The Price

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Wanted Pak terrorists killed or trapped in Kunduz

By Kamran Khan

KARACHI: As the United States-led military campaign against Afghanistan based terrorism enters into a decisive phase, Pakistani law enforcement officials have happily received reports that many of Pakistan`s most wanted terrorists have either been killed or have resolved to fight till death to preserve Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Senior intelligence officials in NWFP have said that interrogation with one of the wanted terrorists, who was arrested while returning to Pakistan near Torkham border recently, has revealed that at least two dozen militants associated with the banned extremist party Lashkare Jhangvi have either been killed in Mazar-i-Sharif or were completely trapped in Kunduz till last week.

Officials suspect that Pakistanís most wanted man Riaz Basra, the head of Lashkare Jhangvi is also one of the militants now trapped in Afghanistan. The Government of Pakistan has offered head money of up to Rs. 10 million for any information on Basra or on any of his two dozen most wanted associates. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf had banned Lashkare Jhangvi and Sipahe Mohammad, organizations on August 14 this year.

Pakistani intelligence agencies had substantial evidence to report that the radical sectarian organisations such as Lashkare Jhangvi involved in the targeted murder of Shias in Pakistan were operating from Afghanistan, where they had substantial facilities and finances to train their recruits in guerrilla activities.

Pakistani intelligence agencies estimate that roughly 8000 Pakistani jihadis, mostly from the tribal areas of the NWFP, are presently facing death either in the prison camps of Northern Alliance or in the besieged city of Kandahar. Officials said that some 2000 families have reported their male members missing in the NWFP and Balochistan in the last one month alone. Senior police and intelligence officials in Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta have said that no significant case of sectarian terrorism was reported anywhere in Pakistan in the last two months as the US led campaign completely dismantled the state sponsored facilities that were available to Pakistani sectarian terrorists in Afghanistan.

``At every level of the government we used to plead with Taliban not to provide shelter to Pakistani terrorists involved in the murder of dozens of innocent people in their own country,`` recalled a serving inspector general of police, asking not to be named.

Twice since the Taliban take-over of Afghanistan two successive heads of the ISI Lt. Gen. Ziauddin and Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Ahmed had made direct requests with Mullah Omar to let his Arab guests surrender Pakistani terrorists who were openly enjoying the Afghan and Arab hospitality at various locations in Afghanistan.

``The top Taliban leaders contemptuously rejected all such Pakistani requests by demanding the arrest and extradition of all non-Taliban Afghans in Pakistan, ``one Pakistani official said. In ten years between 1991 and 2001 at least 1865 Shias and 810 Sunnis were killed all across Pakistan in cases of sectarian terrorism during which devotees were often ambushed, by the gunmen from opposite groups, while praying in mosques and Imambargahs, according to the figures compiled recently by an intelligence service.

Questioning with the terrorists involved in these incidents had established beyond doubt, senior officials said, that the radical Sunni activists were using Afghanistan as base for their terrorist operations in Pakistan, while the Shia radical were found to have deep ties with various individuals and groups in Iran. ``I was so lucky that Arabs had assigned me guard duties at their camps,`` informed Mir Badshah, a Lashkare Jhangi activist arrested in Karachi early this year for his alleged involvement in the murder of Shia doctors in Karachi. Since May 1995, according to the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), 59 Shia doctors have been killed in targeted shooting in Karachi alone.

``My Arab instructors in Afghanistan inculcated the importance of anti-Shia jihad in me,`` Mir Badshah told his interrogators. Shah was one of the eight Lashkar activists arrested this year for their involvement in Shia specific murders in Karachi.

``Their participation in Afghan jihad and connections with Afghanistan based Arabs was the common factor in all those arrested terrorists,`` said a senior Karachi police officer, who hoped that destruction of terror sanctuaries in Afghanistan would help improve the law and order situation in Pakistan.

``Some times it looked as if the Taliban wanted to scare Shias and moderate Sunnis out of Pakistan to create conducive atmosphere for the Talibanization of Pakistan,`` the Karachi police official observed.

