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1
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authorized end users.
The information in this document is furnished for informational use only. Great care has been
taken to maintain the accuracy of the information contained in this document. However,
neither BrassTacks nor the authors can be held responsible for errors or for any consequences
arising from the use of the information contained herein.
brasstacks@dsl.net.pk
2
Fighting Insurgencies: Religious and Sectarian
Dynamics
Pakistan is in a state of war, fighting an asymmetric high intensity war within its own
borders against an Indian backed terrorist insurgency with a religious facade, which is
based in the remote tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, and is waging a ruthless,
decentralized war against the State as well as the civilian population in the mainland,
urban environment. In the last 3 years alone, on the average, Pakistan has suffered a
suicide attack, a bomb explosion, or an attack on the security forces, almost on daily
basis. Hundreds of the finest officers and soldiers, as well as thousands of civilians
have given their lives in a war, which has cast a staggering toll on Pakistan's economy
and society. At least 3 serving Army Generals, many Brigadiers and other senior
military officers have died in ambushes, suicide attacks and assaults by the insurgent
militants on military and civil installations in major cities of Pakistan. Regional
offices of Pakistan's military led Intelligence agency, ISI have been attacked. Even
GHQ was attacked for an audacious attempt at targeting military leadership. At one
point in Swat, almost 2.5 million people had to leave their homes in a mass migration
to allow Pakistan army to conduct military operations in an area larger than England.
Cantonment and sensitive areas of Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore and Rawalpindi give
the looks of cities under fortress defenses. Universities, hospitals, hotels, bazaars,
funeral ceremonies, Masjids, schools – none have escaped the most ruthless and
bloody war by the TTP terrorists. Till 2007 and 2008, the TTP was wreaking its reign
of terror almost unchecked, with large regions of Swat valley and FATA under their
influence. But then the army began to put a clamp on this new form of 4th generation
war, although the Pakistan army was not initially trained for this kind of warfare
mentally, emotionally, militarily or logistically. Fighting a high intensity, counter
insurgency war inside its own borders, in an urban environment, within the cities, was
not the form of warfare any army would want to fight. Despite the lack of any
previous experience to fight such a war, Pakistan army performed with stunning
success, breaking the back of the insurgency in Swat, capturing the South Waziristan
bastion of the terrorists and taking back almost all regions of FATA, which were
previously under the terrorists' control. However, it's not over yet and the war
continues in remote tribal regions as well as in the cities where insurgents regularly
cause chaos, assassinations and bomb attacks. The centre of gravity for the terrorists
is in Afghanistan from where they get their weapons, money and are provided
sanctuaries – backed by CIA, Afghan regime and Indian RAW. So far, Pakistan has
been fighting a reactive war within its own borders and has left the safe havens of the
insurgents untouched inside Afghanistan.
On another axis, on a lesser intensity, CIA, RAW and Afghan RAMA have stirred up
another insurgency in Baluchistan by supporting the Secular Marxist Pakistani
Baluch Separatists, seeking to break Baluchistan away from Pakistan. The mode of
operations against the State include, blowing up gas pipelines, destroying power
3
cables and State infrastructures as well as attacking security forces and assassinating
non-Baluch settlers from the rest of the country. Baluchistan constitutes of 42% area
of Pakistan but comprises of only 4% of population divided between Pashtuns,
Baluchis, Makranis, Brahwis and Sindhis. With only a small segment of Baluch
falling under the spell of armed insurgency and also due to the remoteness of the
region, the situation in Baluchistan, due to BLA/BRA militancy is not as critical as it
is due to the TTP insurgency but still, it is a serious menace. Military has not been
used in Baluchistan as yet and only Para military forces, Police and local militias
have been performing the security duties.
Apart from the two, above mentioned, active armed insurgencies, there are secular
political parties which have armed wings and also have separatist agendas and have
been involved in urban violence, especially in Karachi. Both MQM and ANP
maintain armed militias in the city and though they hold positions in the government
also, they are waging a ruthless and brutal war of assassinations and counter
assassinations on the streets of Karachi. Both MQM and ANP are fondly close to
India and reject the creation of Pakistan as a State and have dismissed the Islamic
ideology of Pakistan. ANP especially had been instrumental since 1947 to dismember
Pakistan on ethnic Pashtun lines. Lately, MQM and its leader Altaf Hussein has also
been vocal against the creation of Pakistan and has even suggested “reunification”,
basically suggesting that India should take control of Pakistan! In future, both these
parties could become a major threat and indulge in active insurgencies, especially in
Karachi and urban Sindh. For now, while they remain in power politically and are
allies of the PPP government, they are also playing the assassination game in a turf
war and are keeping their armed wings as insurance against any government or
military operation against them in the future.
