Kashmir dispute no breeding ground for terrorism: Gates
January 23rd, 2010 - 2:01 pm ICT by ANI ( 1 comment )
Islamabad, Jan.23 (ANI): US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has rubbished Pakistan’s long standing stance that the unresolved issues like the Kashmir dispute were breeding terrorism and providing food for thought for banned extremist organisations like Al-Qaeda.
Interacting with reporters at the residence of US Ambassador, Anne Patterson, here, Gates said groups like Al-Qaeda are hardly concerned over the long pending Kashmir issue.
“Al Qaeda doesn’t care about Kashmir, what it cares is creating problems and provoking conflict,” Gates said.
Gates’s latest remarks are in addition to his statements, which he gave in New Delhi earlier this week, that Al-Qaeda through its off-shoots such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other similar organizations, was trying to destabilize the region by igniting a war between India and Pakistan.
He also blasted people, who divided the terror groups in two groups, saying bifurcating these banned extremist organizations into ‘good and ‘bad’ was a ‘mistaken approach’.
Responding to queries over the Pakistan Army’s decision to not to launch any new offensive against extremists in the next six to twelve months, Gates said: “Pakistan is a sovereign country and it would make its own decision about what is the best timing for their military operation, when they are going to do it, or whether they are going to do it at all.”
He also clarified that the US Defence Deparment had nothing to do with the controversial private security firm Blackwater’s presence in Pakistan.
“We have no connection with Blackwater in Pakistan.Department of Defence does not use Blackwater in Pakistan. Well, they’re (Blackwater) operating as individual companies here in Pakistan, in Afghanistan and in Iraq,” Gates said.
It is pertinent to mention here that a couple of days ago Gates had admitted the presence of Blackwater and DynCorp in Pakistan. (ANI)
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Tags: anne patterson, breeding ground, department of defence, dyncorp, extremist organizations, india and pakistan, individual companies, kashmir dispute, kashmir issue, lashkar e taiba, military operation, pakistan army, private security, robert gates, secretary robert, security firm, sovereign country, terror groups, unresolved issues, us defence secretary
January 24th, 2010 at 2:06 am
I am convinced that Pakistan is a rogue state created on false premises. The most significant jihadi group of Wahhabi persuasion is Lashkar-e-Taiba (The Army of Pure) founded in 1989 by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed. Backed by Saudi money and protected by Pakistani intelligence services, Lashkar-e-Taiba became the military wing of Markaz al-Dawa wal-Irshad (Centre for the Call to Righteousness). After US banned and froze its assets, Saeed changed its name from Laskr… to Jamaat-ul-Dawa (The Society for Preaching). These are the obsevations of Pakistani Islamic
scholars researching on Islam but working abroad.
He further adds, that this organisation mainly operates in Kashmir and have slowed down its activities against Kashmir and India to allow US and Pakistan to honour its commitments (following 26/11). But Saeed remains free and continues to expand membership of his organisation despite divisions in its leadership.
“Good and Bad Taliban” has exposed the President Zardari in Swat Valley. It didn’t last a few weeks and they proved their “GOODNESS”. The present Pakistani leadership has proved its capability and no wonder, the Pak Military still dictates its ‘Dictats’ de facto, if not de jure. Does anybody have doubts about Pakistan as a failed state?
Jilani blurts to Robert Gates that he gives no guarantee of another attack on India like 26/11. They are also facing these jihadis in their country. Then Jilani has to explain,”Who is ruling Pakistan and who could be contacted or held responsible for similar acts commited from his soil”? Or else, is he fit to govern that so called nation or “will he admit that Pakistan is a failed state in clear terms”. Does he indirectly admit it by his refusal to guarantee for the crimes commited from the soil of
Pakistan? He will have to answer all these questions.
Let me quote Maulana Abul Kalam Azad what he said in 1957, i.e. 14 yrs before the actual creation of Bangladesh, “…that it was one
of the greatest frauds on the people that religious affinity can unite area which are geographically, economically, linguistically and culturally different.” He was worried that a common religion may not be enough to unite East and West Pakistan. He further pointed out how Pakistan’s enormous military budget would crowd out development and harm the interests of most Pakistanis. Yet Pakistan has always blamed India for Bangladesh tragedy.
Maulana Saheb sitting in India worried over the wisdom of Jinnah - the sole person responsible for all its boons or banes. Pakistan today has not enough power supply, food commodities, basic education facilities, no feminine rights, no life security, no freedom of speech, no protection to minority communities, constant Shia-Sunni riots, no cohesion in the pillars of the democratic institutions and other human rights; yet they are always forthright for blaming India for all its ill governance. Kashmir is just an excuse for several reasons.
The mindset of the entire Pak clan has deviated from the civil norms of the modern world. They have no shame for begging, lies and misdemenour. They can change their stance any second. One fellow saying one thing and the other colleague at the same time contradicting him, is a normal and regular phenomenon. Take the recent example of DynCorp & Blackwater scandal.
Let me add a final word to Jilani’s statement of facing these jihadi rogues himself; I am worried for the very survival
of Pakistan as a state, in the wake of the present situation but I hope that it does not happen. As it will be a danger to the entire world civil society. Even worst, they may not prove the dastardly cause for the “WW III”, nobody would like it to happen.
Dr. O. P. Sudrania,