Remembering Benazir Bhutto

December 27, 2015 marks the 8th death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto. She sacrificed her life courageously. She resisted the agenda of fanatics. Certain forces want to make Pakistan a theocratic state so that it cannot progress towards egalitarianism and democracy. Her assailants and their abettors are not apprehended even after eight years. Near her 7th death anniversary, the same forces that acted against her committed a ghastly act at Army Public School, Peshawar. This was in the wake of the Operation Zarb-e-Azb, launched on 15th June 2014, as prior to that 'dialogue' (sic) with merchants of death failed. Till today, those guilty of assassinating her remain unpunished as well as those who extend support and finances to terrorists. The perpetrators and their protectors deserve exemplary punishment, if we have to get rid of the menace of militancy, terrorism, intolerance and religious bigotry.
Since the tragic assassination of Benazir Bhutto on 27th December 2007, Pakistan has been continuously entrapped in dreadful conflicts and grave crises. Country lacks leadership capable of pulling state out of the prevailing mess. The five-year (mis) rule of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) under Asif Ali Zardari substantially damaged both the country and Bhutto's party-corruption reached new heights, mal-administration spread like wild fire, law and order deteriorated to unthinkable levels, institutional confrontations accelerated and economic woes of people multiplied many times, just to mention a few. The trend set by PPP is continuing unabated-Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have also proved that they have neither any pragmatic programmes nor are competent enough to solve the fundamental problems faced by Pakistan and its people. In today's Pakistan, there is not a single leader that matches the vision and determination of Benazir Bhutto to regain what we have lost domestically and internationally.
It is tragic and shameful that the state machinery has utterly failed to unveil the real hands behind Benazir's assassination even after a lapse of eight years. The valiant struggle waged by her to counter forces of terrorism may have culminated in her death but earned her immortality, now even her worst critics admit this fact. Her removal from the political scene was aimed at installing certain "desirable elements" for converting Pakistan into a hub of militancy to undermine nuclear state and threaten the neighbours, especially democratic India and socialist China.
Such wages of appeasement towards militants, inaction of the rulers against them and their protection by certain quarters culminated in the most lamentable barbaric incident in Peshawar on 16th December 2014 when seven terrorists of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) launched an attack on the Army Public School. They were clad in the uniform of the Frontier Corps and entered the school from the rear. They stormed the premises and held it in a nine-hour siege. They moved from classroom to classroom, killing innocent students and staff-nearly 150 lost their lives and many hundreds received serious injuries.
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, an eminent scholar of Islam, commenting on the tragic event of Peshawar, in, Tribal barbarianism in the name of Islam, aptly commented:
"This bloody incident has given a chance to Muslims, especially of this area, to reconsider the whole matter. Only one more event of this kind has been reported in the past. It was also carried out by the terrorists in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia in 2004. Muslims must think why such events take place in the Muslim world, while these have never occurred in the non-Muslim world."
Peshawar tragedy of 16th December 2014, sad killings of General Sanaullah Niazi, Lieutenant Colonel Touseef and others on 15th September 2013, Bashir Ahmad Bilour, senior and respected leader of Awami National Party (ANP) and nine others on 22nd December 2012, bomb blasts at many places, attacks on armed forces and civilians by the militants since 2001, are links of a single chain. These have been openly claimed by TTP and/or other banned militant/religious outfits.
Even PTI that has been advocating "truce" with terrorists, received their wrath, losing Law Minister Israrullah Gandapur and many others, after sharing power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Jamaat-e-Islami (JI)-an ardent and open defender of Taliban. It is obvious that there exists a 'Grand Design' aimed at keeping Pakistan, in fact, the entire South Asia in turmoil by certain powers that needs to be analysed and understood in its entirety if we want to overcome the cancer of militancy.
