked during his rule and the plans of the Mumbai attack were also conceived when he was in power. And after all this, he wanted Bangladesh to turn into another centre of anti-India subversive activities so that he could engage India in an undeclared war on all the three sides -- the north, the Western coast and the eastern borders and destroy its economy, communal harmony and its security turning it into a hell like Pakistan. That former President Perwez Musharraf offered direct support to ULFA and that the ISI-DGFI arranged the meeting is clear proof that the Pakistan government has been backing the terrorist outfits not only in Pakistan but in the whole subcontinent and is directly involved in the anti-India terrorist and destructive activities. And the policy of the current regime does not seem to be any different from that of its predecessor. The FBI investigations have also confirmed that Tahawur Rana and Dawood Gilani alias David Coleman Headley had played a key role in the Mumbai attacks. Rana is a fugitive of the Pak army while a cousin of Dawood Gilani holds an important post in Pakistan's PMO. The ISI, the LeT and a former officer of the Pakistani army reportedly played an important role in the planning and execution of the Mumbai attacks. It would, therefore, be very naive on the part of the Indian government only to believe that the ISI, influenced by the jihadist elements in its political and defence rank and file is sponsoring the terrorist activities in India. It could be recalled that a few months back the Pak government had given the Taliban elements the option: To avoid crack down, go to India. Moreover, Hafiz Sayeed is nowadays speaking like a representative of the Pakistani government and sometimes threatening India that if India attacks Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba will fight shoulder to shoulder with the Pak army. And surprisingly there are no disclaimers from the Pakistan government. So there are ample reasons to believe that it is the policy of the Pakistani government, not only of the ISI, to keep India entangled in the web of terrorist and destructive activities with its covert support to Hafiz Sayeed & Co. and at the same time deterring it from taking any action by threatening to consider the nuclear option in case of any eventuality. In the given scenario it will not be illogical to think that if, God forbid, there is another war between the two neighbours, the Pakistani Taliban and the Lashkar-e-Taiba will be on the vanguard of the Pak army. India has of late taken a tough stand vis a vis Pakistan and rightly so. Given the aggressive posturing of Lashkar chief Hafiz Sayeed and the soft stand of the Pakistan government against Lashkar, India should rethink its Pakistan policy and should act decisively because we cannot afford another Mumbai or Parliament attack. URL: http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamWarOnTerror_1.aspx?ArticleID=2599 |
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Asadullah Syed
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