By Imran Khan

Before the West invaded Afghanistan my country had no suicide bombers, no jihad and no Talebanisation.

There is now a general recognition that the war in Afghanistan cannot be won militarily. All the Taleban have to do to win is not to lose. The Americans won’t stay and everybody knows that.

The focus has come to rest on the inevitable need to talk with all the militant groups in Afghanistan. While most important players are ready to talk peace, the US remains confused and has still to straighten out its policy. This confusion is once again taking its toll, especially on Pakistan.

As the US and Nato realise the failure of their military policy in Afghanistan, they are seeking to shift the centre of gravity of the war into the north west of Pakistan, the region known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). One of the fears raised in the West at the prospect of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan is that it will lead to a Taleban- controlled nuclear Pakistan. That fear betrays a total ignorance about the evolution of the Taleban movement as well as the impact of the War on Terror on Pakistan.

Remember, there was no Pakistani involvement in 9/11. Nor throughout the period of the Taleban regime in Kabul was there Talebanisation in Pakistan .

When the Americans were drawing up their military response to the 9/11 attacks, they drew up a list of seven conditions for Pakistan to meet to attract US support. The assumption was that General Pervez Musharraf, the former President of Pakistan, might agree to three or four. Instead he unilaterally signed up for the lot. These conditions were a total violation of the human rights of the people of Pakistan and the sovereignty of the country.

This was a leader with whom President Clinton had refused to shake hands when he came to Pakistan before 9/11, for fear of being seen to support a dictator. It was quite shameless how the Pakistani leadership capitulated and how the US gave Musharraf the embrace of legitimacy. This was reminiscent of the Cold War era when tinpot dictators were routinely supported by the US.

In 2004 Pakistan’s Government sent troops into Waziristan, where al-Qaeda was allegedly present. I was one of the only politicians from outside the tribal areas who had been to Waziristan and I opposed the move in Pakistan’s Parliament. Anyone who knows the region and its history could see it would be a disaster.

Until that point we had no militant Taleban in Pakistan. We had militant groups, but our own military establishment was able to control them. We had madrassas, but none of them produced militants intent on jihad until we became a front-line state in the War on Terror.

The country is fighting someone else’s war. We never had suicide bombings in our history until 2004. Now we have 30 to 40 deaths a day from shells or bombings and the suicide attacks continue to increase. While we have received about $15 billion in aid from the US, our own economy has lost about $50 billion.

We have borrowed a record amount of money from the International Monetary Fund, which was only given to us because of our role in the war, not because we could afford to pay it back. Our social and economic fabric is being destroyed because of the conditions that the IMF has imposed.

Millions of our people have been displaced and a massive radicalisation of our youth has taken place as they see the Pakistani state becoming a puppet doing US bidding. The military operations by Pakistan in FATA have led to 40,000 casualties in indiscriminate aerial bombardment and ground fire.

The attacks by US drones, in which the Government of Pakistan is complicit, have also killed thousands of civilians, leading to a growing hatred becoming embedded among the local population. There is deep resentment of the war in the frontier regions, where high unemployment feeds the discontent.

The war in Afghanistan is justified as a stabilising force for Pakistan, whereas in truth the country is collapsing under the pressure. We are like Cambodia in the Vietnam War. After the Wikileaks revelations yesterday reports are being floated that the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence service, is aiding the Afghan militancy. The fact is that the ISI is not that powerful, but certainly in an environment of chaos and uncertainty Pakistan will need to protect its interests through all means necessary.

It is unfortunate that the US was unable to use the window of opportunity that it had in the immediate aftermath of the removal of the Taleban Government in late 2001. It could have brought in a truly broad-based Afghan government and invested in the development of the country. Instead, it continued its military actions and brought corrupt and criminal elements into power in Kabul.

Pakistan, supposedly an ally of the US, is bearing the brunt of American failure in Afghanistan. A recent poll showed that 80 per cent of Pakistanis consider the US a bigger threat to their country than India. Nor is this view about the US solely because of the “War on Terror”. Pakistanis also blame the US for brokering the “National Reconciliation Order”, which was intended to sustain Musharraf in power while also bringing rogue Pakistani politicians back into the political landscape.

The result is a total collapse of governance in Pakistan today. There is no danger of Talebanisation in Pakistan but there is a very real threat of chaos and radicalisation, especially of the youth.