The ghastly attacks on GHQ Rawalpindi, PNS Mehran Base in Karachi, PAF Base at Kamra, intrusion in Abbottabad, invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, campaigns against Libya, Iran, Syria and other Muslim states should be seen in the perspective of keeping the threat of fundamentalism alive by some hidden hands. Recently, they created another monster, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and now intend to spend billions to fight it-inventing and slaying the enemies following Machiavelli's famous advice in The Prince that "a wise ruler invents enemies and then slays them in order to control his own subjects". All these are well-designed ploys, observes Indian scholar, Dr Sachithanandam Sathananthan, in The Great Game Continues. His core argument is that the purpose is not to eliminate the 'Islamic threat' but to contain it within manageable limits and to spawn the next generation of 'terrorists.' Inventing new enemies and eliminating the older ones is part of the New Great Game.
"Islamic threat" created through Al- Qaeda, the Taliban and ISIS, etc, is "a leverage to intervene in countries for self-aggrandisement". In the case of Pakistan, it has prime goal of distancing Islamabad from Beijing and exploit energy resources abundantly found in Balochistan and, in the long run, perhaps derail the US administration's well-laid plans to bring Afghanistan to heel and to dominate Central Asia and its oil-rich Caspian Sea Basin," concludes Dr Sachithanandam Sathananthan argues at length in The Great Game Continues.
We all know that the Taliban have their origin in Pakistan. The then Interior Minister of Benazir Bhutto, Major-General Naseerullah Babar (Retd) publicly confessed that "Taliban are my brainchild." He minced no words claiming, "I consider them as strategic and political allies of Pakistan." It is well-established that Pakistan's political and military leadership, including CIA and others, in their attempt to resist the onslaught of Soviet Union, created a monster that soon went out of their hands. Without understanding the contours of their ideology and ambitions, advocates of the Free World supported and trained them-it paved the way for al Qaeda to find a sanctuary andlaunch worldwide terrorist attacks. Till today, the entire world is suffering because of that decision-though right wing in Pakistan keeps on justifying the action as "need of the hour" and under "compulsion of holy war" to contain Soviet hegemony.
Pakistan's military establishment that has ruled the country directly or indirectly since the mid-50s has suffered a lot as soon bitter results of its policy of appeasement towards militants, supporting and supported by the Taliban and al Qaeda surfaced. They soon started open attacks on military posts and convoys showing no respect for close relations of the past. Creating and supporting the Taliban and other militants was a political decision that was never debated in the Parliament-rather, imposed by those who really matter in the Land of Pure. Unfortunately, all governments in Pakistan-military and civilian alike-were interfering in Afghanistan or supporting foreign interference in that country, the consequences resulted in continuous antagonism between the two countries as well as attacks by those who were resisting occupation of the West.
Noted writers like Steve Coll in Ghost Wars and Ahmed Rashid in Descent into Chaos, mentioned that Naseerullah Babar and others worked closely with Afghan leaders such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Ahmed Shah Massoud providing them training camps for guerrilla warfare with money coming from CIA and elsewhere. The training, money and arms, provided by intelligence agencies of the Free World and their allies, made the Afghans victorious against the erstwhile Soviet Union, but the country was pushed to disorderliness and thereafter deadly tentacles of terrorism seeped into Pakistan and other neighbouring states.
The Afghan resistance forces were abandoned by the West after the Soviet troops' withdrawal - they started fighting each other culminating into a horrific civil war. For the West, the dismemberment of USSR as a superpower was the goal that they successfully achieved using students of madrassas (religious schools) from Pakistan. It is thus not surprising that Maulana Samiul Haq of Darul Uloom Haqqania, Akora Khattak and Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) keep on claiming to be fathers (spiritual teachers) of the Taliban. Over the period of time, the Taliban have emerged as a formidable power nobody can ignore-it is commonly believed that once the US and allied forces are out of Afghanistan they will recapture power in Kabul or create a lot of trouble for any (elected) government.
Though the Taliban are one identifiable homogeneous political entity, they also represent a coalition of various groups that want to capture state power and impose a particular orthodox brand of Islam through the barrel of gun in the entire world-therefore they have joined hands with ISIS and their like-minded groups.
