Shahzad Phenomenon
May 6, 2010 by nannikapoor
Filed under war on terror
Yes indeed the incident is part of global phenomenon of Jihadis acting against the West with single-minded devotion. It is surprising that Shahzad was from an affluent Pakistan military family and was trained and indoctrinated in the Pakistan’s terror university. That he was an educated, middleclass, married and US naturalised citizen doing well for himself is what is intriguing, like the plot from “Qurban,” the Bollywood movie. He doesn’t fit the routine Jihadis caricature of beards and turban. He stands for the Terror factory’s suave up market employee out to teach the West a lesson and depicts the growing reach of Pakistan based Jihadis. Was he settling his personal score and vendetta or was he the warrior of the Jihadis. If that is true is this a phenomenon or an isolated case?
Rahman Malik, Pakistan’s interior minister has this to say “If the individual decides to take the training individually and then gets motivated or does an act on his own, you cannot level that as a collective thing from Pakistan, or say that any sort of help is being given to them,”. But Mr Malik said the fact the incident took place in the US and that Faisal Shahzad was a naturalised US citizen made him the responsibility of the US. Technically, Mr Rahman is right. Pakistan can and will deny any complexity in this case and succeed for obvious reasons.
But the issue goes far deeper than this isolated case. When Pakistan permits terror groups to operate from its soil against India, it can not compartmentalise them when it comes to US or Israel. The Jihadi groups are all-pervasive in Pakistan and their reach is growing. Lashkar e Tayyeba is truly going global and it appears difficult to surmise whether ISI is controlling them or vice versa.
There are other ominous portends of this incident. The capacity and capability of Pakistan based terror groups to recruit urban cadres well versed in the ways of life in the West. Other implication is their capability to conduct such operations even in a secure area such as Times Square. Had the bomb gone off, these groups would have achieved a major psychological advantage vis-a-vis USA.
It is no secret that the Pakistan Army has an armed wing of the Jihadis being used as their strategic assets against India. Some factions are also being trained to conduct operations against the West and the Zionists. The terror universities and factories mushrooming in Pakistan would continue to operate with or without the support of the Army. They now have deep links with al Qaeda. Some analysts argue that they have in fact overtaken the responsibilities of al Qaeda who apparently have moved to Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia as a result of GWOT in Af Pak region.
As per a BBC report, Pakistani intelligence sources describe three concentric rings of militancy, all of which now find their home in North Waziristan. The core leadership of al-Qaeda is down to less than 100 Arabs. The next ring comprises hundreds of fighters from other countries including Yemen, Libya, Kenya, Somalia and Uzbekistan. Finally, sources estimate there are around 10,000 Pakistani militants, largely under the umbrella of the TTP or Pakistani Taliban. What Pakistan is obviously obfuscating is that it has huge numbers of cadres of India centric groups such as Lashkar, Jaish, HIzbul Mujahideen and the likes which run the basic madarsas and training camps across Pakistan. Terror unfortunately is omni directional and this epicentre of terrorism is providing the cannon fodder for disturbing the global peace.
In the meanwhile, as the investigations into Shahzad’s Pakistan connections progress, Pakistan will cover all the holes in the mosaic of Shahzad’s Jihadi connections in Pakistan. In all probabilities he will be disowned like Kasab – an expendable commodity in Pakistan’s terror war.
Pakistan Tribune says, ” Right now, the best strategy for the government of Pakistan — and the institutions that come under it — would be to aid the investigation and help find any accomplices so that the rest of the world does not see even an iota of prevarication. The much-hyped but muchneglected registration of madrassahs should be revisited as should be a previous failed attempt to monitor sermons given by prayer leaders in our mosques. And as a society, we all need to ask ourselves what it is that makes us get involved in such things.”
Has it started to sink in that terror has long been “Made in Pakistan”?
There are some nagging questions in this story. Why is TTP saying they did it with US refusing the same? Is there a CIA involvement in this game and if yes what is their motive -maybe to pressurise Pakistan.
We can only wait and watch – because that is what we are capable of and that is what we have been doing. Mailnly because other than crying hoarse, we can actually not do anything.
It is not that the entire world can not see what is going on in Pakistan. Probably keeping Pak on thier side is but a compulsion for the Western world since that helps them in achieving their agenda in Central Asia and may be due to the growing influence of China as well. They may not want to take on Pak at this stage, but will they ever want to take it on any time in the future, especially with the nukes that it has????
For India, just wait and watch and continue to fight terrorism…………….
Launching of a Terrorist is like a grenade lobbed in the darkness; directionless in origin, an eerie silence before the crack of explosion, disastrous in its aftermath and impressionable in the minds of Govts, let alone the target populace.
The ‘lore’ of the jihadis have probably a charm of the unknown. Very much like maniacal fan folllowing, the target recruit is enamoured by the ripples of a terrorist bomber and the idolatory propoganda that go with it. It is therefore elementary – the fact that long term fraternity bonding and indoctrination nurture the tripwire ‘action’ of the deluded youth (terrorist). To consider a jihadi action of a US citizen as a ‘one off ‘ case under US jurisdiction is rather ‘pedestrian’ escapist remark to a discerning audience.
The Poppy seed may be the ‘Olive’ in the raven’s beak but the poppy fields are the ‘Genesis’.
@ Raj
I don’t think this is a one off case. The US war machinery is already considering increasing its troop presence in Pakistan as per media reports to curb such incidents. That they may even push Pakistan harder for operations in North Waziristan, till now not touched by Pakistan military, is now a real possibility.
The blow back will be difficult for Pakistan whose lie has once again been nailed. They are the epicentre of global terror and US is beginning to understand a fact which the Indian governments have been trying to tell the US for the past decade and more.
That this will affect Pakistan terror factories is debatable given Pakistan establishment’s intransigence in this context.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has commented in an interview that while the US has gotten more co-operation which has been a real sea change in the commitment from the Pakistan government but she wanted more and that were an attack on American soil be proved to originate from Pakistan there would be dire consequences.
How much more proof does she want and how long will she take to yield the stick would be interesting to watch. Headley, Rana and Shahzad are not the same as Kasab, or are they?
@ Raj and Chanakya
America has been pushed to the wall by the raging fire of Pakistan’s terror factories. Somehow one doesn’t hear too much of al Qaeda, it is all about Taliban, Pakistani or Afghan. Results in Marjah are also indicating people preferring Taliban over ISAF. The US is losing the battle of hearts and minds there too. The complexity can only be mellowed by strict action by Pakistan under US watch, a situation which the Generals in Pakistan abhor.
Shahzad has put additional strain on this relationship. The crux however is to ascertain more Headleys and Shahzads before another repeat of 9/11.
The phenomenon has already begun to have its negative impact amongst the Pakistani diaspora in the west. What fascinates me is the call of Islam these upwardly mobile youngsters are responding to. This has dangerous repercussion for both the west and the Muslims across the world. Checking growth of urban islamic terror will be tough to handle- because for the educated in this information age, bombs are not the only means to practice terror.