Mile by Miles, Afghan Quagmire is Expanding

By Abid Ullah Jan

10/31/06 "Information Clearing House" -- - Pakistan’s military carried out yet another strike on a religious school (madrassa) allegedly used by al-Qaeda. According to Reuters, the school was being used as a militant training camp.[1] Eighty people died in the pre-dawn assault.According to Pakistan military, “"We received confirmed intelligence reports that 70 to 80 militants were hiding in a madrassa [school] used as a terrorist-training facility, which was destroyed by an army strike, led by helicopters."[2]

Based on the available facts we come to three conclusions: 1. This was a terrorist military attack; 2. Afghanistan is expanding mile by mile into Pakistan, and 3) pakistan military is digging a deeper grave for itself with each tactic that it copies from American and Israeli occupation forces. In other words, Pakistani army, acting like an occupation force, is alienating its own population and turning Pakistan into anther Afghanistan region by region.

To establish that this was a terrorist attack, we have to look at these facts: a) The attack was carried out without any attempt being made to capture the alleged “terrorists” and “militants.” b) The “terrorists” and “militants” were not engaged in a fire fighting, rather a decision was made to blow-up the school building regardless of the fact that it will definitely have many children as students and some innocent people with the “evil terrorists” as well. c) The area was not inaccessible for the Pakistan military. d) The area was not outside the jurisdiction of Pakistan and military could easily reach and surround the area and the school building. e) The brave military could use the same helicopters to drop its elite commando forces to capture or kill those who may have decided to fight. f) The government could use many different options to arrest and bring the alleged “terrorist” before the public to prove its allegations. g) Even if all the “terrorist” had fled away, the government could prove its point by showing how the school was a not a school but a training camp. At the very least, in case of some arrests, it could trade the captured “terrorists” for a few million more dollars from the United States.

Without resorting to any of the above steps, the military followed foot-steps of the American and Israeli forces, as if they were attacking a territory outside Pakistan borders, and raised the madrassa to the ground while its inhabitants were asleep. According to al-Jazeera report, the military spokesman, Mr. sultan said there was no collateral damage, but “Chingai's residents were seen collecting bodies of children from the rubble.”

A local reporter told the Reuters news agency: "The bodies are beyond recognition. They are badly mutilated. Limbs were being collected by local people in cloth sheets."

The same local people held a rally a few days back to condemn policies of the military dictator in Pakistan. With this kind of terrorist attack the feelings of isolation and alienation grow. People feel like they are suffering military occupation at home, where the local military resorts to American and Israeli tactics to please their masters in Washington and London.

Regardless of what we are told by the dictatorial regime in Islamabad, local people know the truth. The innocents who died in this attack belong to them. Local people do not believe in the government charade and CNN stories when they have their innocent relatives and little children lying before them in pieces. They believe what they see with their own eyes. Just two days before the latest terrorist and cowardly military strike, 3,000 locals held a rally near Khar, raising slogans against the military regime and U.S. occupation of Afghanistan. Imagine their feelings after this callous and cowardly assault.

The military regime in Islamabad cannot claim that local residents will have any sympathy or respect left for Pakistan armed forces of even Pakistan. It has effectively lost this region and loyalty of its residents to the government of Pakistan. That’s how inch by inch Pakistan is losing its writ, alienating its people and losing control.

Pakistan military is not only losing its credibility and respect in the regions it is treating as occupied areas, but also among general population. What is most shameful is accepting responsibility for the carnage carried out by the U.S. and Nato forces. Pakistani authorities claimed immediately that the raid was carried out by Pakistani forces. However, Asia Times Online contacts on the spot are convinced that the raid was undertaken by North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces. Recently, Islamabad agreed with NATO that it could conduct operations in Pakistan from across the border in Afghanistan.[3] if this is true, then this is a true disgrace for pakistan army which is now proudly taking full responsibility for the bloody handy work of the US occupying forces inside Afghanistan.

That’s how mile by mile Pakistan is turning into another Afghanistan. That’s how Afghanistan is expanding with the war of terrorism in which Pakistan military cannot pretend to be innocent bystander. It is doing exactly what the U.S. and Israeli forces are doing in the areas under their occupation. Worst still is the fact that Pakistani forces are not operating in occupied land against other people. Furthermore, it is Pakistani government that has been sending innocent people, its own people, to the torture camps in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. These are the people, most of whom even the US authorities found to be innocent and subsequently released. That’s how Pakistan army and the military regimes has surpassed Israelis and Americans in their crimes against humanity.

No matter how sour this fact may be to swallow, but the military authorities can hardly deny the writing on the wall. When the expanded Afghanistan become a quagmire for the occupiers, Pakistan army will face the same fate as the terrorist warriors from abroad.

Abid Ullah Jan is the author of Afghanistan: The Genesis of the Final Crusade.

Notes

[1] Anwarullah Khan, “Pakistan army kills up to 80 at Qaeda-linked school, Reuters, October 30, 2006. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL72506.htm

[2] “Scores killed in Pakistani military assault,” Al-Jazeera.net, October 30, 2006. URL: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/576BC18A-9416-422F-BFED-1165F66D908B.htm

[3] See Saleem Shazad, "another deadly Blow for Pakistan," Asia Times online, October 31, 2006.