TTP/ISIS and many others are foreign-planted/funded organisations. These organisations use the name of Islam to advance their own agendas-they work closely with each other to raise funds for purchasing arms through drug trade and other organised criminal activities like smuggling, extortion and kidnapping for ransom. It is a situation where many militant groups are engaged for more power and money. Therefore, we also witness inter and intra-fighting amongst them for money and control-religion is used as a smoke screen to hide their criminal acts.
The phenomenon of fundamentalism is complex and riddled with many puzzles. It cannot be understood without studying the foreign policy of Superpower in which terrorism, drugs, arms and war, play a pivotal role. This is not a recent phenomenon. From the early part of the 20th century, the US leaders have been using arms, drugs and war hysteria as tools to advance their foreign policy objectives. The military interventions by the US and its allies against a number of countries in recent years should be viewed in this perspective as well. Largely shrouded in mystery is the fact as to why CIA, even today, continues to work closely with the forces that the US State Department employed to dismember the then USSR. It is not far from that CIA Chief spoke glowingly of American victories in the war on terror claiming "the ability to kill and capture key members of al Qaeda continues, and keeps them off balance-even in their best safe haven along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border" and ironically, they are called for negotiations from time to time but without any result!
All the banned religious outfits and militant groups such as ISIS and Taliban, thrive on huge money received as "donations" from friends, drug-arms-oil smuggling, extortions and ransoms and many other unlawful acts. Though they pose a greater threat to all states in this region and even the world community now, there is little or no effort collectively by all countries to severe their finances and supply of arms. This confirms the doubts that in fact "terrorism" is a tool in the hands of certain forces that want to impose the New World Order in the wake of 9/11.
Analysts and scholars have yet not examined the assassination of Benazir Bhutto from the perspective of 'New Great Game' unleashed by the powers of the day in this region. In her last book, Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy & the West, Benazir Bhutto tried to trace "the roots, causes and potential solutions to the crisis within the Muslim world and the crisis between the Muslim world and the West". Benazir, in this work unveiled the agenda of neo-colonialists and their proxy-the so-called Islamic militants. Quoting extensively from Al Qur'an that Islam is a religion of peace, she laments "it has been brutally abused by a handful of extremists throughout the Muslim history to create chaos and disorder." She traces the factors behind militant Islam and exposes the colonial and neo-colonial forces promoting and encouraging it. These views must have annoyed the forces that want to keep the Muslim World in dark ages for their nefarious designs. These forces using their proxy-religious fanatics-thus got rid of her. It was not just a loss for Pakistan but a loss for the entire Muslim World.
In the wake of Benazir's ruthless assassination-still shrouded in mystery-Pakistan returned to 'democracy' (sic) but the internal security threats assumed multiple dimensions. Sachithanandam Sathananthan in The Great Game Continues notes with concern that "Pakistani liberals are yet to discover onslaught of late neo-colonialism". His argument is that removal of Benazir and thereafter, easily manoeuvred victory for Asif Ali Zardari in the presidential election "brought to a high point the tortuous process of regime change in Pakistan. Anyone who has followed the 'colour revolutions' that installed pro-American rulers in Georgia (Rose Revolution, 2003), Ukraine (Orange Revolution, 2004) and Kyrgyzstan (Tulip Revolution, 2005) could surely not have missed the tell-tale signs."
The theory propounded by Dr Sachithanandam got credence as proved by later events-Benazir's assassination paved the way for CIA's direct operations in the country for which Asif Zardari and Rehman Malik allegedly acted as accomplices. Dr Sachithanandam highlighted that "the earliest foreboding surfaced in the backroom manoeuvres by the United States and British intelligence services to engineer panic about the security of Pakistan's nuclear assets." It was a repetition of the hysteria they generated over non-existent weapons of mass destruction that Iraq allegedly possessed. A carefully worded article, co-authored by former State Department officials Richard L. Armitage and Kara L. Bue, signalled the shift in the US policy. After formally acknowledging the then President Pervez Musharraf's many achievements, the authors continued: "much remains to be accomplished, particularly in terms of democratization. Pakistan must...eliminate the homegrown jihadists...And...it must prove itself a reliable partner on technology transfer and nuclear non-proliferation." And the denouement: "We believe General Musharraf...deserves our attention and support, no matter how frustrated we become at the pace of political change and the failure to eliminate Taliban fighters on the Afghan border". Translation: Musharraf has to go.
