09-27-2006, 06:25 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Op-Ed in Pioneer, 27 Sept. 2006Â
<b>Script for a PTV docudrama </b>
Wilson John
<b>There are several missing chapters in Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's memoir, In the Line of Fire</b>. Although it will not be possible to list out the missing portions in toto, it is reasonable to believe that Gen Musharraf has revealed far less than he has chosen to hide. And <b>what he reveals about Kargil, AQ Khan, 9/11 and various other incidents from his colourful life is carefully selected, cleverly embellished with fiction and packaged to generate media hype with the objective of, besides selling the book, creating a smokescreen on his real persona and actions</b>. His memoir is, at best, a script for a PTV docudrama.
Before we get into the details, it is important to understand Musharraf the Man, to make sense of his quicksilver swings. <b>He is a mohajir from Delhi, who down in Gujranwala in Punjab</b>, Pakistan. He was commissioned in the Pakistan Army in 1964 and was just one of the scores of officers who waited for their promotion boards till Gen Zia-ul Haq spotted him. Gen Zia never hid his liking for devout officers and in Gen Musharraf he found a pious Deobandi. Leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, a fundamentalist political party, made it known to the General that they too preferred him. Gen Musharraf proved to be a right choice for both of them.
<b>The first task he was assigned by Gen Zia was to train mujahideen recruited by various religious organisations to fight the Soviet troops in Afghanistan. It was during those days that Gen Musharraf first met a Saudi civil engineer who was keen to help the cause of jihad with money and muscle. The CIA had brought this contractor to construct bunkers for the mujahideen. The contractor, with whom Gen Musharraf had a close working relationship, is today known as Osama bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world. It was at this juncture that Gen Musharraf developed two other key links that would later stand him in good stead-the CIA and the mullahs</b>.
Of the missing chapters, the critical one is his alliance and association with the fundamentalist and extremist forces. This chapter begins from the early months of Gen Musharraf's tenure as the Chief Executive. Though the mullahs made noise about the military takeover, he left no trick in the book - threat, money and power - to court them to stabilise his hold over Islamabad. He allowed them to open offices in respectable commercial and residential complexes; letting them recruit men for terrorist training, arming them with modern weapons to kill civilians and security personnel in Jammu & Kashmir.
<b>Barely a few months after the September 11 attacks in New York, he managed to lull the Americans and the Western world into believing in his anti-terrorism charade, while he allowed the vanquished Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other terror groups to recoup and regroup, and create another invisible network of terror in Karachi, Muzaffarabad, Peshawar, and Waziristan</b>.
Ironically, on the very day when the Musharraf regime was promising the global community of a crackdown on terrorist organisations, Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Hizbul Mujahidin supreme commander Syed Salahuddin were visiting a terrorist camp, Maskar-e-Rahil, in Kotlui, Pakistan occupied Kashmir. They addressed the militants undergoing training at the camp and talked to HM commanders in Poonch and Rajouri sectors through wireless.
Other extremist and terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), al Badr, Harkut-ul-Ansar held conferences, seminars and meetings with as much ease even as President Musharraf told the world (through CNN and PTV mainly) projected himself as a liberal bulwark against religious extremism taking over Pakistan. It is not that the General was merely tolerating the fringe elements; he is deeply involved with them, with their agenda.
Before coming to India to talk peace with then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Agra in July 2001, the General first confabulated with leaders from Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad (parent body of LeT and now operating as Jamaat-ud Dawa) and other similar organisations and sought their blessings. This is of course missing from his reference to the Agra summit in his book.
He also doesn't mention how he handled terrorist groups, beginning January 12, 2002, when he made that high-sounding speech of his, announcing a crackdown on fundamentalist and terrorist elements in Pakistan with much gusto and accompanying headlines across the world. Several key leaders were rounded up and housed in well-appointed state guesthouses. Inspired stories in the media talked of a thousand and more arrests of jihadis of all ilk. Not one terrorist leader (Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar or Fazlur Rehman Khalil) has been arrested and tried despite five years of "war on terrorism".
Of the several well-documented (again missing from the book) incidents that expose Gen Musharraf's claim on terrorism, the brutal killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl needs to be mentioned. The ISI was deeply involved in the murder that was carried out with the help of Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. One incident that is not well known is that Sheikh Omar was picked up for questioning a week after Pearl went missing but was released without any charges.
Intelligence officials then approached Jaish-e-Mohammad leader Masood Azhar, supposedly under house arrest, to facilitate an early release of the American journalist. It was only after Azhar refused to cooperate, even after Gen Musharraf sent word, that security agencies arrested his key aide, Sheikh Omar, and made him the main accused.
