By Lt Gen Prakash Katoch
08 Jul , 2016
The historical basis of the ISI’s confidence flows from the fact that both the US and China used Pakistan for creating the Taliban and Al Qaeda and the US gave Pakistani regulars and Taliban safe exit from Afghanistan during the US invasion. Proxies of Pakistan continue to be used in the Great Game. That is why Mussharaf confidently says, “Osama-bin-Laden, Ayman-al-Zhaveri, Haqqanis are our heroes ….. We trained the LeT against India”.
…the Haqqani Network based in Pakistan past 30 years itself is Al Qaeda, as acknowledged by US scholars and being used not only as a crucial anti-India asset in Afghanistan but also against US and Afghan security forces.
When Asim Umar was appointed the AQIS South Asia head by Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in September 2014, it not only denoted the Pakistani connection, it obviously was on the recommendation and behest of Pakistan’s ISI. After all the finesses with which Osama bin-Laden was kept in a safe house for years in Abbotabad right under the noses of US-NATO forces searching for him in Afghanistan, was well-planned investment for future dividend. It is unclear if the CIA was aware of Osama’s whereabouts but Benazir Bhutto from abroad had certainly given a broad hint by saying Osama bin-Laden was perhaps in Musharraf’s backyard. But then the Haqqani Network based in Pakistan past 30 years itself is Al Qaeda, as acknowledged by US scholars and being used not only as a crucial anti-India asset in Afghanistan but also against US and Afghan security forces.
Getting back to Asim Umar, his birthplace remains a mystery, some suggesting Uttar Pradesh in India where he attended the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary before migrating to Pakistan in 1990s. In Pakistan, he studied at the Jamia-ul-Islamia in Karachi and later at the Darul Uloom Haqqani in Khyber Pakhtunwala (KPK). Darul Uloom Haqqani is also known as the ‘University of Jihad’ where notorious radicals like Mullah Mansour Akhtar and Sirajuddin Haqqani have been past alumni.
Significantly, simultaneous to the recent US announcement of giving $800 million to Pakistan, Pakistan announced grant of Rs 300 million to Darul Uloom Haqqania for year 2016-2017.
Asim Umar had reportedly joined Harkat-ul-Jihad (HUJI) after he travelled to Afghanistan and met Osama bin-Laden. Later, Asim Umar facilitated bin Laden’s move to the safe-house in Abbotabad, Pakistan where he lived undetected for years before US forces killed him. HUJI during that time had branches in Kashmir, Bangladesh and Myanmar. So, it is no surprise that Zawahiri picked up Asim Umar to head AQIS, South Asia especially after he appeared prominently in Tahrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) propaganda videos post the Lal Masjid incident and later headed Al Qaeda’s Sharia Committee in Pakistan.
The history of communal riots for political gains is pathetic in our country… and some political leaders even travelling to Pakistan and shamelessly calling for support to dislodge the Prime Minister of India.
Through a recent audio message (simultaneous to a written release from Pakistan titled ‘No to the Slogan of Disbelief’) Asim Umar has purportedly given a call urging Muslims in India to undertake ‘lone wolf’ attacks to target senior IPS and IAS officers, saying Indian Muslims must follow the example of youths in Europe and strike against Indian police and senior officials. According to him, senior government officials should be held responsible for communal violence, adding that the state and its departments were equally responsible for the incidents against Muslims in India and senior officials must be targeted to cause financial loss to the government and start riots in the country.
This last sentence is tad intriguing because targeting senior officials to cause financial loss to the government doesn’t gel albeit riots following such killing (s) certainly would. But then such calls are not new, having been given in the past by many radical organizations including the AQIS, aim being to incite the Muslim youth to destabilize India and damage our economy. Of course, the history of communal riots for political gains is pathetic in our country, including one political party notorious for ‘criminalization of politics’ and some political leaders even travelling to Pakistan and shamelessly calling for support to dislodge the Prime Minister of India.