It was 'Washington's renewed interest' in Asif Ali Zardari and Rehman Malik and not Benazir that forced Musharraf-once a close ally of Bush-to offer firm opposition to the US late neo-colonialism to ravage Pakistan. According to Dr Sachithanandam, "politically challenged Pakistani liberals - a motley crowd that includes members of human rights and civil liberties organisations, journalists, analysts, lawyers and assorted professionals-were utterly incapable of comprehending the geo-strategic context in which Musharraf manoeuvred to defend Pakistan's interest." So they slandered him an 'American puppet', alleging he caved in to the US pressure and withdrew support to the Afghan Taliban regime in the wake of 9/11 although in fact "he removed one excuse for the Bush Administration to 'bomb Pakistan into stone age,' as a senior State Department official had threatened."
Later, the same forces wanted to punish Musharraf by using Nawaz as a tool as Zia was used to hang Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. As part of the New Great Game, they keep on creating puppets and dumping them; they invent and slay enemies-'Inventing and slaying enemies,' Business Recorder, May 16, 2009. Musharraf, an insider of the New Great Game, returned to Pakistan on 24th March 2013 after nearly four years of self-imposed exile to contest elections despite the possibility of arrest and death threats from Taliban. His agenda included restoring economy and countering Jihadi outfits, without realising that the militants openly expressed confidence in Nawaz Sharif and JI, as desired by their masters in Washington and elsewhere asking to oppose him by tooth and nail.
The question that continuously perplexes many is why Benazir decided to join hands with Musharraf. The answer is simple: to counter militants supported by certain vested interests inside and outside the country. American discomfort with Musharraf was palpable by late 2003, after he dodged committing Pakistani troops to prop up the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. When he offered to cooperate under the auspices of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), naïve Pakistani media and analysts lunged for his jugular, condemning him once again for succumbing to the US demands. In fact, he nimbly side-stepped American demands: he calculated that diverse ideological stances of the 57 Muslim member-countries would not allow the OIC to jointly initiate such controversial action and therefore Pakistan's participation could not arise, which proved correct.
Benazir was fully aware of the fact that the Bush Administration had been becoming increasingly hostile to Musharraf's determination to prioritise Pakistan's interests when steering the ship of the state through the choppy waters of the unfolding New Great Game, which the West - led by the US - has been manoeuvring to contain growing Russian and Chinese influences in Central and West Asia. She decided to work with Musharraf, precisely for resisting this agenda of Pakistan-hostile forces. She became the prime target of these forces and was eliminated. Since then all events prove that under the "chosen" political leadership (PML-N, PPP, PTI & JI), Pakistan is moving towards complete disaster. Like his predecessor, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Interior Minister, keeps on reminding us of his "dedication" to fight "terrorists" but there has been no concrete effort till today as was the case in the five years of PPP to uproot their networks by cutting their financial supports from inside and outside. The shocking attack of 16th December 2014 testified to the failure of the entire state apparatus.
First, it was the threat of Soviet/communism card. Then it was the al Qaeda card. Now it is ISIS card. Those who need proof must read why Fazlullah (Mullah Radio), ex-son-in-law of Maulana Sufi Muhammad, who had founded Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM), in Swat, announced allegiance with Daesh-ISIS. In Afghanistan, US-backed, ISAF-trained, National Directorate of Security and Indian RAW helped Fazlullah and his men to settle down in Kunar and Nuristan and extended them all sorts of facilities to launch cross-border attacks. By April 2011, Mullah Fazlullah started sending his barbarian, well-trained militants into Pakistan who attacked targets in Bajaur, Mohmand and Dir in their bid to clear their way to re-enter Swat through Dir. Subsequently, targets in Chitral were also hit. Despite Pakistan's strong protests, Afghanistan took no measure to bridle Fazlullah and other militant leaders like Faqir Muhammad and Khalid Khurasani who fled from Bajaur and Mohmand Agencies, respectively. In the aftermath of Army Public School carnage, Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel Sharif, rushed to Afghanistan asking for firm action against Fazlullah and his men. Four of them, Maulvi Abdus Salam, Hazrat Ali, Mujeebur Rehman and Sabeel alias Yahya were hanged in Kohat, a few days before the first anniversary of Peshawar School tragedy.