The connection between the radical anti-Shia organizations of Pakistan and Afghanistan based Arabs was uncovered in 1996 following the arrest of Ahmed Yusuf Ramzi, the famous Yemeni terrorist convicted recently for masterminding the first bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York in 1993.

Karachi police investigation in 1996 had revealed that Ramzi, after his escape from New York, was provided shelter in the densely congested neighbourhood of Lyari in Karachi. It was also established that his hiding in Karachi was arranged by a radical anti-Shia religious organization. The arrest of one of Ramziís accomplices identified as Abdul Shakoor had disclosed that a non-Wahabi moderate Sunni leader Salim Qadri was on the hit list of Ramzi during his stay in Karachi. Ramzi had masterminded Salim Qadriís murder, but the plot was aborted after Ramziís arrest by the FBI in Islamabad in 1996.

Almost five years later Salim Qadri was killed along with his son on a busy Karachi street in May this year. Karachi police officials have suspected that Qadri was assassinated by an organization with deep links in Afghanistan. Such was terrorist mastermind Yusuf Ramziís influence over the member of the radical anti-Shia organization in Karachi that one of its leaders took replaced his own sir name with that of Ramzi. Karachi police officials said that Asif Ramzi of Lashkare Jhangvi is wanted for his involvement in the murder of dozens of Shias in Karachi.

Senior Pakistani intelligence officials suspect that the same Pakistani and Afghanistan based Arab nexus was responsible for the still unresolved assassination of four US nationals, working for the Union Texas Oil company, in Karachi in November 1997. The four Americans had been ambushed during morning rush hour in down town Karachi only two days after a US court in Virginia County passed death sentence against Aimal Kansi, a Pakistani from Quetta, for killing two CIA employees outside the agencyís headquarters in Langley in 1993. Same elements were suspected to be involved in the murder of five Iranian Air Force technicians in Rawalpindi in September 1997. The hit-and-run murders of Iranian technicians and American auditors provided clues that both operations had been directed from Afghanistan, but the Taliban administration refused to provide essential information from Kandahar and Kabul.

Not all anti-US terrorist operations in Pakistan have their roots in Afghanistan as it was discovered last year that the activists of a hardcore anti-Sunni organization had launched the rockets that were fired in the direction of the US and UN mission in Islamabad in January 2000.

An Islamabad police investigation, in active FBI collaboration, had discovered that the rocket attack was actually planned by some Iranian citizens in Tehran, who later used the elements in this anti-Sunni organization to execute the operation.

Police and Intelligence sources are now getting the impression that it seemed that Al-Qaeda activists, on the run from Sudan and other places in 1996, were first provided sanctuaries by the elements associated with radical anti-Shia groups in Pakistan.

Although the Karachi police and the federal intelligence agencies never bothered to complete their investigation though it seemed that Al-Qaeda had first established its front business organization in Karachi.

These investigations went astray after the federal intelligence agents failed trace one Munir Madni, a suspected Saudi national and a resident of Bahadarabad in Karachi in 1996. Evidence confirmed that Ramzi Ahmed Yusuf through Munir Madni had established a front import-export company that used to get multi-million rupees gift of ``Aabe Zam Zam`` from Saudi Arabia. At one point in 1997 the same front company generated about Rs 7 million by selling the Holy Water. The money was later gifted by Ramzi Yusuf to finance Saudi extremist groups, according to a Pakistani employee of that company.

Pakistani officials are now hoping that with the dismantling of terrorist sanctuaries in Afghan, there would be significant decline in the cases of sectarian terrorism with a visible improvement in the law and order situation in Pakistan.

70% of Greeks Beleive Bin Laden was NOT Behind the WTC attack.

In Greece, they burn US flags and jeer the minute`s silence for New York`s terror victims. Helena Smith on the most anti-American country in Europe

``What was wrong with those attacks,`` says the upright Greek businessman speaking of 11 September, ``was that they didn`t happen at night. If they had happened then, the towers and perhaps even the Pentagon would have been empty.``

The businessman, let`s call him Giorgos, has one of those pleasant, open faces. He wears a European Commission flag pinned to his lapel, and is explaining, quite calmly, how the average Athenian sees the day that changed the world.