Both these axes of insurgencies – religious and secular – have their own dynamics
and demand separate analysis and response on psychological, political and military
plains. The total and complete failure of the Pakistani government, media and civil
law enforcement managers, can be judged from the fact that despite facing an
existential threat from armed insurgencies, Pakistan still does not have an anti-
terrorism policy. The Parliament has not passed a single resolution on terrorism in the
last 10 years and the composite collapse of the judicial system is evident from the fact
that not a single terrorist has been sentenced to death in the last 10 years either. The
system has simply collapsed under the pressure, threats and the challenges, and the
entire burden has fallen on the Pakistan army and armed forces to rid the country of
these cancers. This is precisely the reason why this menace of terrorism and
insurgency is still haunting Pakistan. Despite applying correct and precise military
pressure, there is complete lack of political, moral, legal and religious support for the
armed law enforcement. Pakistan desperately and urgently needs a national anti-
terrorism policy under a larger, national security strategy.
What follows is such an attempt, showcasing the approach for Pakistan's policy
makers, to redefine Pakistan's National Security Strategy by analyzing the historical,
ideological and military dimensions of the threats faced by Pakistan.
4
Background:
Fighting insurgencies in urban environment remains one of the most tiresome and
challenging tasks for any country and the task has gotten more intensively complex in
the contemporary world, particularly after 9/11. The phenomenon of fighting an
insurgent movement demands a multi-dimensional solution focusing on the multiple
aspects of whole restive milieu, with a pre-determined equilibrium of all the tactics of
counter insurgency techniques that would be utilized while eradicating the problem,
for example, understanding the conflict, identifying the root causes of the problem,
choosing the most appropriate state tool to eradicate the root cause and most
importantly calculating the need, time, magnitude and impact of military force to be
applied. Apart from these elements, a successful counter insurgency strategy demands
a dedicated, committed and sincere leadership, capable of taking various policy level
initiatives, showing courage during the crisis and exploiting opportunities created
during active counter insurgency operations, through governance and administrative
measures to win hearts and minds of insurgents and their unarmed sympathizers in
the area of conflict.
On the other hand, a sustained armed insurgency always relies on the support of local
masses and foreign aid in terms of money and weapon supply, planning, logistic
support and training.
5
Baluchistan and Karachi, involving MQM and ANP have added a new dimension to
these prolonged insurgencies.
To devise a workable and pragmatic policy to address this complex, internal security
challenge, Pakistan would have to revise its foreign and interior policies, which need
a complete overhaul now. But that would be only possible after a careful examination
of every aspect of this highly composite problem, by fragmenting its various
amalgamated aspects so that this problem can be comprehended in context of national
security.
To begin with, it would be prudent to analyze and categorize the insurgencies and
insurgent groups, militant organizations and radical entities, working against the state
of Pakistan, by digging into history to locate the time and origins of these insurgent
movements as well as their ideological bearings.
The extreme anger and sense of hopelessness, which has dominated the militant
Muslim minds is due to genuine injustices, atrocities and cruelties of the dominant
West, Tyrannical and Fascist style regimes in the Muslim world and due to the lack
of sense of direction in the Muslim masses around the world.
If we see the political profile in the Middle East, there are some Arab regimes, which
are equally tyrannical as Israel and India. Many countries have had the same leaders
since decades. There are no rights of speech against the government, no fair elections,
no independent press, no opposition, compromised judiciary and brutal Police forces.
Just the party or clan or the leader rules with an iron hand. These regimes have the
worst possible record of abuse of human rights to their name and continue even
today.
The first Major Muslim response in the Middle East was in early fifties, when a
whole new wave of enlightened modern Muslim politico-religious leaders emerged in
Egypt, Pakistan and other Middle Eastern countries. Akhwan-ul-Muslimeen
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originated in Egypt under the leadership of Hasan Banna and Syed Qutub. Jamaat-e-
Islami (JI) appealed to the modern Muslim mind in universities and colleges of
Pakistan, under the guidance of Moulana Maudoodi.
The Arab world was facing the great socialist revolution under the guidance of
Jamaal Abdul Nasir and Arab nationalism was a very strong factor in the ME. But
Akhwan rapidly spread its ideology of political Islam, which became a rallying point
for young Muslims in the Arab world. The response of the Arab regimes was ruthless
and outright cruel. Instead of challenging and confronting the young Islamists
intellectually and ideologically, a policy of decimation was adopted by the Arab
governments. Akhwan was banned and its leaders jailed, tortured and killed. Syed
Qutub was hanged in Egypt in the 60's and he became a martyr of the cause.
