‘Pakistan should worry about terrorism, not India’

LAHORE Daily Times Monitor

* US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman says tensions with India over Kashmir are diverting Pakistan from fight against extremism
* US Senate’s Homeland Security chairman says it’s difficult to convince Pakistani establishment of extremism being the
real threat

The greatest threat Pakistan faces today comes from terrorism, not India, two US leaders have said.

Speaking at Harvard University, General David Petraeus of the Central Command on Monday said the government in Islamabad needed a change in its mindset towards its neighbour similar to what happened in the US after the Cold War.

“The existential threat facing Pakistan,” he said, “is internal extremists and not India.”

Diversion: Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last month that tensions with India over Kashmir were diverting Pakistan from the fight against extremism.

India realises the “desirability of reducing tensions” so Pakistan can focus its efforts on combating terrorists, Petraeus told reporters. But the five-year peace process between the neighbours has been stalled since the November attacks in Mumbai. India blamed the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba for the assault, which Petraeus called “a true 9/11 moment” for India.

Many in Pakistan’s government recognise that extremist elements pose a threat to its authority and must be brought under control, Petraeus said.

According to government estimates, terrorism has cost Pakistan $35 billion in economic losses and damage to infrastructure. More than 3,500 terrorist incidents have occurred since 2007, killing an average of 84 people per month this year.

Separately, Senator Joseph Lieberman told the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think-tank, “Pakistanis have to understand that their major enemy in the region is no longer India, but it’s extremism. In fact, they have a common enemy in that with the Indians.”

Difficulty: Lieberman, chairman of the US Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, admitted, however, that it was difficult to convince the Pakistani establishment. “That’s a tough sell,” he said.

Responding to questions, Senator Lieberman reiterated his view that any new aid to Pakistan needs to be conditional.

Advani is not a womaniser, but such men are dangerous: Khushwant Singh in a candid interview

Shivangi Singh

Not one to mince his words, India’s most admired as well as hated writer Khushwant Singh appeared at his candid best during the launch of his latest book, ‘Why I Supported the Emergency’ – a bold, thought-provoking and immensely interesting collection of essays and profiles, compiled and edited by Sheela Reddy.

The 94-year-old writer’s intellect remains intact inspite of failing health and a number of ailments. The ‘dirty Sardar’, looked frail in form, but unbeaten and bold in spirit. As the author entered the venue ‘Windsor Palace’ at Le Meridien in the capital, he was surrounded by beautiful ladies of different age groups. They hugged, kissed and shook his hands, and made sure that he was comfortable – to the envy of all men present at the event.

The veteran writer, while thanking all present at the book launch said, “Every occasion I come to this venue, I say that this is the last time you would be extending your hospitality. I am saying it again but I promise not to come next time.”

Vinod Mehta, the Editor-in-chief of Outlook, who was in conversation with the author, said, “When talking about Khushwant Singh, I don’t know where to start and where to end.” He brought out the best in the author by posing some tongue-in-cheek questions, which had the audience applauding. Here are the excerpts:

Q: You are unkind to dead people. Is it because the dead can’t sue?
Khushwant Singh: I have a different approach to obits. When you write obits, you usually tend to write good things. But it should not be so. If the fellow is a rascal, say so. When I will go, a lot of people will say nasty things about me. I will not be there to read but I hope my family takes it in a stride.

Q: Who is the most obnoxious person you have ever met?
Khushwant Singh: Krishna Menon. He tops my list of obnoxious men. I served him for four years and I know what kind of a human being he was. Another one is Rajni Patel, a friend since college, but he was extremely corrupt. (Laughs)There are others also, but I can talk about Krishna Menon, because he is dead and he can’t sue. That’s pretty safe. There are others also but they are living.

Q: It is said that the Brits carry sex in their mind. What do you have to say about Indians ?
Khushwant Singh: Indians have sex more often in their brains and not where it should be. Sex is an elemental passion. It’s an integral part of our life. All human relationship is based on the desire to have sex. It’s human to have desire for sex and when it is not fulfilled, it comes out in perverted forms. That is why celibacy does not work. The desire to have multiple partners is also normal. Married people commit adultery in their mind - happy married life is a façade. I have a collection of sex jokes, which I hope will be published posthumously.

