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In the past two weeks there have been increasingly bold attacks by militants in Pakistan – the attack on army’s General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi, the bombings in Kohat and Peshawar, and the synchronised attacks on police buildings in Lahore are just a few.
At the same time we have seen an increased build up to the impending full-scale military offensive in South Waziristan, which the US administration is pushing the Pakistan Army to commence. Against this background it is important to understand what has been happening over the past few months.
The Zardari regime in Pakistan has finalized its preparations for a full-scale military offensive in Waziristan. It is clear that this is the case as, for the last two months, food and other necessary supplies have already been cut-off for the residents in South Waziristan – who have started to migrate in their hundreds of thousands .
Zardari announced this operation in London in May 2009, on his way back from America. It was an identical matter for the Swat operation which was launched by Zardari while he was in America, after his meetings with Hillary Clinton. At that time he foolishly announced the ‘mortal threat’ to Pakistan from militants whilst luxuriating in the hospitality of Washington – betraying to all perceptive people that no such mortal threat could possibly exist whilst it was okay for the head of state to be absent.
It is a repeated pattern that America dictates, the government agrees and then works to concoct excuses and reasons to convince the masses. This is what we have seen again this time in the build up to the offensive in South Waziristan.
In 2003-4 America conducted a similar campaign through the Pakistan Army which was an utter failure. There was no public opinion within Pakistan to support it, especially amongst the soldiers who were not prepared to kill their own Muslim brothers for the sake of America. As a result the government was forced to halt the military operation and sign a deal.
The Waziristan operation is crucial for America. It is nothing to do with terrorism or the security of Pakistan. The US occupation of Afghanistan is failing badly. The resistance against their occupation is strongly supported by the tribes in Waziristan. Dimishing this support is crucial to America’s aims in Afghanistan. The attacks by unmanned American drones into the border regions are part of the efforts to weaken the resistance.
But their main effort has been to bully the Pakistan Army into doing the dirty work on behalf of America, so saving US troops, and so diverting local anger onto the Pakistani army and Pakistan in general and not the United States. Public opinion in the USA cannot handle more US troop losses. Nor can public opinion in Britain and Europe. Yet public opinion in Pakistan has been managed to make them reluctantly accept the loss of civilian and military lives on behalf of this American war, thinking it is to save themselves from terrorists.
This manipulation of public opinion occurred when American and Pakistani spy agencies started infiltrating the “militants” who were supporting resistance in Afghanistan. They undertook certain actions that would give a bad name to the resistance and make them unpopular.
Later, the government of Pakistan allowed these “extremists” to openly establish training camps and launch radio stations. Moreover, they were allowed to recruit from the masses as well as harass the population.
Then the government distanced itself from them and launched powerful propaganda campaign in the media that extremists are challenging the writ of the state. They also propagated that the situation was so bad that extremists could actually capture Islamabad anytime.
At the same time American spy agencies and mercenaries of the US private security firm Blackwater were given free rein in Pakistan. The result was Iraq-style bombings in city centres, causing chaos and terror for the people of Pakistan.
The sole purpose of this was to create public opinion for military operation in the tribal belt and its surrounding areas. The broadcasting of the lashing video and airing the images of hundreds of destroyed schools was very effectively used to further infuriate the already angry people of Pakistan to an extent that voices calling for military operations started to come from all directions in Pakistan.
Hence the Zardari regime was complicit in helping to impose a brutal war on the Muslims of the frontier belt but they also succeeded in throwing the soldiers of the Pakistan Army into the line of fire. They used the argument of an Indian presence and involvement in the Tribal belt but – amazingly – brought no diplomatic against India case to any international forum. Rather, the government sunk lower in its efforts to create brotherly relationship with India.
So, a public opinion was manufactured to support the attack on Swat, and the Zardari government is responsible for killing thousands of children, elderly and women besides turning millions homeless. They argued that they would rid Swat of militants but after their orgy of destruction - and losses to the tune of billions of rupees – they have not achieved peace. Instead, Malakand has been converted into a ‘Mega Jail’ by imposing curfews while people starve in their homes.
America has, with the aid of Zardari and his cronies, engaged Muslims within Pakistan against
each other. Those who were supporting the resistance against their presence in Afghanistan are now engaged in fighting the Pakistan Army. America has sowed the seeds of hostility, bitterness and sectarianism within Pakistan – and the people of Pakistan have shifted their anger from the US presence in the region to the militants attacking civilian centres.
If the operation in South Waziristan goes ahead, millions will be displaced and in the coming winter months hundreds of Muslims will die, if not thousands.
And the killer and the killed both will be believers.
Yet, Pakistan is a country with huge potential, and America knows this. It has a large and young population, abundant natural resources and can be self-sufficient in terms of food and water. It is the largest Muslim military power from Central Asia to the Indian Ocean.
The current chaos and bloodshed cannot end unless the army rises to its responsibility to expel America, and its parasitic subsidiaries like Blackwater from the region. It needs to know who its enemy is, and remember that those people it now fights as militants are brothers, and were once allies in expelling the Soviet Union from the region.
That can only occur once the treacherous and corrupt Zardari regime is removed, and a sincere and independent leadership emerges under the Islamic Khilafah.
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