Overall, during that era, the general pattern in Muslim political movements in the
Arab world reflected a defeatist and angry, reactionary mindset. They had good
intentions and were ritually practicing Muslims but devoid of any finer vision,
wisdom or logic. Their ideology of Political Islam was without any mature and long
term planning for future reconciliation, peace or offering alternate sustainable
solutions. The anger of some of the cadre had turned into outright violence and
cruelty at their helplessness to change anything around them. The weak role models
could not keep the effects of extremism and sectarianism away from pristine
principles, and slowly almost all Muslim groups and parties degenerated into
decadence and petty politics and sometimes, even violence. This was the state in the
Arab world when the Afghan Jihad started in 1979; then the whole scenario changed
rapidly.
In Pakistan, after the death of Maulana Maudoodi, JI never produced any leader of
stature or vision and began to decay and degenerate into secular politics. The
Pakistani Islamists were more balanced and open than their Arab counterparts, as in
Pakistan there was never any government even comparable to the tyrannical regimes
that exist in the ME. Open dialogue and freedom of expression in Pakistan did not
produce that radical behavior which we see in Arab countries; then came the year,
1979.
7
Three phenomenal and historic events took place around 1979-80.
These regional events during 1979-80 eras played a decisive and critical role in
redefining the national, regional and global politics and strategic affairs. Though all
these incidents took place outside the Pakistani borders but the impact was most vivid
within the Pakistani society. All dimensions of militancy – Sectarian, Politico-
Religious and Secular, emerged and flourished during this era in Pakistan as a
spillover effect of these three game changing events.
The Shiite influence began to expand in Pakistan and Afghanistan after the Iranian
revolution through supporting and mobilizing Shiite community in Pakistan for a
mirror revolution in the country. In Pakistan, with a Sunni dominated state, this was
perceived as an Iranian attempt to expand its political and sectarian footprint in the
region. Consequently, opposing factions and sects also started to get support against
Shiite ideology from Iraq and other gulf states. The Iranian revolution and the Arab-
Persian / Sunni-Shia war spilled into Pakistan.
Sectarian Sunni militant organizations like SSP (Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan) i.e. Army
of Companions of the Prophet (pbuh) emerged during this era of Afghan Jihad in
8
early 80's. On the other hand, Iran was supporting Shiite organizations like TNFJ
(Tehreek-i-Nifaz' e Fiqa-e-Jafaria i.e. movement for the implementation of Shia
Laws) in Pakistan and also the Shiite groups of the Afghan resistance. Shiites also
had their version of militant sectarian outfit on the pattern of SSP, known as Sipah-e-
Muhammed Pakistan (SMP). Both these sectarian militant outfits – SSP and SMP –
later fought bloody wars within the Pakistani society in 80's and 90's and continue to
do so, even to this day despite being banned by the government.
In this regard, Pakistan paid a very heavy price of having brotherly relations with
both Arab and Iranian camps. Pakistan became a bloody battleground for a proxy war
between two opposing sects.
Afghan resistance or the six party Mujahideen alliance based in Pakistan was purely a
Sunni military alliance of Afghans against the Soviets. The eight Shia Afghan parties
were based in Tehran. Even the Afghan resistance was divided on sectarian lines
between Pakistan and Iran.
But for Sunni Muslims, Afghan Jihad became the first practical focal point for every
Muslim movement in the world to vent their anger against a “super power”. Arabs
found it an easy path to Paradise and flocked in thousands to fight along with
Afghans. Their romantic dream of an Islamic “Khilafat” was the prime mover in
creating a strong moral legitimacy for Afghan Jihad in the Arab movements. They
created personalities and figures with almost cult followings. Ustad Sayyaf was to be
the next “Khilafa” and Dr. Abdullah Azzam was the kingpin of “Islamic victory over
all infidels” starting from Afghanistan.
Every Sunni Muslim movement in the world from North Africa, America, Eastern
Europe, Far East and Central Asia sent their cadre for training. The Philippine
militant group “Abu Sayyaf” is named after Ustad Sayyaf for its links with the
Afghan group, sponsored by Arabs in the Afghan Jihad. For the first time the Arab
militants emerged as major players in a war against “infidels”. The amount of money,
resources and assets, which flowed into the Afghan war from Arab connections, is
almost comparable to the total aid given by UN and US during the Afghan war!
There were almost 20,000 Arab and non-Afghan casualties during the Afghan war
from all over the world.
