Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Pakistan Funded and Armed Taliban: US Document

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Pakistan_funded_and_armed_Taliban_US_document/articleshow/2282594.cms

Finally, US and the West have been able to conclude what Musharraf has admitted and India has known all along, that Taleban is Pakistan's creation and has always found financial resources and military hardware from its willing creator. According to National Security Archives of the George Washington University, American concerns over Pakistan's relationship with the Taliban is restricted to the seven-year period leading up to the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. The report is obsolete as facts brought out have always been common knowledge and it does not touch upon Pakistan's present equation with the Taliban.

Pakistan's Agreement with the tribal leaders in the area, increased Taliban hostile capabilities witnessed in Helmand and South Afghanistan immediately thereafter, and, increase in the number of NATO casualties should have clearly established Pakistan's role in the whole business. Besides, recently seen sophistication of road side bombings, so like those in Iraq, and the introduction of suicide attacks requires ample training and coordination. Interrogation of captured Taliban fighters would have confirmed where all this training is imparted and how it is coordinated. The interrogation reports could then have been corroborated by intelligence agencies through their sources.

There have been numerous media reports of Pakistani tribal region bordering Afghanistan having become a safe haven for the Taliban and Al Qaeda to regroup and reorganize themselves. Safe areas for such activities are a pre-requisite. Pakistan’s prompt rebuttal of such reports, without first attempting to verify them on ground, also reflects its complicity in the game. As to why the Agreement, between Pakistan Govt and the tribal Chiefs, did not arouse American suspicions remains a mystery. That Pakistan would so easily amend its perception of strategic depth in Afghanistan and surrender it in favor of the American war on terror is hard to believe; particularly when it has chaptered the terror script the world is currently witnessing.

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