What is interesting to note is the timing of the Asim Umar’s audio-statement, coming at a time when both Afghanistan and Bangladesh want to take Pakistan to the UN for exporting terror while Pakistani radicals have recently stamped their terror signatures in Saudi Arabia. Bangladesh is quite convinced that ISI is behind the ISIS and AQIS recruitment drives in Bangladesh. In fact, the only close friends that Pakistan can claim today perhaps are China, North Korea, and Turkey, future of relations with US being ambiguous.
What has caused Pakistan to go on overdrive in her terror enterprise of course is the increasing strategic depth she is carving out from Afghanistan; her clandestine empire composed of Haqqanis and others – as described by Robert Kaplan in his book ‘The Revenge of Geography’. The historical basis of the ISI’s confidence flows from the fact that both the US and China used Pakistan for creating the Taliban and Al Qaeda and the US gave Pakistani regulars and Taliban safe exit from Afghanistan during the US invasion. Proxies of Pakistan continue to be used in the Great Game. That is why Mussharaf confidently says, “Osama-bin-Laden, Ayman-al-Zhaveri, Haqqanis are our heroes ….. We trained the LeT against India”.
Asim Umar is merely reading out the script handed over by Pakistan’s ISI.
Asim Umar may be the head of AQIS in South Asia tasked from Afghanistan to Myanmar but he is just one entity amongst the radical mass of multiple terrorist organizations entwined like worms and tentacles whose brain and eyes are the Pakistani military-ISI. The interlinking of Taliban, Al Qaeda-Haqqanis, AQIS and others are all there to see; the Afghan Taliban and TTP coalescing, TTP support to ISIS, Al Qaeda allegiance to Afghan Taliban, Haqqani network in top echelons in Afghan Taliban, ISI supported by Pakistani regulars heading the Khorasan chapter of ISIS in Afghanistan, you name it.
So Asim Umar is merely reading out the script handed over by Pakistan’s ISI.
Pakistan has played her US and China cards well, perhaps assuring them that with her radical connections their mainland will remain safe. Perhaps she gave the same assurance to Saudi Arabia but then in such enterprise there is always possibility of elements going berserk. On the other hand the terror attacks in Saudi Arabia could well have been engineered to keep the country ‘in line’, Pakistani hand in 9/11 and sheltering of ETIM elements in Pakistan being examples.
India has no option but to be fully prepared to counter terrorism in all its forms, individually and collectively, combining diplomacy, information operations, economic and military…
China can be expected to continue giving Pakistan totally free hand in exporting terror not only because of the lifeline to Indian Ocean that Pakistan is providing but also because of recent evidence of Chinese nuclear proliferation to North Korea through Pakistan. That is why defence analyst and former Pakistani officer Agha H Amin predicted in 2012, “Pakistan will be a semi autonomous Chinese province by 2030 or so… Pakistani Baluchistan by 2030 would be a completely Chinese run show”. It would be interesting to watch how US-Pakistan relations evolve under the next US President; how the enlarging threat of the China-Pakistan-North Korea nexus is viewed.
It is even more interesting to see that despite the façade of nuclear-cum-terrorism bravado, a sense of déjà vu appears to be creeping up in Pakistan. Asif H Raza, Pakistani scholar and former army brigadier in his recent article ‘Pakistan being strategically encircled’ reflects that fear. According to him, Pakistan is in a “nut cracker situation” with western and southwestern borders unsafe and Saudi Arabia and Gulf States getting more inclined towards India; Pakistan is fast losing breathing space and is getting isolated. He goes on to say that Iran is closer to India than with Pakistan, Indo-US-Afghan-Iran axis has now become a reality and a nightmare for Pakistan, Iran has drifted away and can no longer be relied upon as a trustworthy neighbor, adding that China and Turkey are the only two dependable and all-weather friends that would stand by Pakistan. His many recommendations include Saudi proposed 34-member alliance of Muslim States, with Gen Raheel Sharif as its Commander, must be taken seriously and made into a NATO like group to confront threats of terrorism and proxy wars and to ward off Pakistan’s isolation.
For sure we are in for more turbulent times especially with Pakistan refusing to curb her state policy of terror. India has no option but to be fully prepared to counter terrorism in all its forms, individually and collectively, combining diplomacy, information operations, economic and military – including pro-active measures as deterrence to proxy wars.
© Copyright 2016 Indian Defence Review
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