9
The Afghan war had
created a new breed of
fighters, who saw
Afghanistan as a dream
come true, a base to
establish the puritan Islamic
State, to declare Jihad on
the entire world. These
Arab fighters were
extremely brave, robust,
burning with a desire to go
to paradise via shortest
possible way but extremely
short of vision and full of
anger, hate and imbalanced
obsession, which very seriously affected their capacity to think rationally and to plan
for a sustainable policy in the world. Some of them were “Takfiris”, meaning quick to
declare any person as Kafir or infidel, who does not fit into their version or image of
Islamic interpretation. This “Takfiri” attitude made them unwelcome even among
Afghans, let alone in the modern Muslims worldwide. They were an isolated lot from
the very beginning.
Subsequently, the romanticism of creating an Islamic State was blown away when a
civil war started between the Afghan Mujahideen after the collapse of the Kabul
regime. Ustad Sayyaf was blown into obscurity and all the “heroes” of Afghan Jihad
fought amongst themselves over the spoils. It was a dream going sour; the
culmination being the murder of Dr. Abdullah Azzam in a car bomb in Peshawar in
1988, basically destroying the Arab network in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Arabs
started to leave by the hundreds, some voluntarily, some deported by Pakistan. Those
who had no place to go, held their ground in the Pakistani tribal areas and made
independent mini States. Pakistan even had to fight a small battle in the tribal belt,
back in the early 90's, to flush out few Arab extremists who had declared war on
Pakistan too.
The Afghan war was not only instrumental in radicalization of sectarian outfits, but it
also resurrected secular, linguistic and ethnic Marxist insurgency of Baluchistan,
which first started in the early 1970's; back then it took the Pakistan army 4 years to
bring stability and normalcy to the province. During the Afghan conflict in the 80's,
Russian intelligence agency KGB teamed up with Indian RAW (Research & Analysis
Wing) to resurrect the Baluch insurgency once again in Pakistan in order to divert its
attention from Afghan theatre. All major cities of Pakistan witnessed horrendous
bombings in which thousands of Pakistanis were killed.
In the presence of all these politico-religious, sectarian and secular militant groups, a
new category of militant organizations emerged after the Afghan war, which was
10
focused purely on Kashmir and its liberation from India. The resistance against
Indian occupation started immediately after Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in
1988 and many fighters from the Afghan battle fronts decided to enter Kashmir
through the disputed and porous line of control between Pakistan and India. These
groups were not global jihadists nor had any terrorist or violent agenda against any
other country except to join the legitimate freedom struggle of Kashmir against
Indian occupation.
Sudan invited all Afghan veteran Arabs who wanted to leave Afghanistan. The
Afghan chapter was effectively closed for these Arabs. Among all those who landed
in Sudan was Osama Bin Laden, known only as an ordinary Arab fighter but with lots
of money and good family connections. He had already made his mark during the
Afghan war by building tunnels and deep caves bringing in the experience of his
family construction business in Saudi Arabia. Apart from that, there was nothing
extraordinary about him. His lavish spending of money on poor Arab comrades did
bring fame to him among the Arabs, who were now looking for an alternate
leadership after the death of mainstream leaders during Afghan Jihad. Arabs need
religious personality cults and are good at creating them even if they do not have a
genuine one.
11
executed by CIA. Afghanistan was once again to become their base, but this time
with a vengeance. Now these Arab fighters were a compromised lot penetrated by
Israeli, CIA and Arab intelligence assets for creating the future bogey of “Muslim
Terrorism”. Seeds for 9/11 and post 9/11 wars in the 21st century within the Muslim
world were sown.
It is again interesting to note that during the Taliban era, US never demanded that
Osama and his gangs be expelled from Afghanistan nor Taliban were accused of
supporting any global terrorism. In fact, US were engaging Taliban in high level
negotiations to construct TAP gas pipeline project (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and
Pakistan). The American company UNICOL was negotiating on behalf of the US
government. Taliban delegations used to visit US on a regular basis. Taliban were
then the blue eyed boys of the US government and the oil cartels. Around 1998, the
negotiations between the two broke down and Taliban refused to give the contract to
the American company opting for an Argentinean company Bridas instead. That was
the moment when a policy decision was taken in the white house to replace the
Taliban regime.
From now on, US would wage global media and information wars against Taliban
projecting them as villains. It is again very interesting to note that the man who
replaced Mullah Omar as the President of Afghanistan was the same man who was
negotiating with Taliban on behalf of the Americans as UNICOL consultant – Hamid
Karzai!