``In Greece,`` he murmurs in a matter-of-fact way, ``we regard this as a textbook case of David versus Goliath. America is overly arrogant and it needed to be brought down to earth. The attacks were the consequence of all its sins - Kosovo, Korea, Vietnam and Cyprus, a classic case of American double standards; 11 September was a taste of its own medicine.``

In the birthplace of democracy - Nato`s strategic arm in the south-eastern Mediterranean and Euroland`s most recent addition - Giorgos`s views are not unusual. If anything, they are rather tame.

From the moment the twin towers came tumbling down, the Greeks took a decidedly different approach to the tragedy and the ensuing attack on Afghanistan - one that, once again, highlights the divide that separates this country from the rest of the west. While London and Washington were still fretting about forging a common global front against terror, anti-war rallies across Greece offered evidence that it may have been prudent to examine the EU`s inner sanctum first.

Repeatedly, Hellenes topped international league tables in their lack of sympathy for post-attack America. Fewer Greeks supported the US-led war than did Palestinians. Midway through the campaign, polls showed that eight in ten were vehemently opposed to the air strikes, fearing the quest for justice would turn into one of revenge. The vast majority agreed with Iran, and other Middle Eastern states, that they were being prosecuted solely to ``promote the west`s powerful interests``.

The news of Kabul`s fall was greeted with immediate scepticism: Uncle Sam, opined one Greek commander formerly attached to Nato, was clearly hoping American troops would establish a foothold in the country.

Over dinner that night, a Greek doctor asked me if I really believed Osama Bin Laden was truly behind the worst terrorist attack in history. After all, he noted, a nationwide poll in Greece had revealed two riveting facts: that only 29.6 per cent of his compatriots thought the Saudi-born fugitive had masterminded the attacks, and that 35.9 per cent were convinced the carnage was the work of the CIA - if it wasn`t a Zionist plot engineered by Mossad (7.7 per cent).

``Why does Blair, that well-known gay, think he knows best?`` the doctor inquired gruffly. ``Doesn`t he realise that there are some places in Europe where there has been hardly any support for this so-called war?``

In Greece, support has not only been minimal; anti-Americanism has been growing by the day.

My neighbourhood is now daubed with swastika-adorned slogans that scream: ``Fu/ck the USA!`` For the first time in years, commemorations marking the 17 November student uprising - the event that triggered the collapse of seven miserable years of US-backed military rule in 1974 - were unexpectedly well attended.

As I write this, the slogans of roughly 7,000 angry men and women waft through my windows. ``Down with Bush!`` they chant. ``Down with Ameri-cans, the murderers of children! No to Nato`s imperialist war!``

Admittedly, those who bother to attend such rallies are, by their own definition, marginalised supporters of the KKE (the Communist Party of Greece), which led similar opposition to the alliance`s bombardment of Serbia in 1999. But unlike any other EU country, what the protesters mirror is the mainstream view. The Greeks are as instinctively anti-western as they are naturally conspiratorial. As a result, anti-Americanism has not only dominated the nation`s political discourse, but it has been cultivated by vote-seekers for decades; 11 September has shown that this is still true.

While the socialist government in Athens has been at pains to assert its unstinting support for Washington - providing military facilities and even despatching the foreign minister, George Papandreou, to central Asia at Colin Powell`s behest - the Greek public, mindful of the old rhetoric, has voiced radically different views.

One poll showed that 30 per cent of the population felt justice had been served. Another poll showed that about 25 per cent of respondents felt ``satisfied``, even ``pleased``, by the assault. Echoing that sentiment, one prominent conservative commentator compared the culprits to the heroes of Greece`s 1821 war of independence.

The most embarrassing display of anti-Americanism came two days after the attacks, when Greek football fans attending an Athens soccer match against Scotland jeered through the minute`s silence in memory of the terror victims. The doughty Scots looked on aghast as they destroyed an Israeli flag and then attempted to burn the Stars and Stripes in the stands. ``I could not believe such anti-American feeling in a European country,`` said Alex McLeish, the coach of the Scottish team.

Disgusted Greek Americans, many of whom are tireless lobbyists, say they will now be boycotting the 2004 Athens Olympics. ``We condemn and reject the shameless and baseless insults and blatant slander of fellow Greeks in the motherland,`` the Federation of Greek Associations of Greater New York snapped in a blistering statement.