Q: It is strange what two people do to each other in bed. Do you agree with Naipaul when he says that it is difficult to write about explicit sex in literature?

Khushwant Singh:You are being dishonest if you are not writing about sex in your book. It is very natural and normal. Well, I have earned the name of ‘dirty old man’ but there is not much sex in my books. What I have written is very serious stuff – biography, history, religious texts etc.

Q: Tell us how do you lure so many beautiful women?
Khushwant Singh: I still don’t know but it is a fact that I have very attractive women dropping at my place. But as I grow old, I get bored. So, I don’t mince my words when I say good bye pretty soon.

Q: What do you think of editing standards of today?
Khushwant Singh: In my time the editor was the boss. Now, the editors are executive officers carrying out the orders of the owner of the publication. The news you get is in the first page, rest is all Bollywood and fashion. Crossword puzzle is the only interesting thing in newspapers these days.

Q: LK Advani doesn’t seem to like you much. Your take?
Khushwant Singh: I am disappointed in him. He was an able and clean man. I supported him initially. After 1984, Sikhs did not want to vote for Congress I put forward his name. He came to thank me. But when he was the Home Minister, and he came with his bodyguards in tow, during an event, I took the liberty to say, “You sowed the seed of communalism in the country and the country will pay for it.” Advani doesn’t womanise, such men are dangerous.

Q: You were called as Indira Gandhi’s ‘chamcha’? Your take?
Khushwant Singh: I supported her when I thought she was right in imposing the emergency. With some reservations, I supported the Emergency proclaimed by Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975. Let me explain why. I concede that the right to protest is integral to democracy. You can have public meetings to criticise or condemn government actions. You can take out processions, call for strikes and closure of businesses. But there must not be any coercion or violence. If there is any, it is the duty of the government to suppress it by force, if necessary

But when she curbed the freedom of press during the emergency, I withdrew my support. Indira Gandhi had the habit of snubbing whoever opposed her. She was waiting for a chance to snub me. I never gave her the chance as I never met her after that.

Q: You are soft on Sanjay Gandhi. What do you think of him?
Khushwant Singh: He was a highly misunderstood man. He was a doer, he got things right. We need his compulsory population method. His idea of tree plantation was also good. I agree he made a mess of the Maruti project, but he had his own way of doing things, I supported him and I have no regrets.

Q: You also called him a ‘Goonda’…
Khushwant Singh: He was a dictator. I saw him fighting physically. India would have probably progressed much under him. But India would not have been a democracy.

Q: Who is the most admirable man, you have ever met?
Khushwant Singh: Manmohan Singh. He is simple, has no charisma, yet he is the best PM we’ve ever had. He is not corrupt, he has plans in mind and is taking the country ahead. He will be underrated with Advani calling him ‘weak’ but it’s not true. I support him not because he is a sardar, but he is truly admirable.

Q: What would you say about Maneka and Varun Gandhi?
Khushwant Singh: Maneka Gandhi brought up Varun alone. I somehow could not believe the abusive words against Sikhs and Muslims attributed to him. One of the men opposing him was a Sikh. Sikhs have this ability to accept jokes about them but the remark 'uska bara baja denge' (I will fix him) is not the kind of thing to say in public. After all, most of his mother's relatives are Sikhs, He is a badly brought up child. I hope Varun will be banned from contesting the polls and the people will throw him out. But I am afraid that he will win the seat.

Experts predict Pakistan’s collapse

By JONATHAN S. LANDAY
WASHINGTON | A growing number of U.S. intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials have concluded that there’s little hope of preventing nuclear-armed Pakistan from disintegrating into fiefdoms controlled by Islamist warlords and terrorists.

“It’s a disaster in the making on the scale of the Iranian revolution,” said a U.S. intelligence official with long experience in Pakistan who requested anonymity.

Pakistan’s fragmentation into warlord-run fiefdoms that host al-Qaida and other terrorist groups would have grave implications for the security of its nuclear arsenal; for the U.S.-led effort to pacify Afghanistan; and for the security of India, the nearby oil-rich Persian Gulf and Central Asia, the U.S. and its allies.

