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Pearl’s killing, skeletons
in Pakistan’s closet
Author: Husain Haqqani
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: February 27, 2002
URL:
http://www.indian-express.com/ie20020227/op3.html
The barbaric murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel
Pearl confirms my fear Pakistan's transition from an ally of extremist
Islamists to a modern Muslim state will not come about without a fight.
Pearl's kidnapping and murder are just warning shots. The inability of
Pakistan's law enforcement agencies to solve the mystery of this brutal
crime or to arrest all identified suspects is worrisome. So are the stories
about Pakistani officials previously ignoring the activities of the chief
suspect Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed. The United States apparently demanded
the extradition of Sheikh in November last year. If he had been arrested
and extradited then, it might have been possible to avert Pearl's murder.
There are numerous unanswered questions about the Pearl murder and the
people behind it. Most of these questions lead us to mistakes committed
by successive Pakistani governments in tolerating, even encouraging, extremists
in the hope that they will contribute to the struggle in Jammu and Kashmir.
But as the moral code of all religions including Islam explains, wrong
means never lead to good ends. Having turned a blind eye in the past to
the wrong means of volunteer militias organised in the name of jihad,
Pakistan's government must now contend with the covert operations of these
groups against its own authority. General Pervez Musharraf's stated vision
of Pakistan's future as a moderate state will not be achieved until the
past that glorified the likes of Sheikh Omar is not confronted.
General Musharraf has taken several steps in the right direction since
September 11, especially after his speech of January 12. But he must now
build momentum for an all out assault against lawless militant groups,
even if that exposes links between these groups and government policies
from the past.
General Musharraf and his closest colleagues tried their best to ensure
Pearl's recovery alive but obviously their best did not prove good enough.
The inefficiency of law enforcement agencies and their reluctance to take
on certain groups and individuals appears to be the major obstacle in
suppressing extremists. The general will succeed only if he makes no exceptions.
Given Pakistan's Islamic ethos, the country cannot and should not be
expected to emulate Kemal Ataturk's Turkey. But it certainly needs to
deal with individuals and groups that think that beheading an American
journalist in the most inhumane manner somehow advances the cause of Islam.
The establishment cannot afford to cover the tracks of those who, until
September 11, condoned or encouraged ''unconventional fighters'', known
by the world as terrorists.
Once a clean break from the murky past has been made, it will be easier
for General Musharraf to steer the nation towards the future he says he
seeks.
Take the case of Sheikh Omar: now believed to be a mastermind behind
the Pearl kidnapping, he came to Pakistan after being released from an
Indian prison as a result of the hijacking of IC-814 in December 1999.
He apparently moved around with ease between Afghanistan and Pakistan
and helped mentor, Maulana Masood Azhar, in organising the Jaish-e-Muhammad,
which has only recently been banned by Musharraf.
Azhar was himself released on demand of the hijackers of flight IC-814.
Given the fact that Azhar and Sheikh Omar had been released as a result
of a terrorist act, neither should have enjoyed the freedom of action
that enabled them to organise a new militant movement. Jaish-e-Muhammad
drew most members from Harkatul Mujahideen, which had been accused of
kidnapping American and British citizens in India.
In the year 2000, I recall reading about a press conference by Harkat
in which severed heads allegedly belonging to Indian troops were shown
to journalists as proof of a ''successful militant operation''. Sheikh's
record, and the brutality involved in bringing back heads as trophies,
should have caused some alarm in Islamabad's corridors of power. It did
not at the time, leaving these dangerous persons free to kidnap and kill
Daniel Pearl.
The government should not have ignored US requests made last year for
Sheikh's extradition on grounds of his responsibility for kidnapping an
American citizen in 1994. Even now it is not too late. Those who sever
human heads, target civilians and are not soldiers in a state army should
not be allowed to take refuge behind any cause, including Kashmir.
The pictures of Pearl in captivity reminded me of my own abduction by
Pakistan's civilian intelligence agency three years ago, ostensibly at
the behest of the accountability czar in the Nawaz Sharif government.
I was wrapped in a blanket at gunpoint in the middle of Rawalpindi. I
was blindfolded, chained and beaten up while being kept for three days
and nights in an underground dungeon. All this was done by what is supposedly
a law-enforcing agency.
The international media is now insinuating that these very security services
may have trained people like Sheikh in the art of abduction. After the
change of government, the individuals responsible for my kidnapping and
torture were suspended from service, only to be reinstated later. The
old schoolboy network within the intelligence community enabled them to
survive.
Other Pakistani journalists, including Najam Sethi of The Friday Times
and Ghulam Hasnain of Time magazine have similarly been kidnapped by members
of the security services. For Pakistan's future to be free of such incidents,
the role of the security services must be reviewed. The leeway and secrecy
they have enjoyed in the name of protecting national interest needs to
be reduced considerably.
A lot of people are pinning their hopes on General Musharraf to restore
rule of law in the country. An Australian journalist friend of mine wrote
to me recently, ''Musharraf doesn't look perfect, but he's a vast improvement
on anybody else we've seen running your poor old country lately. He might
set an example that even democratically elected politicians might follow''.
The realisation of these hopes depends on General Musharraf's ability
to purge Pakistan's establishment of its own previous patterns. While
laying out plans for the future, the general should also figure out a
way to air the secrets of a dark past. Or else, these demons will haunt
us, like Sheikh Omar seems to be doing.
(Husain Haqqani has served as adviser to PMs Nawaz Sharif and Benazir
Bhutto and as ambassador to Sri Lanka)
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