``I just don`t get it,`` says John Sitilides, who heads the Washington-based Western Policy Center. ``Greece is surrounded on three sides by Muslim populations which have in them pockets of extremism. It is the western country most in danger of a terrorist threat when it holds the Olympics. Any international effort that weakens terrorism is actually to Greece`s benefit, but that has not sunk in.``

Analysts point to the Greeks` delicate geopolitical position as citizens of a Christian buffer state, at the crossroads of east and west. Half a century may have elapsed since Greece`s bloody civil war of 1946-49, but the left has still not forgiven America for its support of the right and subsequent mischief-making to keep the communists out.

Throughout the 1950s, and with US blessing, emboldened right-wing governments became increasingly repressive, so much so that tens of thousands of leftists were either imprisoned in concentration camps or exiled on isolated Aegean islands. Memories of the ruthless 1967-74 dictatorship and ensuing Turkish invasion of Cyprus are also vivid - even if Bill Clinton eventually apologised for Washington`s ``failure to support democracy``.

Leftist anger is understandable. What is less so is the anti- Americanism now being espoused by the political right. Earlier this month, the youth wing of the main opposition New Democracy party splashed the burning twin towers across posters advertising a ``once in a lifetime`` event.

Increasingly, right-wingers have come to equate nationalism with anti-Americanism. According to polls, over 50 per cent of Greek conservatives now ``hate`` Uncle Sam. American policies in the Balkans are partly to blame. Goaded by the dogmatic Archbishop of Athens, Christodoulos, Greeks of all persuasions see the superpower as the root cause of the plight of their Serbian co-religionists, and the ill repute of Eastern Orthodoxy in general.

``The assault on America was the work of God`s wrath,`` boomed the telegenic Christodoulos shortly after the attack.

Across the board, Hellenes live in fear of Washington now exerting ``unbearable`` pressure on them to root out their own terrorists, not least the 17 November group. To boot, many see the Orthodox Church as the embodiment of Greece`s defensive national identity - the only bulwark left against the threat of multiculturalism, now symbolised by the US-style yuppies who work for multinationals, drive Jeeps and wield their mobiles like firearms.

If 11 September has proved anything, it is that most Greeks remain mentally disengaged from the west. They see the world from the perspective of the Middle East. So why not place them in the Middle East as well?

``Perhaps the time has come to stop seeing Greece as a western country,`` writes Takis Michas in his forthcoming book The Unholy Alliance: Greece and Milosevic`s Serbia during the 1990s. After all, he notes, Greece offers the best evidence yet that economic growth and modernisation do not necessarily lead to westernisation. Or to loving Uncle Sam.

Helena Smith is the Guardian`s Athens correspondent

© The Author © New Statesman Ltd. 2001. All rights reserved. Please contact the publisher.

The New Statesman is registered as a newspaper in the UK and the USA

Poonawala: Welcome to chowk and thanks for expressing your views. I hope you continue to interact intellectually. In order to understand Pakistani dilemma, you must understand the roots of the problems. They are multi-layered. The three tiers of causes, in order of prefreence, could be summed up as follow:

1. Islam and Military (Army in particular)

2. Poor and manipulated education, lower literacy level, lower role of women in society, run away population growth rate, Kashmir, jihad/ Taliban, Bhutto`s (Z. A.) nationalization, Feudalism, corruption and Saudi involvement.

3. Ineptitude of leadership, lower IQ of NS, Obstinate BB and AH`s like Zia, Musharraf, Aslam Beg, Hamid Gul,.........

If you go through the list of second and third tier problems, you would notice their linkage to first tier problems. For example over-population, denigrated role of women, illiteracy, jihad and Saudi involvement in Pakistani affairs are linked to Islam. I am not interested in discussing if this is real Islam or not. I see it as a cause of our several problems. It has failed us every step of the way during the last 50+ years. It has divided us more often than uniting us. It has nothing to offer for modern civil society. We should not keep wasting our time and energy experimenting with Iqbal, then Shariati, then some mulla model.

