The True Obsession of Pakistan!

I have often stated this. Now even the Paki press are publishing it.

Pervez Musharraf may be an American ally against terror, but his military continues to allow certain Islamist extremist groups to be trained at military-style camps in Pakistan.

The camps are used by Pakistan-based militant groups such as Jaish-e-Muhammad (Army of Muhammad) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (Army of the Pure). The chief culprit in the double-headed game has been the Pakistani Inter-Services (or Joint) Intelligence Directorate. It actually nurtures those groups and uses them to attack India.

As I averred before, it’s all about their principal obsession, Kashmir. Their chief target is India, and not so much the Americans. But since the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, these groups are quite happy to conduct a little extra targeting of the US (and other European) military or citizens and property in Afghanistan and Europe (and perhaps the USA) as well.

Prior to the American invasion of Afghanistan, the Pakistani government had considered the Talibans as part of its strategic reserves, and the territory of Afghanistan as its strategic space in depth. Strategic ‘space in depth’ means that, should India, a far larger and more powerful nation, choose to invade Pakistan in a war, the Pakistani would be able to withdraw or retreat into Afghanistan but continue to fight back, making it difficult for the Indian armed forces to corner it. In other words, the Talibans and Afghanistan are part and parcel of a ‘Greater’ Pashtun Pakistan.

While the Pakistani government might have demonstrated to the Americans it has been hunting down Arab and other non-Pakistani al Qaeda militants, it has silently refused to do so with their kinfolks, the Afghan Talibans or the Pakistan-based terrorist groups. The Pakistani security services even have those groups renamed themselves so as to avoid western or Indian monitoring and tracking of them and their activities.

The 2 countries that will cause headaches for the USA and Europe will be Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, ironically so-called US’ allies. Don’t forget what were the nationalities of most of the attackers on 9/11. Next time, the Americans may see the Paki-Pashtuns as well, as the Brits already have.