<b>The missing post script is his truce with the new coalition of Taliban and al Qaeda in Waziristan that will pose a grave threat to the Western world that seems to be toasting the smooth-talking General who has cleverly diverted global attention from the urgent need for restoring democracy in Pakistan. </b>
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<b>Script for a PTV docudrama </b>
Wilson John
<b>There are several missing chapters in Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's memoir, In the Line of Fire</b>. Although it will not be possible to list out the missing portions in toto, it is reasonable to believe that Gen Musharraf has revealed far less than he has chosen to hide. And <b>what he reveals about Kargil, AQ Khan, 9/11 and various other incidents from his colourful life is carefully selected, cleverly embellished with fiction and packaged to generate media hype with the objective of, besides selling the book, creating a smokescreen on his real persona and actions</b>. His memoir is, at best, a script for a PTV docudrama.
Before we get into the details, it is important to understand Musharraf the Man, to make sense of his quicksilver swings. <b>He is a mohajir from Delhi, who down in Gujranwala in Punjab</b>, Pakistan. He was commissioned in the Pakistan Army in 1964 and was just one of the scores of officers who waited for their promotion boards till Gen Zia-ul Haq spotted him. Gen Zia never hid his liking for devout officers and in Gen Musharraf he found a pious Deobandi. Leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, a fundamentalist political party, made it known to the General that they too preferred him. Gen Musharraf proved to be a right choice for both of them.
<b>The first task he was assigned by Gen Zia was to train mujahideen recruited by various religious organisations to fight the Soviet troops in Afghanistan. It was during those days that Gen Musharraf first met a Saudi civil engineer who was keen to help the cause of jihad with money and muscle. The CIA had brought this contractor to construct bunkers for the mujahideen. The contractor, with whom Gen Musharraf had a close working relationship, is today known as Osama bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world. It was at this juncture that Gen Musharraf developed two other key links that would later stand him in good stead-the CIA and the mullahs</b>.
Of the missing chapters, the critical one is his alliance and association with the fundamentalist and extremist forces. This chapter begins from the early months of Gen Musharraf's tenure as the Chief Executive. Though the mullahs made noise about the military takeover, he left no trick in the book - threat, money and power - to court them to stabilise his hold over Islamabad. He allowed them to open offices in respectable commercial and residential complexes; letting them recruit men for terrorist training, arming them with modern weapons to kill civilians and security personnel in Jammu & Kashmir.
<b>Barely a few months after the September 11 attacks in New York, he managed to lull the Americans and the Western world into believing in his anti-terrorism charade, while he allowed the vanquished Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other terror groups to recoup and regroup, and create another invisible network of terror in Karachi, Muzaffarabad, Peshawar, and Waziristan</b>.
Ironically, on the very day when the Musharraf regime was promising the global community of a crackdown on terrorist organisations, Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Hizbul Mujahidin supreme commander Syed Salahuddin were visiting a terrorist camp, Maskar-e-Rahil, in Kotlui, Pakistan occupied Kashmir. They addressed the militants undergoing training at the camp and talked to HM commanders in Poonch and Rajouri sectors through wireless.
Other extremist and terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), al Badr, Harkut-ul-Ansar held conferences, seminars and meetings with as much ease even as President Musharraf told the world (through CNN and PTV mainly) projected himself as a liberal bulwark against religious extremism taking over Pakistan. It is not that the General was merely tolerating the fringe elements; he is deeply involved with them, with their agenda.
Before coming to India to talk peace with then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Agra in July 2001, the General first confabulated with leaders from Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad (parent body of LeT and now operating as Jamaat-ud Dawa) and other similar organisations and sought their blessings. This is of course missing from his reference to the Agra summit in his book.
He also doesn't mention how he handled terrorist groups, beginning January 12, 2002, when he made that high-sounding speech of his, announcing a crackdown on fundamentalist and terrorist elements in Pakistan with much gusto and accompanying headlines across the world. Several key leaders were rounded up and housed in well-appointed state guesthouses. Inspired stories in the media talked of a thousand and more arrests of jihadis of all ilk. Not one terrorist leader (Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar or Fazlur Rehman Khalil) has been arrested and tried despite five years of "war on terrorism".
Of the several well-documented (again missing from the book) incidents that expose Gen Musharraf's claim on terrorism, the brutal killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl needs to be mentioned. The ISI was deeply involved in the murder that was carried out with the help of Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. One incident that is not well known is that Sheikh Omar was picked up for questioning a week after Pearl went missing but was released without any charges.
Intelligence officials then approached Jaish-e-Mohammad leader Masood Azhar, supposedly under house arrest, to facilitate an early release of the American journalist. It was only after Azhar refused to cooperate, even after Gen Musharraf sent word, that security agencies arrested his key aide, Sheikh Omar, and made him the main accused.
<b>The missing post script is his truce with the new coalition of Taliban and al Qaeda in Waziristan that will pose a grave threat to the Western world that seems to be toasting the smooth-talking General who has cleverly diverted global attention from the urgent need for restoring democracy in Pakistan. </b>
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