Military eats up big chunk of nationa l budget every year in return for providing AH`s rulers and retired military administrators and columnists. Besides military corruption, they are responsible by producing corrupt politicians and destroying democratic institutions. Monetary corruption in Pakistan was started with Ayub Khan and his family. He created Bhutto with Shah of Iran backing. Another AH, Zia created Sharifs with Saudi backing. The political corruption is actually a moot issue compared to the destruction of political institutions, military budget and wrong policies of military dictators.

BB ramblings are similar to Islamic rhetorics. When out of power or underdog, both BB and Islam provide plenty of mirch masala to arouse fervor against the dominant forces. But when actually in power, both BB and Islam fall flat because one behaves as a stubborn aristocrat and the other a mediaeval Arabian tribe.

Now in the current political situation in Pakistan, it is almost certain that a free election will reault in BB`s PPP bagging most seats because of PML divide and the baggage of being King`s party. PML will lose more vote by supporting Musharraf then opposing him. The NS faction of PML is even nore pro-Saudi Arabia then he ever was, for obvious reason. It also includes Pakistani head of another Saudi Organization called Mohtamir Alam-e-Islami. The guy, Raja Zafar-Ul-Haque is VP or acting president of NS faction.

Musharraf wants to keep BB out; any other person from PPP is acceptable. However, if that does not materialize, military will still prefer another Sharif, SS, over BB. They might try to induce him (without his brother NS) into politics against BB and her PPP. A united PML under SS will beat PPP but a sweap by PML will cost Musharraf his chair as COAS and presidency soon to follow. In any fair elections, Musharraf is history, either with BB or SS. That is why, I feel that he might not go for a free and fair election or amend the constitution prior to election in such a way as to render the whole exercise of democracy and elections useless.

Musharraf is a person who can not be trusted not because he is not patriiotic Pakistani but because he is stupid and like Saddam Hussain, reaction to his actions over time is more severe and harmful. From refusing to honor Inidan Prime minister in Pakistan to Kargill to coup to Agra summits, exactly opposite of his decisions would have been better for Pakistan. Now he is trying for a three point proposal with Saudi Arabia about Afghanistan. Having failed there due to sudden collapse of Taliban, now it is Iran-Pakistan joint proposal - you bring your supporters in Herat and Shia Hazara and we will bring in Pathans, keeping the NA out. I wonder after this it might be Pakistan-Uganda proposal - you bring in Idi Amin and we bring in Hameed Gul.

A better than usual relationship with India would have gone long way- from approaching Northern Alliance to saving few phridom phyters of Pakistani origin. You do not hear this from Radio Romair: it has been playing the same song over and over that ush made the smart decision with latest being the smartest. More the itching and dermititus, smarter the decisions or should I say more you force him in the corner, better it is.

RSaxena:

“...there are plenty of innocuous things governments can do...setup a joint arts committee to promote and fund performances and exhibits in each others countries...create a body of economists to figure out ways to increase trade...sign a no-war pact (unless you plan to attack, why would you not want that?)...”

…next you’re going to suggest that we all hold hands and sing that old favorite of yours, kumbayah…:)

“...i don`t know if the BCCI was asked or if at that point it was clear that it wasn`t an isolated incident (as opposed to the seemingly racial basis the whole problem has now acquired)....”

….john reid and what’s going on with sohaib are definitely not isolated incidents….that’s why i’m glad the pcb has decided to support the bcci on this one…now if only they’d return the favor and tour pak….we’ll go easy on ‘em….i promise…;)

Urstruly # 287

“The fact that Pakistanis have died in Afghanistan means that they mean business.”

..the fact that pakistanis died in afghanistan means that they were ignorant and naïve enough to fall for the rhetoric of the mullahs who, may i add, didn’t feel the pressing need to fight the jihad they sermonized and meet their houris in heaven…(except that sufi mohammad guy, who thank God, is in jail….)

“Again the argument is based on wrong premise that Taliban had forsaken Pakistanis. No. The Talibans only laid down their weapons in Kunduz (and Mizar-e-Sharif) when Northern Alliance & UN promised an amnesty (sparing lives) to all fighters – domestic & foreign. It is NA who didn’t follow through its promises (twice).”

