Pakistan admits creating “Islamic” terrorists that it is battling now, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Pakistan admits creating “Islamic” terrorists that it is battling now

Editorial in Mail Today, New Delhi

THERE will be a tendency in India to take President Asif Zardari’s remarks on how Pakistan itself created religious extremists “to achieve some short- term tactical objectives”, with a generous dose of salt. The ever- smiling Pakistani leader is known to come up with dramatic statements and gestures.

But even so, there is some value in the man who is president of the country saying it like it is. It adds to creating a climate of opinion which sees these extremists for what they are — terrorists — and not, as the president himself pointed out, as “heroes”. Even today, there are sections of public opinion in Pakistan who lionise these extremists out of some misguided patriotism.

It is a fact that policy- makers in Pakistan, especially the military and the intelligence agencies, saw the Islamic militant groups as “strategic assets” which could be used to obtain influence for Islamabad in Afghanistan and India. It is also well known that the idea of using religious extremists to fight a war against Russian forces that had occupied Afghanistan came originally from the troika — United States, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

After Nine- Eleven, the US and Saudi Arabia changed tack, but Pakistan has found it much more difficult to do so. Through most of his presidency, the Pakistani military leader and president, Pervez Musharraf ran with the hare and hunted with the hounds.

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