... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
or members of his government speak about terrorism- and militancy-related issues, it often only serves to expose their lack of understanding of the matter or their wilful denial of the facts, or perhaps both. Addressing parliamentarians in Sarajevo, Mr Sharif claimed not only that all sanctuaries of Al Qaeda and the Pak Taliban have been eliminated in Pakistain, but that there is no presence of the holy warrior Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group either in the country. He went on to claim credit, as has become his practice, for the multiple successes in the fight against militancy. Perhaps on all counts, Mr Sharif is wrong. To begin with, while military operations have cleared Fata of the strongholds of the banned TTP, the steady pace of holy warrior attacks in tribal areas and the provinces suggests the continued existence of terrorist hideouts in the country. Indeed, that is the reason the military leadership has demanded greater action in Punjab
1.) Little Orphan Annie's bodyguard
2.) A province of Pakistain ruled by one of the Sharif brothers
3.) A province of India. It is majority (60 percent) Sikh and Hindoo (37 percent), which means it has relatively few Moslem riots....
-- a vast jihadist infrastructure there operates undamaged and in plain sight. On Al Qaeda, while there have been great successes and the global attraction of its so-called brand has diminished, can the prime minister or indeed any official here realistically claim that every last strand of the group in Pakistain has been found and eliminated? What is the likelihood that Ayman al-
Zawahiri... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as
the real brains of the outfit.Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area assuming he's not dead like Mullah Omar. He lost major face when he ordered the nascent Islamic State to cease and desist and merge with the orthodx al-Qaeda spring, al-Nusra...
is hiding on Pak soil?
| Moreover, in recent times, several of the biggest terrorist attacks in Pakistain have been claimed by IS. While those claims have been contested, the existence of IS propaganda cells here cannot be denied. So while Mr Sharif may be right that several successes have been won in the fight against militancy, the principal lesson has been that success is hard-fought and hard-earned. |