Author: Husain Haqqani
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: February 27, 2002
URL: http://www.indian-express.com/ie20020227/op3.html
The barbaric murder of Wall Street
Journal reporter Daniel Pearl confirms my fear Pakistan's transition from
an ally of extremist Islamists to a modern Muslim state will not come about
without a fight.
Pearl's kidnapping and murder are
just warning shots. The inability of Pakistan's law enforcement agencies
to solve the mystery of this brutal crime or to arrest all identified suspects
is worrisome. So are the stories about Pakistani officials previously ignoring
the activities of the chief suspect Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed. The United
States apparently demanded the extradition of Sheikh in November last year.
If he had been arrested and extradited then, it might have been possible
to avert Pearl's murder.
There are numerous unanswered questions
about the Pearl murder and the people behind it. Most of these questions
lead us to mistakes committed by successive Pakistani governments in tolerating,
even encouraging, extremists in the hope that they will contribute to the
struggle in Jammu and Kashmir.
But as the moral code of all religions
including Islam explains, wrong means never lead to good ends. Having turned
a blind eye in the past to the wrong means of volunteer militias organised
in the name of jihad, Pakistan's government must now contend with the covert
operations of these groups against its own authority. General Pervez Musharraf's
stated vision of Pakistan's future as a moderate state will not be achieved
until the past that glorified the likes of Sheikh Omar is not confronted.
General Musharraf has taken several
steps in the right direction since September 11, especially after his speech
of January 12. But he must now build momentum for an all out assault against
lawless militant groups, even if that exposes links between these groups
and government policies from the past.
General Musharraf and his closest
colleagues tried their best to ensure Pearl's recovery alive but obviously
their best did not prove good enough. The inefficiency of law enforcement
agencies and their reluctance to take on certain groups and individuals
appears to be the major obstacle in suppressing extremists. The general
will succeed only if he makes no exceptions.
Given Pakistan's Islamic ethos,
the country cannot and should not be expected to emulate Kemal Ataturk's
Turkey. But it certainly needs to deal with individuals and groups that
think that beheading an American journalist in the most inhumane manner
somehow advances the cause of Islam. The establishment cannot afford to
cover the tracks of those who, until September 11, condoned or encouraged
''unconventional fighters'', known by the world as terrorists.
Once a clean break from the murky
past has been made, it will be easier for General Musharraf to steer the
nation towards the future he says he seeks.
Take the case of Sheikh Omar: now
believed to be a mastermind behind the Pearl kidnapping, he came to Pakistan
after being released from an Indian prison as a result of the hijacking
of IC-814 in December 1999. He apparently moved around with ease between
Afghanistan and Pakistan and helped mentor, Maulana Masood Azhar, in organising
the Jaish-e-Muhammad, which has only recently been banned by Musharraf.
Azhar was himself released on demand
of the hijackers of flight IC-814. Given the fact that Azhar and Sheikh
Omar had been released as a result of a terrorist act, neither should have
enjoyed the freedom of action that enabled them to organise a new militant
movement. Jaish-e-Muhammad drew most members from Harkatul Mujahideen,
which had been accused of kidnapping American and British citizens in India.
In the year 2000, I recall reading
about a press conference by Harkat in which severed heads allegedly belonging
to Indian troops were shown to journalists as proof of a ''successful militant
operation''. Sheikh's record, and the brutality involved in bringing back
heads as trophies, should have caused some alarm in Islamabad's corridors
of power. It did not at the time, leaving these dangerous persons free
to kidnap and kill Daniel Pearl.
The government should not have ignored
US requests made last year for Sheikh's extradition on grounds of his responsibility
for kidnapping an American citizen in 1994. Even now it is not too late.
Those who sever human heads, target civilians and are not soldiers in a
state army should not be allowed to take refuge behind any cause, including
Kashmir.
The pictures of Pearl in captivity
reminded me of my own abduction by Pakistan's civilian intelligence agency
three years ago, ostensibly at the behest of the accountability czar in
the Nawaz Sharif government. I was wrapped in a blanket at gunpoint in
the middle of Rawalpindi. I was blindfolded, chained and beaten up while
being kept for three days and nights in an underground dungeon. All this
was done by what is supposedly a law-enforcing agency.
The international media is now insinuating
that these very security services may have trained people like Sheikh in
the art of abduction. After the change of government, the individuals responsible
for my kidnapping and torture were suspended from service, only to be reinstated
later. The old schoolboy network within the intelligence community enabled
them to survive.
Other Pakistani journalists, including
Najam Sethi of The Friday Times and Ghulam Hasnain of Time magazine have
similarly been kidnapped by members of the security services. For Pakistan's
future to be free of such incidents, the role of the security services
must be reviewed. The leeway and secrecy they have enjoyed in the name
of protecting national interest needs to be reduced considerably.
A lot of people are pinning their
hopes on General Musharraf to restore rule of law in the country. An Australian
journalist friend of mine wrote to me recently, ''Musharraf doesn't look
perfect, but he's a vast improvement on anybody else we've seen running
your poor old country lately. He might set an example that even democratically
elected politicians might follow''.
The realisation of these hopes depends
on General Musharraf's ability to purge Pakistan's establishment of its
own previous patterns. While laying out plans for the future, the general
should also figure out a way to air the secrets of a dark past. Or else,
these demons will haunt us, like Sheikh Omar seems to be doing.
(Husain Haqqani has served as adviser
to PMs Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto and as ambassador to Sri Lanka)