“Pakistan has 173 million people and 100 nuclear weapons, an army which is bigger than the American Army, and the headquarters of al-Qaida sitting in two-thirds of the country which the government does not control,” said David Kilcullen, a counterinsurgency consultant to the Obama administration.

“Pakistan isn’t Afghanistan, a backward, isolated, landlocked place that outsiders get interested in about once a century,” agreed the U.S. intelligence official. “It’s a developed state.”

He added: “The implications of this are disastrous for the U.S.”

The experts interviewed by McClatchy Newspapers said their views aren’t a worst case scenario, but a realistic expectation based on the militants’ gains and the failure of Pakistan’s leadership to respond.

“The place is beyond redemption,” said a Pentagon adviser who asked not to be further identified. He continued: “If you look out 10 years, I think the government will be overrun by Islamic militants.”

That pessimistic view has been bolstered by Islamabad’s surrender this week of areas outside the frontier tribal region to Pakistan’s Taliban movement and by a growing militant infiltration into the rest of the nation.

Taliban impose Jazia on Sikhs in Pakistan

Sikhs living in Pakistan’s Orakzai Agency have reportedly paid Rs 20 million as “jazia” to the Taliban, a tax previously levied by Mughal rulers on non-Muslims to exempt them from military service and protect their person in the sub-continent.

The Daily Times, a Pakistani newspaper, reported on Thursday that “detained” Sikh leader Sardar Saiwang Singh was released by the Taliban, who also vacated the community’s houses occupied by them.

They also announced protection for the Sikh community, saying no one would harm them after they paid “jazia”. Sikhs who had left the agency would now return and resume their business in the Agency, which is part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in north-western Pakistan, the paper added.

“The Taliban don’t have a state, so they can’t impose jazia,” Lucknow-based historian Salim Kidwai told the HT.

The Mughal ruler, Akbar, abolished jazia on his subjects, which was re-imposed by Aurangzeb in the 17th century.

In Amritsar, the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) secretary Dilmegh Singh quoted the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (PSGPC) president Bishen Singh as saying that more than 200 Sikhs and Hindus had taken shelter in gurdwaras in Nankan Sahib and Peshawar.

Meanwhile, SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani to ensure the security of Sikhs and Hindus in the trouble-torn country.

Pakistan: an imploding nation

On the ideological plane, the idea of Pakistan has ceased to be meaningful; it is a failed state led by a reckless elite who could not care less.

Dire warnings about the fate of Pakistan have become daily fare now. The country’s Afghan border frayed a while ago. Now the Al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents have taken the war to its heart: Swat yesterday, Buner today, will Islamabad fall too?
Possibly in one to six months, if David Kilcullen is to be believed. Kilcullen is an adviser to David Petraeus, commander of the US Central Command that oversees operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He made those controversial remarks to the Washington Post in March. He explained the rationale of his statement in an interview to Mint on Wednesday.
Pakistan is today a nation without a political gyroscope. Its political leadership is at war with itself and its army thinks India is top enemy while the Taliban steadily inch towards territorial control. In fact, its army elite is inclined in favour of the Taliban. When the radicals do take over the reins in Islamabad, it would be a unique example of a nation handing over the levers of state power to non-state actors.
This is not a vision of doom. On the ideological plane, the idea of Pakistan has ceased to be meaningful. It never was a promised land for the Muslims of South Asia. The first blow came with the secession of Bangladesh. Then came the Baloch and Sindhi insurgencies. Finally, by the time the last Soviet tanks moved out of Afghanistan in 1989, it was well on its way to turning into a powder keg of feuding ethnic groups, competing regionalisms and a heady brew of medieval Islam. Twenty years later, it is a failed state led by a reckless elite who could not care less.
The question that India and Indians need to address is: What is to be done? Any Indian help is certain to be construed as a conspiracy to dismember the country. That path should be avoided. Apart from practical arrangements (for example, occupying certain territories in a pre-emptive fashion so that the Taliban do not threaten India), there should be efforts at thinking about envisioning alternative political futures for Pakistan. Should there be a confederation of states such as Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab? Should the North-West Frontier Province and the tribal areas be merged into a greater Afghanistan? Or should the present territories remain with all powers to the states and residuary powers with a weak centre? These are questions that cannot be ignored any longer.
Can Pakistan remain a viable nation state? Tell us your views !

