Jihad in Pakistan

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Osama bin Laden calls for a “holy war” against Pakistani president 

By Robert Chesal

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The attacks are audacious and deadly, and their aim is loudly proclaimed. Islamist forces who continue to strike political and military targets in Pakistan are fighting a jihad, the ultimate goal of which is to create a new global caliphate: a world ruled by political Islam. Pakistan may seem an easy target now, given the weakness of President Musharraf. But who can topple Islamabad by force? In his latest video message, the third this month, Osama bin Laden has called for a “holy war” against Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf. Although the appeal has been rejected by some Pakistanis as unwanted meddling in internal affairs, it is clear that a jihadist campaign is underway in the country. And lately, it has not been confined to the far-flung frontiers.
 
Bombing in Rawalpindi
On September 4th, extremists killed scores of people when they bombed a garrison in Rawalpindi, striking at the heart of Pakistan’s military power. The summer siege of the Red Mosque shook the capital Islamabad at its foundations. And dozens more attacks have been carried out this year, including an attempt to assassinate the country’s interior minister in April, and several suicide bombings aimed at the ISI intelligence agency. Renowned Lahore-based author Ahmed Rashid has been tracking the activities of extremist groups for many years. He, too, sees a trend: “There has been a very concerted attempt by the militants to not just create panic by unleashing attacks within the civilian population but to target the army, the intelligence, politicians, the establishment. This is quite apart from what is happening in the tribal areas where there is the growth of Talibanization. And that is now expanding down from the mountains and into the cities and the plains.”

Latest bin Laden video
Enter Osama bin Laden, who appeared in two video messages earlier this month to mark the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the USA. In a third video released on Thursday, the al-Qaeda leader vowed to retaliate against “infidel” Pakistani President Musharraf for the raid that broke the Red Mosque siege. He blamed the general for “spilling the blood of Muslims.” Luckily for the ruling regime, Bin Laden’s calls for revenge have met with widespread contempt in Pakistan’s biggest province of Punjab. In this influential region, there is little respect for Osama bin Laden. There is instead a growing hope that Mr Musharraf can be ousted from power through democratic rather than violent means. However, his current weakness, as he faces legal challenges from the Supreme Court and the imminent return of political rival Benazir Bhutto, could be precisely the reason why extremists are now in the ascent, Rashid says: “This is a military regime which is incredibly weak, it is isolated. Musharraf himself has no credibility amongst the politicians or in civil society, and the Islamists are really seeing this as an opportunity to weaken the state. To terrify the population to aquiescence.”
 
Musharraf’s role in own decline
And it is not only outside forces which are weakening President Musharraf. He has also played a large part in his own decline, taking steps along the way which have strengthened the extremists’ hand, according to South Asia expert Dr Crispin Bates, of Edinburgh University. “Musharraf was less than diplomatic during the siege of the Red Mosque. He basically stood outside and said ‘come out, or I’ll kill you all’. That was an obvious provocation.” Dr Bates also believes the general has shown a contempt for democracy, thereby driving away potential allies including Pakistan’s moderate Islamic political parties.
 
Militant groups based in the Northwest Frontier Province would doubtlessly be thrilled to see the fall of the Pakistani regime, particularly if they could claim the victory as their own. So are these jihadis powerful enough to actually topple the Islamabad government? Ahmed Rashid says they are not. “There’s no way that this kind of destabilization is going to bring down the government. It can create chaos, but there is a half a million strong army, half a million reserves and the international community would not idly stand by and allow this to happen.”

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Anwaar’s articles appear simultaneously here at Truth Spring and at Soul Vibes in The Pakistan Tribune.


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