Taliban had contained the activities of Osama and his gang. He was there as a guest
but not allowed to conduct his operations anywhere in the world. Taliban also had
closest relations with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and some Gulf States and were not
willing to allow Osama to spoil their foreign relations. Not a single act of terrorism
has been attributed to Taliban or Osama's gangs during this era. Taliban did not
export their version anywhere in the world. There was total peace in Pakistan except
for occasional local sectarian violence or some political unrest in Karachi.
12
In the early 70's, government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had to fight an anti insurgency
war in Baluchistan and Bhutto also filed treason cases against ANP for trying to
dismember Pakistan. It is ironic that the same separatists now rule Baluchistan and
Frontier province and are hell bent on their same sinister agenda while PPP rules in
Islamabad. The role of the Soviets has now been replaced with the Americans. Rest
of the separatists' agenda against Pakistan remains same.
During the Afghan Jihad of the 80's and after the defeat of the Soviets, the dream of
“Pashtunistan” and “Free Baluchistan” was shattered. Kabul was captured by the
Mujahideen in 1992, and after four years of civil war between various Mujahideen
groups, the Taliban captured Kabul in 1996.
Taliban kept Osama Bin Laden and his group in check, not allowing them to
create problems for Pakistan. There was no TTP and no insurgency against
Pakistan in the tribal regions.
In the absence of US, Soviet and Indian elements in Afghanistan, the idea of
Pashtunistan was also killed, isolating the Pakistani Pashtun separatists within
Pakistan, without any support base in Afghanistan for the first time since
1947. ANP was an isolated defeated group in Pakistan.
Taliban respected the territorial integrity of Pakistan and never raised the
issue of Durand line or any border disputes.
Not a single suicide bombing, bomb attack or act of violence was reported in
Pakistan from any insurgent group – either religious or secular during the
Taliban era. Afghanistan had become the strategic depth for Pakistan.
Pakistan had no deployment of troops on the Afghan side and the entire focus
of Pakistan was against India and on Kashmir.
13
Afghanistan acted as the strategic depth for Pakistan with almost all of
Afghanistan dependent upon Pakistan for trade, food supplies, clothes, fuel,
printing, industrial and technological support. Pakistani currency was
acceptable at all Afghan shops and Afghans would scramble to get Pakistani
ID cards and passports. Geo-economically and geo-culturally, Afghanistan
had become an informal province of Pakistan.
14
TTP insurgency was created and is being kept alive through massive support of
weapons, money and infiltrators in the garb of “Muslim militants” and “Arab
Mujahideen” or “Al-Qaeda”. Israeli Mossad and CIA are handling the Arab
connection, while RAW and RAMA manage the TTP, Uzbeks and local Pashtun and
Pakistani terrorist elements.
The fascist religious ideology of Takfir against Pakistani State has been aggressively
promoted through planted Arab spies like Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Abu Yazid while
Osama remains an elusive support to the Takfiri ideology. Local terrorists like TTP
are further supported by Uzbek militants from ruthless Communist warlord Rasheed
Dostum's gangs under the guise of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).
Pakistani sectarian terrorist groups like SSP and LeJ also joined the ranks of TTP for
protection and survival, and have expanded their role from anti-Shia militancy to
anti-State and anti-Pakistani warfare. The entire campaign of terrorism against
Pakistan is based in Afghanistan under the patronage of a hornet's nest of CIA,
Mossad, RAW and RAMA.
Mercifully for Pakistan, the Afghan groups – Mullah Umar, Haqqani and Hekmatyar
– remain neutral towards Pakistan and have still not declared any hostile intent
towards Pakistan, despite blunders made by Islamabad. US is desperate to push
Pakistan onto a collision course with Afghan Taliban and Afghan resistance but
Pakistan has been resisting the pressure so far. The CIA has been waging an
independent war in the tribal regions eliminating genuine Afghan resistance through
drone strikes but avoiding attacks on TTP, Baluch separatists and Uzbeks, despite
strong objections, demands and reservations by Pakistan.
The US is present in Afghanistan. CIA, Mossad, RAW and RAMA continue to play
havoc with Pakistan's security, backing as well as supporting multiple insurgencies
and terrorist groups in Pakistan. Pakistan government and parliament remains
paralyzed, while army continues to fight a heroic battle in the absence of any
political, diplomatic or information warfare support for the cause. American presence
in Afghanistan is the root cause of all terrorism inside Pakistan. So far, this critical
issue has not been addressed either by the government or the military while trying to
fight the insurgencies. In the reactive mode of response, more and more resources,
men and weapons continue to flow into Pakistan from Afghanistan and the base
areas, safe havens and supply lines of the insurgents both in NWFP and Baluchistan
remain secure, out of the reach of Pakistani forces.