…..the taliban didn’t forsake the pakistanis??….just recently, they showed an interview of a tribal leader on ptv…he talked about disillusioned and bitter jihadis returning from afghanistan…they told stories of how the taliban stole their watches, arms, money etc and left them to rot….and the taliban laid down their arms ONLY to save their fetid sings….they knew defeat when they saw it…not for the love of any foreign fighters…

Romair:

“All 36 of them, united on one platform, with an American assault going on in the neighborhood, could not attract more than a few thousand Pakistanis onto the streets, during their current demonstrations. The only people on the streets were their own hardline supporters”

….wanna bet how many wouldn’t have been protesting but for the free meal promised to them?…

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re 333

Doctor sahib, I agree with much of what your posts indicate. But I suspect you`re getting carried away by the novelty of an ex-PM of Pakistan saying things that MS Bhutto is right now:

``Benazir Bhutto is emerging as a true leader for the peoples of South Asia.``

She cannot even keep her own government in office(her own party President dismissed her the last time). Not quite S Asia leader material yet.

`` As the article showsl, she embraces the truth and is a courageous and principled woman.``

Even the most hardcore PPP people will not agree with that. She, like the NS, bled the country dry. That takes little courage and less principle.

`` What a contrast to Musharaf, a dictator who sold out the Taliban and lied about Kargil.``

Dictator? Haven`t you heard the Pakistanis crow as to how he is the most beloved leader in S Asia for the some people:)

`` I hope that People of Pakistan choose this great Woman over a lying, two timing cheat who sold his best friends to the Americans.``

They did twice. Didn`t exactly help them.

`` Benazir will restore honour to the People of Pakistan and will make peace with India.``

I`ll drink to that hope.

re mohajir 326

It is ironic that we are being asked about Geneva Convention protections for the Taleban. Reminds me of the man, convicted of patricide, seeking the mercy of the judge on the grounds of being an orphan.

Re: All

Please read the following article in The News, ``Wanted Pak terrorists killed or trapped in Kunduz`` just to get an idea how much the Taliban appreciated Pakistan.

Urstruly, I have a question for, which a friend of mine emailed me from the United States and I was wondering if you could answer it for me?

He asked the question of who is a good Muslim and later replied himself...``a dead Muslim``.

Do you agree or disagree that that the Taliban have done more to damage Islam than any other group or nation? A simple ``yes`` or ``no`` would suffice just fine.

Ciao

Re: Urstruly # 312

Go ahead, if you can tear it apart, be my guest!:)

Secondly, you did not answer my question, why are you living in the west, when you hate everything the west stands for? I would have thought that you would have liked to live in the Middle East with like minded people. Maybe, the money is better in the west, with all the other freedoms... :)

Ciao

shammi #324 #323
Re spin on %-ages

In a commercial airliner with 2 pilots and 200 passengers, just 1% of the population have absolute control over the rest. The possibly suicidal Egypt Air pilot was 0.5% of the population and caused the irreversible demise of 100% of the population.

The Pakistani Army constitutes less than 0.5% of the population. A single military dictator plus say 10 corp commanders constitute 0.0000066% of the population.

When talking of exclusive access to the controls, its a matter of special privileges in the cockpit, not of representation. %ages donot make sense here.

Studebaker #310: Why is Benazir so popular in India, when she completely destroyed Pakistan? Her acts are all opportunistic. They have nothing to do with bravery. She would be brave if she straightened out her own corruption, and the corruption present in her own party.

She plays to the crowds outside Pakistan, and says things those crowds want to here, even if it is destructive to Pakistan. Good leaders never wash their dirty laundry outdoors. I cannot imagine Al Gore going outside the USA to denouce George Bush`s policies.

There should be only one criteria to judge the performance and character of Benazir, i.e. how honestly and competently she ran the affairs of Pakistan. We all know the answers to that.

Benazir and Nawaz have been discredited in nearly all countries of the world, except India. I have a feeling both of them will always be popular in India, for all the wrong reasons.

Re: Urstruly #313

Urstruly to Romair: ``...RECENTLY you have changed your normal course and started believing and creating myths.``

HeeHee...that`s a riot!