There is only one solution to this chaos. This is to implement an immediate ceasefire and commence talks with all militant groups in Afghanistan. Either America leaves or Pakistan withdraws from this war.

The US should not worry about Pakistan. Once the bombing stops, it will no longer be jihad and the suicide attacks will immediately subside. About 18 months ago the former head of the CIA’s Kabul station, Graham Fuller, wrote in the

International Herald Tribune that once the US leaves the region Pakistan will be stable.

Political leaders in the US and UK should realise that people in the streets of New York and London are not threatened by the people in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan but by the growing radicalisation of their own marginalised Muslim youth.

(The article first appeared in The Times UK. Imran Khan is the founder and chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (the Movement for Justice Party. )

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The Mohmand attack toll has risen to 102 with most of the 112 injured in critical condition.

The Pakistani Taliban (a derivative of the Afghan Taliban) have claimed responsibility for the deadly suicide attack on Friday that took place in Mohmand Agency, part of northwest Pakistan called Fata.

Fata and Afghanistan share common border – called the Durand Line.

A TTP spokesman calling himself Ikramullah Mohmand told Geo News from an unknown destination that the blast targeted members of Ambar Peace Committee who were present at the moment at the office of the Assistant Political Agent.

According to reports, a suicide bomber riding a motorbike blew himself up yesterday as hundreds of people were gathered around the office of a senior government official, Rasool Khan, the region’s assistant political agent.

The attack took place outside Khan’s office, Khan told reporters.

The bomber struck when people were gathered around Khan’s office which is located in the Mohmand Pashtun tribal region near the Pak-Afghan border, it has emerged.

The army and security forces have stepped up attacks on Taliban militants in the region in recent weeks.

The blast is said to have damaged dozens of cars and about 30 shops, including two hotels.

Television footage showed victims being pulled out of the debris.

The powerful explosion also caused Yakkaghand jail to collapse, allowing 35 prisoners to escape, witnesses and reports said.

By Shahid Husain

DALLAS: Eminent Pakistani scientist and social activist Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy has said that though Faisal Shehzad failed to detonate a bomb in New York’s Times Square, many Faisal Shehzads were in line in Pakistan and one of them might be successful. He made the observation while delivering a keynote lecture at the three-day American-Pakistan Physicians Association (APPNA) where some 4,000 physicians assembled in a 5-star hotel in Dallas, Texas.

“There was a state of denial” when the news broke about the failed Times Square adventure, said Hoodbhoy. It was speculated that it was a grand CIA programme to defame Pakistan but now it has been admitted by Shehzad himself in a court of law that he got training from a Taliban group and “believed that there is a war between Islam and the US”.

Hoodbhoy pointed out that Shehzad was not somebody who was unsuccessful in society.

Hoodbhoy admitted that the US has been “unkind” and demonstrated brutality in Vietnam, Iraq and other places. “The US had no business in Iraq,” he remarked. He said the “conflict is universal” and pointed out that in Pakistan, the Army was engaged in military action in Balochistan and the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (Fata).

He said drones could see even the numberplates of a moving car and the damage was not comparable to highly destructive bombers used by the US in Vietnam but despite immense sufferings, Vietnam didn’t send suicide bombers to the US.

Hoodbhoy went on to say that every mosque in Pakistan was guarded by people with machine guns yet they had not been successful to preventing suicide bombing. He said now the minority Shia community and Barelvis were so scared that they had completely changed their religious routines.

“Another 9/11 is unimaginable,” Hoodbhoy cautioned.

He argued that the present war was not a war between Islam and the West. “We have to stop the poison that is pouring out of our Masajid and Madrassas,” he said. If you will be teaching what was being taught in Pakistan, there would be hundreds of Faisal Shahzads.

Another speaker Imam Zia Sheikh said as Muslims we were at the crossroads, particularly after 9/11. They (the terrorists) take gullible people and brainwash them, he pointed out.

“It’s important to counter this; to teach our children correct Islam,” he said. The issue has become very complex, particularly due to suicide bombing phenomenon, he said. He claimed that 99.9 per cent of our scholars condemned suicide bombing. “Sectarian violence is also a huge issue in Pakistan,” he said. “This is completely against Sunnah,” he observed. Talking to The News the other day when it was pointed out that citing an American think tank the prestigious American newspaper Los Angeles Times wrote recently that the “Long War” would continue for 70 to 80 years and was all about energy, Hoodbhoy preferred to remain silent. (The News)