15
is also time to study the motives, ambitions and future discourse of secular
insurgency that has been waged against Pakistan, in Baluchistan, from Afghanistan
by Indian RAW.
Most of the high profile terrorist incidents are attributed to LeJ, like the assassination
of Iranian diplomat, Sadiq Ganji (1990), killing of US journalist Daniel Pearl (2002),
killing of French engineers in Karachi (2002), assassination of Benazir Bhutto
(2007), attack on Marriott hotel in Islamabad (2008), attack on Sri Lankan cricket
team in Lahore (2009) etc.
SMP was formed in 1990, by Moulana Muneeb Abbas Yazdani, as a reaction to SSP,
to guard the Shiite community in Pakistan. The organization remained involved in
sectarian violence during the 1990's. SSP accused SMP of killing its leaders. SMP got
so much power in the coming years that it established a state within a state in Thokar
Niaz Baig area in Lahore during the 90's. SMP was accused of getting funding from
Iran to expand Shiite ideology in Pakistan. Just like LeJ, many criminal elements
16
became part of SMP like Ghulam Raza Naqvi, once chieftain of the organization,
who was involved in 30 different cases of murder and robbery.
This organization was also banned by Pakistani government on 14th August 2001.
The group was founded by Sufi Muhammed, in 1992 after he left Jamaat-e-Islami, of
which he was an active leader. Objective of TNSM was to replicate Afghan Taliban's
version of Islamic laws in Malakand division in frontier province, in Northern
Pakistan. Sufi Muhammed was jailed in November 2001 for sending thousands of
volunteers to Afghanistan to fight the US led invasion. After his arrest, his son in law,
Mullah Fazlullah, took over the command of TNSM and started one of the bloodiest
campaigns to enforce his version of terrorist laws in Malakand division. This militant
faction of TNSM called itself Swati Taliban or TTP Swat.
TNSM used Islam to further its political agenda to grab power and authority. During
its terror drive in Malakand it was supported by Indian backed Tehreek-i-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP) with arms, training, Radio stations and intelligence against Pakistani
law enforcement agencies. TTP Swat established its writ on Swat and adjacent
districts of Malakand division by 2009, when Pakistan army launched a full scale
operation and crushed the TTP Swat faction.
The most brutal and ruthless terrorist organization in the world today and the most
prized asset of RAW. Emerged in 2005, TTP acted as an umbrella organization for
many militant groups fighting against the Pakistani state, under the ideology of
Takfir. TTP consists of Pakistani, Arab, Uzbek and Afghan nationals.
17
TTP declared the whole of Pakistani nation as infidels on allying with US in war on
terror. TTP gets support from US and NATO occupied Afghanistan, mainly from
Indian and Afghan secret services.
TTP adopted the slogan of Jihad against US occupation of Afghanistan to get more
recruits from Pakistani tribal areas in order to intensify and expand its war against
Pakistan. TTP never fired a single bullet on US forces in Afghanistan and its main
target is Pakistan, both as state and nation, with a particular focus on Pakistan army
and its intelligence organizations. TTP established its foothold in South Waziristan
agency in FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) area. Soon it expanded its
influence in other agencies of FATA as well. There were several incidents where
Pakistani security personnel were beheaded by the cold blooded TTP operatives.
Apart from that, the phenomenon of suicide bombings in Pakistan was introduced by
TTP. Thousands of Pakistanis have been killed in these suicide attacks by TTP during
the last 5 years. The Pakistan government has declared TTP as a terrorist
organization. Pakistan army launched massive military operations against TTP in
South Waziristan, where TTP had established its illegal state within the FATA area of
Pakistan. TTP leadership is now on the run, as the Pakistan army is busy in search
and destroy operations in FATA.
Brahamdagh Bugti commands BLA from Afghanistan and is supported and funded
by Indian consulates in Afghanistan. Indians are also sponsoring multiple conferences
on Baluchistan and on “atrocities” committed against Baluchis by “Punjabi army”.
US still refuse to declare BLA and other Baluch separatist groups as terrorist outfits.
18
Baluchistan Liberation Front (BLF):
Currently headed by Sher Mohammad Marri, BLF is the oldest insurgent movement
in Baluchistan, whose origin predates to 1964. It got its support from pro-Soviet Iraq
and other states in the gulf in its initial years. In the beginning, BLF was more active
in Iranian Baluchistan. In 1973, Pakistani authorities discovered arms in the Iraqi
embassy in Islamabad, which were intended for the BLF's use in Baluchistan. This
led to a full-scale military operation in Baluchistan against BLF.