Pakistan: the epicentre of Islamist terror

In the lush, green valleys of the Punjab, young men are being schooled in the principles of mass murder.
By Sean Rayment, Security Correspondent

Some 70 miles north of Lahore, in a 200-acre camp that also houses a large mosque, swimming pool and fish farm, volunteers are taught how to assemble bombs, fire weapons, create terrorist networks and communicate covertly using the internet and mobile phones.

They are also instructed in resistance to interrogation techniques and how to create cover stories in the event of being captured.

This is the headquarters of the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) – which in Urdu translates as "army of the pure" – the organisation widely believed to be responsible for the Mumbai massacre in November which left 172 people dead.

LeT, which professes to be a peaceful organisation, is known to have close links with al-Qaeda and is understood to train around 40,000 young men every year at its madrassas (religious schools) and military bases.

Some of the trainees at its base in the Punjab are British.

Many of those who graduate from the camps are sent to the front line in Kashmir to wage war against the Indian army, others venture north to Afghanistan to fight against Nato forces, while many of the British return to the UK and begin plotting.

Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer are both thought to have visited the camp several times before carrying out the 7/7 suicides attacks on the London Tube network.

Mohammed Ajmal Khan, who was sentenced to nine years in March 2006 for fundraising for terrorist groups operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan, also admitted visiting one of the organisation’s camps.

Virtually all of the al-Qaeda terrorists convicted in Britain since 2001, including the 7/7 bombers and Dhiren Barot – the so-called "Dirty Bomber" – received training in Pakistan.

Gordon Brown recently stated that three quarters of all British terror plots originate from within the state.

However, monitoring everyone visiting or returning from Pakistan is an impossible task for Britain’s police and MI5.

Up to 400,000 British Pakistanis visit the country every year, the vast majority for completely legitimate reasons. Up to 10,000 young Pakistanis enter the UK every year on student visas.

It is also believed that some of the 12 terrorist suspects arrested in Wednesday’s Operation Pathway may have been trained to form a covert cell in Pakistan before entering Britain.

LeT is a hardcore terrorist organisation committed to using extreme violence to achieve its aim of forcing India to leave the disputed area of Kashmir.

But in the 18 years since its creation, the movement has forged links with other terror groups, most notably al-Qaeda, and has become a major threat to many western countries.

After the Mumbai attacks, it emerged that the group had compiled a worldwide hit list of 320 targets. Yet despite being banned by most western countries, the Pakistani authorities stand accused of effectively having turned a blind eye to its operations.

And the organisation is not alone. Another militant group, Lashkar-e-Janghvi is believed to have been behind the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore last month, also operates openly, while other groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen are understood to be expanding their influence in Punjab, an area with strong British connections.

In one area of Kashmir roughly the size of the West Midlands, 25 militant groups are known to operate with impunity.

Many of their volunteers sign up here for jihad – or ‘holy war’ – before taking the next step of joining other organisations committed to attacking the West.

It is against this backdrop that Pakistan has now acquired the dubious distinction of being epicentre for Islamist terrorism in the world.

At the same time, MI5 and the CIA are becoming increasingly worried by the country’s inability to clamp down on militants.

Pakistan is now a very dangerous country for Westerners to live and work. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office only allows its diplomats to work in the country unaccompanied, meaning partners, wives and children must remain behind in the UK.

As far as the FCO is concerned, Pakistan is as dangerous as Afghanistan, which is currently in the grips of a full-blown insurgency.

The rise of militant Islamist groups in Pakistan began in the early 1980s under the country’s then leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Huq, largely in response to the growth of Shia fundamentalism in Iran and in a bid to support the Mujahideen who were fighting the Soviets in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Over the last 30 years, the country’s leaders have been content for various Islamist groups to train and recruit in Pakistan, and to wage a proxy war with India over the disputed Kashmir region. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Inter-Services Agency (ISI), the intelligence wing of the Pakistan army, funded the Mujahideen and, later, the Taliban in the mid-Nineties.