It is no more a secret that when our troops at Bajaur, Mohmand and Chitral countered Fazlullah's onslaught from Afghanistan, Nato helicopters came to rescue the infiltrators on the night of 26th November, 2011-the tragic incident of military post at Salala. On 22nd June 2013, Fazlullah's special squad kidnapped 17 soldiers and beheaded them. Fazlullah proudly claimed that his men had killed Major General Sanaullah Niazi and two others on 15th September 2013 at a time when peace talks were under way.
In the aftermath of these events, General Raheel Sharif, who assumed the charge of armed forces on 27th November 2013, was faced with mounting pressure from his institution and outside world to launch a much-delayed action in North Waziristan and elsewhere against the safe sanctuaries of militants. On his initiative and with the approval of Prime Minister Operation Zarb-e-Azb ("Strike of the Prophet's Sword") was launched that displaced large number of people. The success of this operation to uproot militancy and terrorism is still to be seen. Many analysts cast doubts about its effectiveness to effectively counter militancy and religious fanaticism as the main source (madrassas run by Maulana Abdul Aziz et al) of agitating such minds are still working freely, without any trouble.
Through its proxies like TTP, the US has successfully engaged Pakistan army, the world's sixth largest, in military operations that take toll of human beings, bleed the country financially and create ideological divisions in the society. The only Muslim nuclear-state is now in deep troubles. According to military sources, since the start of Zarb-e-Azb thousands of terrorists have been killed or captured. Caches of arms and explosives in big quantities have been seized. It must be remembered that huge population is displaced and not properly looked after in the wake of this and many other operations where Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) still complain of victims of militancy and neglect. Pakistan has suffered military and civilian casualties in thousands and cost to counter terrorism has amounted to over US $150 billion during the last ten years. We could have easily developed the areas that are hub of these militants and create rapid anti-counter squads to trace and kill them. Approach of our civil and military leadership to tackle militancy and religious fanatics is flawed.
Pakistan is one of the worst hit countries by terrorism and money laundering. There is sufficient evidence that militant groups working against the security and stability of the state; generate huge funds through organised criminal activities and also get huge "donations" from "sympathisers" in and outside Pakistan.
The fundamental questions relating to terrorism and money laundering are:
-- Where do these terrorists get so much money from?
-- Why are the governments not serious in cracking down on unlawful transfer of funds?
-- If banking channels are used, then why the remitters and recipients cannot be traced?
-- If hawala and hundi system is used for unlawful cross border transfer of funds, why persons engaged in these unlawful activities are not arrested and punished?
-- Who are financing these terrorist networks?
-- Who provides these terrorists with sophisticated arms and military training?
It is a well-established fact that the terrorist networks get millions of dollars every year from various sources-using cover-up entities. Militant groups in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere in the garb of "ideology" are engaged in criminal activities; from smuggling to kidnappings, narco trade to arms deals. They are also fascist in their outlook aspiring to control the entire world by power-religion is just a ploy to achieve nefarious designs. Terrorism is their main tool to achieve monetary gains.
Terrorism, like fascism is a self-destructive ideology. To fight terrorism, it is necessary to understand it. Wishful thinking about military might and invincible air-strike-power will not help to win the war against terrorists-they use religion to conceal their lust for money and social control, otherwise what is the justification for destroying educational institutions. Use of ill-directed force against a few groups without eliminating the main causes leading to "terrorism", is proving to be merely a self-defeating exercise.
