Pakistan’s ISI: Between survival and disintegration
By Praveen Swami
The army chief hoped to disengage his troops from a gruelling and unpopular counter-terrorism campaign. Instead, the violence in the northwest has escalated. His efforts to purchase peace by reaching an accommodation with Islamists have yielded nothing. Despite the horrific terrorism Pakistan has faced in recent years, its military establishment has chosen not to act against Islamist terror groups operating from its soil —organisations which include not just the Taliban but also the Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Lashkar and the Harkat ul-Jihad-e-Islami. Few in Pakistan’s military establishment are willing to acknowledge that the urban terrorism in its cities, like the conflicts in the northwest, is the outcome of the state’s long-running use of jihadist terror as an instrument of foreign policy.