Although Pakistan is fighting its own counter-insurgency war against militants, the ISI is believed to have firm links with groups like the Taliban and even al-Qaeda, much to the consternation of Britain and the US.

MI5 treats any intelligence passed to it by the ISI with caution, given that much of it is politicised, although the relationship between the two organisations remains strong.

But the US, which over the last few years has funded the Pakistan military and therefore the ISI to the tune of £7 billion, is said to be increasingly frustrated with rogue, Islamist-supporting elements within the ISI.

Washington wants the Pakistani government to clamp down on the militant groups operating within the country and to cleanse the ISI of Taliban and Islamist sympathisers.

Admiral Michael Mullen, the US Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs and America’s most senior officer, recently called for the ISI to make "fundamental" changes in its relationship with militants.

But despite the frustrations, there have been some major advances.

The bilateral agreement between Pakistan and Washington, which had been a secret until recently and allowed America’s heavily armed unmanned aircraft, known as Reapers, to attack al-Qaeda and Taliban targets inside Pakistan, have produced enormous dividends.

Security sources said the various strikes over the past 12 months have severely disrupted al-Qaeda operations in Pakistan and their lines of communication back to the UK.

MI5 are convinced that the current lack of so-called "late-stage plots" – in which "cells" of terrorists are close to launching attacks – is partly down to the Reaper strikes in the Pakistan/Afghanistan border regions.

Pakistan, however, remains a country on the brink of catastrophe.

The ‘Talibanisation’ of the Swat Valley in the tribal areas of the northwest frontier province serves to illustrate how the central government is beginning to lose control in certain areas.

It is in this region that more than 75,000 soldiers of its Frontier Corps are waging a bitter counter-insurgency war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

The war has reached a stalemate and is causing deep divides within the Pakistani Army. While the officer class support the war, the rank and file see little honour in killing fellow Muslims. The potential for revolt within the Army is very real.

The economy is also in freefall, with some estimates suggesting that Pakistan will be bankrupt within six months, a position which will play further into the hands of the militants, who already recruit the majority of their foot soldiers from the poorest areas.

Pakistan is a country of 150 million people, many of whom are trapped in poverty. It is in desperate need of help, probably more so than neighbouring Afghanistan.

If the economy implodes, the Army revolts and the Islamists gain power – a sequence of events that is entirely possible – the problems for the West will dwarf anything seen in Iraq or Afghanistan and will take international terrorism to a new infinitely more dangerous level.

For the first time since the Cold War, the West would have an enemy with a nuclear capability.

CBI's Clean Chit to Tytler ? Is it fair ? Let us support BL Sharma Prem and cause Tytler's political demise !

I understand the sentiments of Sikhs and Akalis for protesting against Congress and CBI for giving clean chit to Sajjan Kumar and Tytler. Every person with clear conscience and just attitude will do that. But do the Sikhs and Akalis want action against those Punjab Terrorists who used to drag and kill innocent Hindu bus passengers regularly by singling them out in Punjab for almost a decade at the instance of Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale and other extremist leaders. Isn't it dual policy that you honor and glorify killers at one place and want that the killers from other side should be hanged or put behind bars for the whole life. Let us be just and impartial and stop playing politics in the favor of these Killers of Humanity. They should be given stern public disapproval and not honored or glorified by putting their photographs in Gurudwaras or party offices.

Now the best way for Sikhs and Akalis to defeat the designs of Congress and give these kind of people a befitting reply will be work against these people politically and get them defeated. B L Sharma Prem who is contesting against Jagdish Tytler is a great warrior and has the distinction of defeating the previous Delhi Congress Presidents and Congress stalwarts like HKL Bhagat and Deep Chand Sharma Bandhu and causing their political demise. So let us support the brave and selfless politicians like BL Sharma Prem who has the guts to stand against these criminals and has the courage to call Spade a Spade irrespective of the party or other affiliations. So let us supprt this old war horse Prem Singh Sher ( His adopted name after Amritpan ) and force the likes of Tytler and Sajjan to run for their political life.