Who’s really harboring al Qaida?

Pakistan and Afghanistan

Everyone’s pointing fingers at Pakistan, said the Islamabad Nation in an editorial. Just because most of the young men arrested in Britain on suspicion of planning to blow up airplanes were of Pakistani extraction doesn’t mean actual Pakistanis had anything to do with the plot. In fact, Pakistan is doing its utmost to root out terrorists. Pakistan’s security forces and the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) forces have been fighting in our Waziristan province for months. Hundreds of civilians, militants, and military personnel have been killed. Yet these battles “have not convinced Kabul, or perhaps even Washington, of the genuineness of our cooperation in the War on Terror.” Afghanistan keeps accusing us of harboring or encouraging al Qaida and Taliban elements. Our neighbor should look inside its own borders. Just last weekend, U.S. and Afghan forces bragged that they had killed 70 Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan. Obviously, then, that is where those fighters reside.

Nice try, Pakistan, said Kabul’s Taraqi in an editorial. The Pakistanis think they can “show that they are honest in the fight against terrorism by losing some of their useless ISI members.” The truth is, the ISI has colluded with al Qaida in Pakistan ever since U.S. and Afghan forces expelled the militants. Now Pakistan is laying the groundwork for sending the terrorists back here, by accusing Afghanistan of already harboring them.

Let’s be open about Pakistan’s perfidy, said the Herat, Afghanistan, Pagah. “The Afghan people have been fully aware of the enmity of neighboring Pakistan for a long time.” Yet our government dances around this truth, sometimes referring to Pakistan as a “friend and brother” and other times calling it what it is, “a supporter of terrorism.” By continuing to give Pakistan the benefit of the doubt, we give the Pakistani government “opportunity to meet its vicious goals.”

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The world can see through Pakistan’s “baseless and cheating comments,” said Kabul’s Anis. In a desperate attempt to deflect the blame it richly deserves, Pakistan is “alleging that the plot to blow up planes in Britain has links with the Taliban and terrorism in Afghanistan.” But the facts are clear: “If Pakistan does not support the terrorists over the border, how can they be so well-equipped?”

Pakistan will have to be honest—for its own sake, said Tahir Mirza in the Karachi, Pakistan, Dawn. Denying al Qaida’s presence here is no longer plausible. “Religious fanaticism and patriotic bigotry have got mixed up in a deadening cocktail.” Many in the government secretly believe that the ISI is compromised. Much of the current resurgence of the Taliban may be “due to the brilliant strategic thinking of some in our intelligence apparatus.”

Quetta, Pakistan, Daily Times