Among his other RECENT beliefs: Things are looking good for Pakistan because American aid to Afghanistan will `come thru Pakistan`!

Benazir Bhutto is emerging as a true leader for the peoples of South Asia. As the article showsl, she embraces the truth and is a courageous and principled woman. What a contrast to Musharaf, a dictator who sold out the Taliban and lied about Kargil. I hope that People of Pakistan choose this great Woman over a lying, two timing cheat who sold his best friends to the Americans. Benazir will restore honour to the People of Pakistan and will make peace with India.

Bravo Benazir.

Musharraf planned Kargil when I was PM’

Vir Sanghvi

(New Delhi, November 29)





In an exclusive interview, Benazir Bhutto demolished General Pervez Musharraf`s claim that Kargil was a mujahideen operation. Ms Bhutto confirmed that when she was Prime Minister, General Musharraf had presented the same blueprint for an invasion of Kargil in the shape of a `war-game`.

``I put my foot down,`` Ms Bhutto recalled. ``I said that if anything like this happens, it will be a big setback for Pakistan. We will be forced to withdraw.``

Though she said that she wanted to be ``careful`` not to damage Pakistan`s strategic interests, Ms Bhutto said that the army regularly presented such scenarios to her but that she always turned them down.

In the event, General Musharraf went ahead with the Kargil invasion after she was ousted from office and he became Army Chief. The result, she said, was that ``we were humiliated. We were forced to withdraw by the world community. We were shamed.``

Worse still, said Ms Bhutto, ``so many young men lost their lives. And their bodies were not taken back by us. There should be an investigation as to who was responsible``.

Ms Bhutto`s remarks are certain to anger President Musharraf because they destroy Pakistan`s claim that its army was not involved in Kargil. Ms Bhutto suggests that the General refused to accept the bodies of dead Pakistani soldiers for fear of having to admit that it was an official army operation that went disastrously wrong.

The interview, recorded for the Star TV programme Star Talk, (due to be telecast next month) marks Ms Bhutto`s strongest-ever attack on General Musharraf and the Pakistan army. In addition to the Kargil revelation, she also accused Pakistani interests of sponsoring Osama bin Laden and the Taliban and of introducing foreign militants into Kashmir.

According to Ms Bhutto, ``In 1989, after the Afghan jehad was over, Osama bin Laden had gone back to Saudi Arabia to pick up the pieces of his life. But he was called back to Pakistan to funnel money to overthrow my government.``

She did not deny that her government had looked favourably towards the Taliban in 1996 but claimed that the present situation arose out of the desire of Pakistani generals to meddle in Afghanistan. As far back as 1989, she claimed, the Pakistan army wanted to invade Afghanistan and overthrow the Najibullah government. But, she added, ``I refused to give permission.``

During her second term, she said, ``the Taliban had signed an agreement with the Northern Alliance in November 1996.`` That agreement allowed for power-sharing. ``Two days after the agreement was signed,`` she recalled, ``my government was overthrown and the Taliban was hijacked by Islamabad and Al Qaeda``.

She was ``very distressed``, she said, ``by persistent reports`` to the effect that there were Pakistani soldiers fighting for the Taliban in Kunduz and other parts of Afghanistan. ``There should be an inquiry,`` she insisted. ``Who are these soldiers? Are they serving members of the armed forces? Retired? Decommissioned? We need an inquiry.``

In Ms Bhutto`s view, power in Pakistan has passed from the ISI (``a state within a state``) to a coterie of retired generals who were in power during the Afghan operation. In those days, the generals controlled the army and the ISI: ``They set up madrasas all over Pakistan with ISI funds. These madrasas produced fighters who were sent to Afghanistan.``

Now, she said, these generals had retired but still called the shots, influencing appointments in the ISI and the army. They believed in theocracy and ran private militias. These militias, she suggested, included ``the Jaish-e-Mohammed, the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.``

``The Lashkar-e-Tayyeba are prime suspects in sectarian killings and in the killings of minorities in Pakistan,`` she said. These militias were now being infiltrated into Kashmir to create violence there.

