Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: The Times of India
Date: May 29, 2011
Introduction: Top Generals Concerned Their
Ranks Have Been Penetrated To Aid Militants
Pakistani military generals are concerned
that their ranks have been penetrated by Islamists who are aiding militants
in a campaign against the state.
Even the powerful army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani was so shaken by the
discovery that terror mastermind Osama bin Laden was sheltering so close to
the Pakistani capital that he told US officials in a recent meeting that his
first priority was "bringing our house in order", the Washington
Post reported on Saturday quoting senior Pakistani intelligence officers.
"We are under attack, and the attackers are getting highly confidential
information about their targets," said the official, who cited a personal
conversation with Kayani.
US and Western nations have long accused Pakistan's military Inter-services
Intelligence (ISI) of playing a double game by fighting militants who are
threatening the country, but protecting those fighting US forces in Afghanistan
and destabilizing neighbouring countries. Pakistan's top military brass claimed
to have purged the ranks of Islamists shortly after the September 11, 2001,
attacks. Since then, the nation's top officials have made repeated public
assurances that the armed forces are committed to the fight against extremists
and that Pakistan's extensive nuclear arsenal is in safe hands.
But US officials have remained unconvinced, and they have repeatedly pressed
for a more rigorous campaign by Pakistan to remove elements of the military
and intelligence services that are believed to cooperate with militant groups.
It is unclear how authentically committed Kayani and other top military leaders
are to cleansing their ranks. US officials and Pakistani analysts say support
by the nation's top military spy agency for insurgent groups, particularly
those that attack in India and Afghanistan, is de facto security policy in
Pakistan, not a matter of a few rogue elements.
But Kayani now, the Washington Post quoted officials as saying, is under profound
pressure, both from a domestic population fed up with the constant insurgent
attacks and from critics in the US government, who view the bin Laden hideout
as the strongest evidence yet that Pakistan is playing a double game. US officials
say they have no evidence that top Pakistani military or civilian leaders
knew about bin Laden's redoubt, though they are still examining intelligence
gathered during the raid.
Some say they doubt Kayani or Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, head of the ISI, had
direct knowledge; others find it hard to believe they did not, particularly
because Kayani was head of the ISI in 2005, when bin Laden is believed to
have taken refuge in Abbottabad.
"I think he was in protective custody," one former US official who
worked closely on Pakistan issues said of bin Laden. Pakistan strenuously
denies that. But military officials acknowledge that members of the services
have cooperated with militants.