Determined and practical efforts are needed to destroy financial lifeline of militants and religious fanatics. The strategy to fight terrorism has ignored this most vital aspect and, therefore, powerful states such as the US, with all their military might and economic resources, have failed to win the war started by them in 2001-they are now certainly yielding before the forces of obscurantism-the enemies of humanity who take away innocent lives in the name of religion and faith (sic). The so-called powerful nations are also guilty of not providing justice and conforming to international laws-the use of power by them without any restraint and respect for peace gives an excuse to the terrorists to launch attacks and engage in anti-state activities.
Benazir gave her life for resisting the designs of those who support militants to wreck Pakistan providing them the pretext to intervene physically in the name of safeguarding nuclear arsenals. Unfortunately, her own party stalwarts betrayed her-security in-charge Rehman Malik along with others fled the scene. The vehicle was intentionally diverted from given route. Those inside also did not restrain her from waiving to the workers through the sunroof of the bomb-proof vehicle. The UN Commission, in its report released on 16th April 2010, says that the country's President at the time of assassination, General Pervez Musharraf, was aware of and tracking the many threats against Benazir but he "did little more than pass on those threats to her and to provincial authorities and were not proactive in neutralising them or ensuring that the security provided was commensurate to the threats." The report also claims that the security arrangements made by PPP were also ill-organised and characterised by lack of professionalism.
Though Rehman Malik claims that he was not an adviser on physical security, the letters he wrote to authorities and his liaison role with security and intelligence agencies showed that he was deeply involved in the overall management of Benazir's security. The rapid departure of the only back-up vehicle in which Malik and other PPP leaders drove away was a serious security lapse. Rehman Malik has been accused of fleeing the scene along with Babar Awan, Lieutenant General Tauqir Zia (Retd), Farhatullah Babar and driver Khizer in a car, which was the back-up vehicle for Benazir in case she wanted to use it in an emergency. Former protocol officer to Benazir, Muhammad Aslam lodged a murder case against Pervez Musharraf, Pervaiz Elahi, former Intelligence Bureau (IB) Chief Ijaz Shah, two serving ministers and eight police and administration officials for their alleged involvement in Benazir's assassination. He also nominated Rehman Malik and others in the case. Aslam also named the then interior minister Lieutenant General Hamid Nawaz (Retd), Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema (Retd), Irfan Elahi, Saud Aziz, Yaseen Farooq and Khurram Shahzad accusing them of direct or indirect involvement in the conspiracy to kill Benazir. He also contended that Malik and Awan forced the driver of the back-up car to leave immediately. These allegations have yet not been probed properly.
Heraldo Munoz, the lead United Nations (UN) investigator, assigned probe into Benazir's assassination, in his book 'Getting away with murder: Benazir Bhutto's Assassination and the Politics of Pakistan', doubts that the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) independently carried out the attack. He does not discount suspicions about involvement of intelligence operatives in her murder and later covering up of evidence. He expresses fears that the murder would remain unsolved because of absence of both capacity and willingness of the government and courts to solve the case. "In Bhutto's case, it would seem that the village assassinated her: al Qaeda gave the order; the Pakistani Taliban executed the attack, possibly backed or at least encouraged by elements of the establishment; the Musharraf government facilitated the crime through its negligence; local senior policemen attempted a cover-up; Bhutto's lead security team failed to properly safeguard her; and most Pakistani political actors would rather turn the page than continue investigating who was behind her assassination," Munoz observes.
Since even after eight years of the tragedy of losing Benazir, our rulers and agencies failed to punish her assailants and forces behind terrorism, our beloved children became target of brutal militants on 16th December 2014-the responsibility for this rests collectively on civil-military leadership and judiciary. Benazir, as leader of the poor and dispossessed will always live in the hearts of Pakistanis. If the country has to get rid of terrorism and legacy of Benazir is to prevail, workers of PPP must defeat enemies in their ranks. People from all walks of life must work hand in hand to resist and counter the forces of bigotry, extremism, fanaticism, fascism, which are part of New Great Game aims at controlling South Asian and Central Asian resources through the bogey of Islamic militants with the ultimate objective of containing, socialist China, democratic India and getting hold of Pakistan's nuclear arsenals.
(The writers, lawyers, researchers and authors of numerous books, are Adjunct Faculty at the Lahore University of Management Sciences)