Old Guards' Perspective on latest Crisis in Pakistan

It is time to heed counsel of retired generals
By Ansar Abbasi
The News, November 9, 2006

ISLAMABAD: A number of retired generals agree that the most unfortunate calamity has struck Pakistan on Wednesday morning but warned that the military regime must review its post 9/11 US dictated so-called policy of war against terror to avoid the haunting confrontation between the country’s army and its civilian population.

Like ordinary minds even these retired generals, including those who headed the ISI in the past, see the Dargai attack a retaliation to how over 80 persons were killed in Bajaur last week.

Dargai terrorist attack, they say, does not need a routine handling rather requires a review of the whole situation to correct what we did wrong in the recent years.

“Pakistan must stop serving the American interest as Washington’s ‘hired hand’,” former ISI chief Hamid Gul demanded. Another ex-ISI chief Lt-Gen (retd) Asad Durrani thinks that to avoid Dargai like future attacks the government will have to stop killing its own people and handing them over to the Americans in return for bounties.

In Lt-Gen (retd) Talat Masud’s view the Dargai incident is an extremely dangerous sign. He demands that the government must focus on the political solution and prefer reconciliation to confrontation. Lt-Gen (retd) Jamshed Gulzar, the former corps commander, Rawalpindi, lamented that the military regime has exceeded all limits to attain America’s objectives.

A suicide bomber attacked a Pak-Army recruitment and training centre in Dargai, Malakand, and killed at least 42 soldiers and injured dozens other. It is the first ever major offensive against Pakistan Army within the Pakistani territory and believed to be the reaction to the Bajaur missile attack last month killing more than 80 civilians.

Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Gul said that the Dargai incident is the first ever of its kind in the history of the Pakistan Army. He sees the American hand behind all that is happening in the tribal areas of Pakistan and dubbed the Pakistani government as Washington’s “hired hand”.

Being a hired hand, he said, Pakistan is supposed to blindly follow the Bush’s doctrine of pre-emptive strike. Being an American ally, he said Pakistan’s sovereignty is now limited to American wishes. Washington, he said, would never allow Pakistan to cut a separate deal rather would want Islamabad to strictly follow the targets determined by the Americans.

Peace accords in tribal areas of Pakistan, according to Gul, do not match American interests so they would do everything to foil them.

Recalling the fate of Shakai accord and that of Nek Muhammad and the repeated missile attacks by the American forces in Damadola and Bajaur, he

said that the sentiments of the locals in the tribal areas have flared up.

He said that Pakistan Army has failed to fulfil its constitutional obligation of defending the lives of its people and the frontiers of its territory. Because of its own failure, he said, the Bajaur missile attack was also owned by the Pakistan Army. Referring to the statement of Molvi Faqir Muhammad, the influential religious leader in Bajaur agency following Bajaur killing that the Bajaur tribals would not fight against the Pakistan Army, Gul said that the tribal religious leader sounded judicious whereas the government is behaving like an extremist.

General Durrani said that the Dargai attack is an expected outcome of what had happened in Bajaur. He said those who had attacked the Pakistan Army training center consider the army a partner of American forces involved in the Muslims killing here. He believed that the Dargai attack is actually the consequence of our post-9/11 policy under which we have been killing our own people and handing them over to the Americans to earn bounties.

How could the situation improve? Durrani demands a major review of Pakistan’s US-dictated anti-terror policy. We must apologise from the people of tribal areas for all that we had done to them during the past 4-5 years, he said, warning that the use of force would further worsen the situation. He said that the America wants a confrontation between the Pakistan Army and the civilians and that was the very reason that it is resorting to all methods including military to sabotage the peaceful means of handling the tribal turmoil.

Gen Talat Masud said that the Dargai attack is the first-ever major incident of insurgency directed against the institution of Pakistan Army. He has no doubt that it happened in retaliation to what had occurred in Bajaur last week. He said that Pakistan Army is seen as an extension of the US and Nato forces operating in Iraq and Afghanistan. This perception, in Talaat’s view, is an extremely dangerous sign.

He asked the government to take a serious note of the situation and resort to political solution. He said that the government must go for reconciliation and should understand the reasons as to why the tribals are alienating.

General Jamshed Gulzar Kiani, who was said to be one of the vocal voices in the then military elite against toeing US post 9/11 policy, said that the government has too far exceeded the limits to recover easily from the sorry state of affairs the country is finding itself right now.

“When you start using state of the art weapons against your own civilians then the latter could only resort to the Dargai like suicide attacks,” Kiani said, adding that a suicide bomber does not need training. Terming the Bajaur killing as the most condemnable and unjustifiable, he said, by killing 83 persons there the government has actually produced innumerable suicide bombers in the 83 affected families.

About Dargai, he said, apparently it was case of lax security in an environment that requires extraordinary security. In a vitiated environment, he said, the military must not expose itself to become an easy target of terrorists. He lamented that the Army that is supposed to protect the lives and property of its citizens failed to protect itself.

Like others Kiani too has no doubts that the Bajaur carnage was carried out by the Americans. However, he failed to understand the rationale behind the Pakistan Army taking the blame of the carnage on itself.

Referring to President Musharraf’s resolve to hit hard against terrorist in reaction to the Dargai attack, Kiani warned that severe military action would result in severe reactions. He said that the Dargai attack is most condemnable but there is a need to see the reasons behind the attack.

He said that fear and threat of army have gradually eroded so use of force is no solution. He pressed for reconciliatory initiatives and said that Governor NWFP’s peace deal in Waziristan has produced great results. He criticized that the missile attack on a Madrassa there busted a similar peace deal in Bajaur.