HuJI first limited its operations in Afghanistan against the Soviets but after the Soviet
retreat in 1988, the organization shifted its area of operation to the Indian Held
Jammu and Kashmir. Currently, HuJI is a terrorist organization involved in anti-
Pakistan activities inspired by Al-Qaeda ideologically; it has been banned by the
Pakistani government, as the group is hostile to Pakistan now.
Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HuM):
19
have any act of terrorism attributed to it anywhere in the world. It is involved in
legitimate freedom struggle in Indian controlled Kashmir only.
Al-Badr:
Created in 1998, Al-Badr is a freedom fighter group operating in the Jammu Kashmir
region only. The group operated independently from their previous umbrella group,
Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HuM). Prior to the group's separation from HuM, they
participated in fighting in Afghanistan in 1990 as part of Gulbadin Hekmatyar's Hizb-
e-Islami alongside other anti-Soviet Afghan mujahideen. They have been linked to
Jamaat-e-Islami. The groups stated purpose is to liberate the Indian states of Jammu
and Kashmir in order to be merged with Pakistan. Al-Badr is currently on the US
State Department's list of Designated Foreign Funded Freedom Organizations. Al-
Badr is not hostile to Pakistan nor aligned with Al-Qaeda or the TTP.
Al-Qaeda:
Al-Qaeda is poised to use extensive force, most of the time against Muslim countries
and ordinary citizens who differ with its version of Islam. Basically, it's now a
20
terrorist organization, waging a ruthless war against Pakistan, more through its
ideology, than its fighters, and TTP is influenced by the same ideology. Effectively,
Al-Qaeda is now a dead organization in Pakistani tribal regions and does not have
any role in war against US and NATO forces. Its active members are now just a few
dozen hunted men who do not have any logistical or technical base to cause any
terrorist operation in the world. They are ideologically more dangerous but not
physically. The generic brand name Al-Qaeda is used by US and western intelligence
agencies to brand all hostile groups.
Afghan Taliban:
Emerged in 1994 under the leadership of Mullah Omar, Taliban were the first force in
Afghanistan to bring political stability in a war stricken country. Ideologically,
Taliban are not global Jihadists and do not share Al-Qaeda or TTP's visions of Takfir
against Pakistan or the Muslim world. True freedom fighters, now they are moral
equivalents of Afghan Mujahideen of the 80's, only fighting to liberate their
homeland from western occupation.
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Haqqani lead the group. The group is strong in eastern Afghanistan and presents
strong threats to NATO and United States forces in Afghanistan. Jalaluddin Haqqani
is regarded as one of the most senior Afghan commanders who fought against the
Soviets during 1980's. Haqqani network, unlike Al-Qaeda, does not consider Pakistan
an enemy state, and is not involved in any anti-Pakistan
activity so far.
Hizb-e-Islami:
It is often said that the militant assets created by Pakistan in the 80's are now coming
back to haunt it. Nothing can be further from the truth. The above categorization
makes it clear that Pakistan still does not face any threat from the militant assets it
created during the Afghan Jihad era. The Kashmiri groups also pose no threat to
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Pakistan. The violence and insurgency against the State of Pakistan are being
conducted by insurgent groups, funded, equipped and created by foreign secret
services in post 9/11 era, after the US occupation of Afghanistan. After 9/11 and US
invasion of Afghanistan, many Arab and Uzbek fighters fled to Pakistani tribal
regions. The groups were heavily penetrated by Indian and Afghan secret services
and gave the ideological foundations to the violent philosophy of TTP, which was
created in 2005 by CIA/RAW nexus. The Baluch groups are also foreign funded
terror outfits, not created by Pakistan.
Sectarian terrorist organizations were present in Pakistan in pre-9/11 era also, but
were more of a local law and order issue and not an existential threat to the State,
even though the violence was serious and thousands of Pakistanis lost their lives in
these sectarian clashes between Shiite and Sunnis. The Government banned these
sectarian militant organizations in 2001, though they continue to operate
underground, albeit much weakened.
Activities of both SSP and SMP declined rapidly after being banned by the
government in 2001. Both SSP and LeJ are inspired by Takfiri political thought and
have deteriorated into genuine anti-Pakistan terrorist outfits under the umbrella of
TTP and Al-Qaeda. Shiite-Sunni clash is not the only dimension of sectarian
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violence in Pakistan. TTP/LeJ are already known to have attacked Barelvi/Sufi sects
to create another axis of Deobandi-Barelvi clash.