``I find it very sad,`` she said, ``that the All Party Hurriyat Conference, which is a Kashmiri body, has been sidelined.`` It was the foreign groups which held press conferences and hogged the limelight.

As Prime Minister, Ms Bhutto recalled, she had little or no control over the army. Her own conversations were bugged by the ISI and then leaked to the press and the generals would not listen to her. The Pakistani army, she said, always claimed that civilian politicians were corrupt.

``But what about corruption in the army?`` she asked. ``All their sons are multi-millionaires. My ministers are being prosecuted for awarding contracts for which there were tenders. But the General awards contracts without even asking for tenders. ``

In a scathing critique of the army brass, she said: ``Every time a general is in power we lose something.`` But no general, she said, was ever held accountable. ``No general has got up and said `I`m sorry we committed genocide in 1971`. Even the inquiry report into the fall of Dhaka is still suppressed. ``

The genocide in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), she suggested, was symptomatic of the army brass. ``Whether it`s corruption or genocide, there is no accountability.``

She knew, she said, that her remarks would anger the army in Islamabad. ``They are already foaming at the mouth about what I have said in India.`` But she did not see why this should be so.

``General Musharraf says he wants good relations with India. He should give me a pat on the back for paving the way``.



OTHER STORIES

I am deeply concerned about India`s cooperation with Israel, a militant theocracy that turns its powerful arms on the innocent and weak. Nevertheless the arcticle makes an important point: Kashmir and Palestine cannot be compared. Kashmiris are and will always be Indians. Palestinians are not and will never be Israelis. Israel is a rogue state. India must be wary of the moral implications of partnership with the Zionist state.

Dr. Ali Akbar Poonawala

from Hindustan Times

Israel on Thursday said it considered Kashmir an integral part of India and called for closer cooperation between New Delhi, Washington and Tel Aviv to combat their ``common enemy - Muslim extremism.``

``Kashmir is part of India and it cannot be equated with Palestine which is occupied territory. Unlike Kashmiris, Palestinians are not citizens of Israel,`` Nawaz Mazalha, Member of the Israeli Parliament Knesset told reporters here.

Mazalha is part of the four member parliamentary delegation currently visiting India.

Leader of the delegation Amnon Rubinstein said it was imperative that India, US and Israel ``co-operate in defence and peace making`` as they will be the first targets in the event of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons falling into the hands of Muslims extremists.

The delegation, which had meetings with senior Indian leaders, expressed happiness over the ``increasing cooperation between the two countries in the fields of defence and matters of security because of identical interests.``

Drawing similarities between the two countries, another delegation member Tomy Lapid said both had substantial Muslim minority and both were victims of Muslim terrorists supported by neighbouring Muslim countries.

Pointing out that not a single democracy existed between New Delhi and Jerusalem, the delegation called for closer trade and people to people relations between the two nations.

Mushharraf versus Vajpai

-----english-``educated`` versus Hindi-learned------

-His Master`s Voice(english) versus His Peoples` Voice(Hindi)-

-Secular munafique versus religiously uprighteous-



Please judge for yourself where is the ``Me-Tall`` and where lies the Mettle.

(It takes a lot of catharritic soul-searching to tell the truth even if it goes against your own, especially to praise an avowed foe).

________________________________________________

From the Friday Times by HasanAli Shahzab

(Excerpt only:Last paragraph)

The growing frustration is increasingly directed against the government of Pakistan and some Hollywood style community leaders. It is estimated that there are between 600,000 to 800,000 Pakistanis living in the US. Pakistan`s financial planners hope that the Pakistani Diaspora will come forward, invest in the economy and turn the country around. West-trained economists who are now working for the Pakistan government keep reminding expatriate Pakistanis of the miracle of Chinese and the Brazilian Americans of the past two decades. They also point to the most recent experience of Indian Americans who have opened their purse for their motherland and made a significant change. But Islamabad should notice the differences too. When an Indian Sikh was killed in a hate crime just after Sept 11 due to mistaken identity, the Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee made a telephone call to President Bush and raised his concern about the safety of the Indian community in the US. General Musharraf did not feel the urgency to raise the issue. Perhaps it was not in the ``national interest?``