Opinion The Haqqani chant

Dawn reported on September 26 on the Pakistan army’s response: “ ‘Pakistan will not launch an offensive against Haqqani militants despite Washington ramping up the pressure after a series of attacks on US targets in Afghanistan’,an official said… General James Mattis,commander of the US Central Command,which oversees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,became the most senior US commander to hold talks with Pakistani generals in Islamabad since the pressure mounted. ‘I don’t think the indicators are as such,’ a senior Pakistani security official said when asked if the army was going to launch an operation in North Waziristan.”

Amidst all this,army chief Kayani cancelled his visit to London where he was to deliver a lecture at the International Institute of Strategic Studies and the Royal College of Defence Studies.

‘Our own people’

In the context of this tense exchange with the US,Pakistan’s prime minister,Yousuf Raza Gilani met senior political leaders and military officers for discussions. An all-party conference was called on September 29,which became a nine-hour long meeting; it concluded that civilian and military leaders should begin a dialogue with the terrorist groups,according to The Express Tribune on September 30: “ ‘Pakistan must initiate dialogue with a view to negotiate peace with our own people in the tribal areas and a proper mechanism for this be put in place,’ said a 13-point joint declaration issued after the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.”

When ISI chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha finally responded to the accusations against his service,he was quoted thus in Dawn: “‘There are other intelligence networks supporting groups who operate inside Afghanistan. We have never paid a penny or provided even a single bullet to the Haqqani network’.”

The most notable phrase in this joint declaration,suggest Pakistani newspapers,is “our own people.” The Express Tribune wrote: “Some of the participants of the meeting told The Express Tribune that the phrase ‘own people’ was a reference to militant groups,including the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)… ‘Personally,I am against talking to terrorists,but had to endorse it for the sake of national unity,’ said Sahibzada Fazl Karim,the head of the Sunni Ittehad Council,an umbrella organisation for Pakistan’s Barelvi groups that are opposed to the Taliban,who are from the rival Deobandi sect’.” This was also emphasised in a Dawn headline,“Stress on peace with ‘our own people’.”

A free man

In what could be a defiant reaction to America’s tough talk,Osama bin Laden’s bodyguard,who had been arrested by the police in Pakistan,was freed earlier this month,Daily Times reported on September 30. “Amin al-Haq,who escaped from Afghanistan with the al-Qaeda leader in 2001 and went on to become a key financial aide,was detained in Lahore three years ago by the ISI. A senior security source in Peshawar,where he had been held,said the ISI had passed al-Haq on to the police before he was released earlier this month.”

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