Almost, all the anti Pakistan, religious, militant organizations within Pakistan, belong
to Deobandi sect (except SMP which is Shiite outfit). It is interesting to note that
Barelvis and Sufis do not have any militant outfit within their ranks, and hence more
vulnerable to this new dimension of sectarian violence.
BLF
Secular Baluchistan
BLA
SMP
Secterian LJ
SSP
Al-Qaeda
Foreign
Militant
Religious
Groups
IMU
Political
TNSM Fazalullah
Local
Mehsud
Kashmiri
Groups
Taliban TTP Nazir
Hizb-i-Islami
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Kashmiri groups are focused towards their anti-India operations in Indian held
Kashmir. Most of these groups have been banned by Pakistani government after 9/11,
and their activities are now severely curtailed and closely monitored but still all major
groups in this category are no threat to the state of Pakistan.
Though Al-Qaeda and IMU were formed during 1990's, both these organizations
established their footprint in Pakistan after 9/11. Prior to that these organizations
were present inside Afghanistan but never posed a direct threat to Pakistan until the
latter decided to become an ally in US war on terror.
Within this complex equation, CIA also wages its own war in the FATA tribal
regions through the drone strikes, almost always targeting those elements that are
either pro-Pakistan or at least neutral. CIA sometimes does attack TTP and other anti-
Pakistan groups, but that is whenever Pakistan army tries to reach a peace deal with
them. CIA has sabotaged all the previous attempts of such peace deals between
Pakistan army and the insurgents by killing the TTP leaders like Nek Muhammed
who wanted to negotiate peace. Real target of CIA drones are those groups that are
not fighting against Pakistani state, like Haqqani, Hekmatyar and Mullah Omar
groups.
Analysis:
Except for the military which has performed extremely well against heavy odds
combating these insurgencies and terrorist groups, the rest of the systems of the State,
government, media and judiciary have totally collapsed under pressure. The fear of
the terrorists has taken the entire State apparatus, including the parliament, as
hostage. Today Pakistan is faced with two existential threats:
1. Insurgency terrorism.
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A total and complete system and leadership failure through the years has brought the
situation to this precipice. Few factors, which have contributed to this serious
situation are:
Lack of any coherent and practical anti- terrorism policy in the country
despite facing such a mammoth existential threat from this quarter.
Parliament, governments and the judiciary have all avoided the issue
deliberately for fear of reprisal from the terrorists. This has been the most fatal
internal failure so far. Even the term terrorism and insurgency have neither
been defined at State level nor groups classified according to their threat
levels. Consequently, there are no guidelines for media and national
opinion makers on how to tackle the crisis.
Lack of justice and failure of State prosecution services. The Judicial system
has collapsed totally and does not prosecute and execute the terrorists. Last
terrorist executed through the judicial system was a lone sectarian militant
hanged almost 10 years ago!
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forces. Major Deobandi political party JUI, which is also the coalition partner
with the present regime and had headed the government in Frontier province
for five years during Musharraf era, actually supports the militants and is the
patron political organization for all Deobandi militant outfits. This
complicates the issue of the development of State response against high threat,
terror outfits. Fatwas or moral persuasion against terrorism, from other sects
do not matter to the terrorist outfits as they only recognize their own scholars
from their own sect.
Lack of any media policy or information warfare strategy to isolate the moral
authority of the terrorists. Media cannot speak against major terrorists for fear
of reprisals nor can it speak against “political leaders” like Altaf Hussain, the
leader of MQM. The “free” media is almost a hostage to the militant groups
and parties.
Conclusion:
The challenge to national security is grave but is well within manageable limits.
Pakistan needs a multi prong response comprising of both reactive and pro-active
strategies and measures, with a commitment to implement these strategies
concurrently on various axes of national security and social development to fight the
menace of religious, secular and sectarian radicalization. The situation in Pakistan, in
context of sectarian violence and any kind of insurgency was under control before
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1979 and also during the Taliban era, between 1996 to 2001. So proposed policies
and measures must be directed towards achieving those benchmark eras in social,
religious, political and military culture.
The baseline wisdom to handle these challenges is that Pakistan needs a strong
Federal Government. The present setup has catastrophically failed. Every challenge is
manageable. It is the leadership, which has collapsed.
It's time to devise and implement our homegrown, independent and honorable
strategic and national security policies as a Muslim state and as a leader of the
Islamic world, rather than as a subservient client state of the West and US. These are
decisive moments for Pakistan to take this initiative aggressively at national, regional
and global level. For the Pakistani nation, it's now or never! The time for change has
arrived!
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