| December 21, 2002 | Saturday | Shawwal 16, 1423 |
Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)
Kashmir on the boil
Schroeder’s positive stance
A HOUSE being used as an explosives warehouse by suspected militants blew up in Karachi on Thursday, reportedly killing one of the chieftains of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and three other people. On the same day, law enforcers raided a house in Lahore and arrested a Pakistani American doctor and some members of his family, apparently to probe for links with Afghanistan. Also on Thursday, nine people were rounded up in a midnight swoop in Multan on suspicion of being involved in subversive activities and suicide attack plots. In the wake of the Karachi blast, police say they have recovered a motorcycle loaded with explosives and remnants of rockets. They believe that Asif Ramzi, wanted in the Daniel Pearl murder case and other violent incidents, may be among those dead. The incident will aggravate all the worst fears about Karachi being turned into a hotbed of terrorist operations. The city has been jolted by several frightening occurrences besides the Pearl murder, including an attempt on the life of the president, and the hotel and US consulate attacks. These have taken place after a period of lull following savage ethnic and sectarian mayhem, whose memories still haunt the city’s residents.
The Lahore and Multan arrests have yet to be fully explained. The manner in which the Lahore doctor was picked up is reminiscent of the Amir Aziz case, which had become quite a cause celebre with both right-wing parties and civil rights groups. Dr Aziz has since been released after intensive questioning on his alleged links with Al Qaeda, and it is not known whether the authorities benefited from his long incarceration. Reports about the second doctor now in the authorities’ custody point in the same vague direction of an Afghanistan connection. While the government may be within its rights to seek the aid of foreign intelligence agencies in its anti-terror drive, there is widespread resentment at the high-handed tactics employed by the authorities in invading citizens’ houses and summarily whisking away people without fulfilling legal requirements. Lawless acts by the state can only breed further lawlessness. When seen in conjunction with the government’s inability to establish cases against some prominent figures associated with banned militant and sectarian organizations, leading to the latter’s release on court orders, its hit-and-miss approach looks as if it is engaged in a game of blind man’s buff.
Yet the threat posed to national security by terrorists is real; how real is established yet again by the Karachi explosion. Scores of innocent people, both Pakistanis and foreigners, have paid with their blood for the acts of governments and organizations motivated by a mindless thirst for revenge. The chickens of the Afghanistan and Kashmir conflicts are increasingly coming home to roost in Pakistan. Our real enemy is now amidst us as an ever present threat. Irrespective of the origins of our troubles, those inciting, executing, preaching or condoning violence must be relentlessly pursued and tracked down. But we need not turn into bullies while doing so. Rule of law and the rights of citizens must be respected. Parliament should at its earliest ask for a full public accounting of the actions taken so far, the success achieved, the methods employed, and the future course of action in dealing with the problem of terrorism. Unnecessarily withholding information only leads to suspicions. Meanwhile, political parties, which now hold the field, should stop protecting groups or individuals known to have been stirring sectarian or religious extremism.
ANGRY demonstrators have taken to the streets across the length and breadth of Indian-held Kashmir following the sentencing to death of three local men accused of masterminding the attack on the Indian parliament last December. The men were sentenced by a special court in New Delhi, provoking dismay in Kashmir and among human rights groups. Critics allege that the sentence was handed out hastily without following the due process of law and that the evidence cited was flimsy. The wife of one of the men charged was also sentenced to five years imprisonment for not informing the police of her husband’s alleged involvement in the conspiracy. The judgment was handed out under POTA, the controversial new anti-terrorism law which gives sweeping powers to the security forces. The law has been widely condemned as being draconian in its scope and liable to be misused. The first sign of how the law could be used selectively came following the outbreak of violence in Gujarat earlier this year. When a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was attacked at Godhra, hundreds of Muslims were rounded up under POTA. However, when the anti-Muslim pogroms followed the Godhra incident, none of the Hindu attackers were detained under that law.
Critics have described the recent sentence as unduly harsh given that none of the men were accused of actually taking part in the attack. They were charged with masterminding the plan and providing logistic support to the five attackers, all of whom were killed during the attack. The special court judge who announced the verdict expressed his bias saying that the men deserved the harshest punishment as they were enemies of the state and were working at the behest of Osama bin Laden and Pakistan. Meanwhile, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference termed the trial as being “stage-managed” and designed to malign the Kashmiri freedom struggle by labelling it a terrorist movement. Lawyers of the sentenced men and woman are determined to challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court, hoping to undo what they see as a gross miscarriage of justice.
MR GERHARD Schroeder’s remarks must have gladdened the Turks. After the snub given to the new reformist government in Ankara by the Copenhagen summit, the German chancellor has come out strongly in favour of Turkish membership of the European Union. Speaking in parliament, Mr Schroeder said Turkey should become an EU member for reasons of history and political reality. Turkey was a bridge between Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, he said, and added that it would be “wrong and dangerous” to believe that Muslims could not be part of Europe. Muslims, he said, were already “part of daily life.” At Copenhagen earlier this month, it was France that delayed entry negotiations. Turkey was disappointed in the sense that it believed it would get a date for entry negotiations. But the summiteers gave dates to 10 other countries, including eight former communist states, but ignored Turkey. Instead, it gave Turkey December 2004 as the date for entry negotiations if Ankara continued to proceed with reforms. After the summit, Prime Minister Abdullah Gul pointedly accused French President Jacques Chirac of blackmail and held him responsible for the delay.
Mr Schroeder specifically spoke out against referring to Turkey’s membership bid as a Muslim attempt to gatecrash into a Christian club. One hopes Germany’s views on the issue will have a salutary effect on Europe, especially on France, which since the days of Charles de Gaulle has attached the highest importance to working closely with Germany. The Turks, on their part, have pledged to continue to work for EU membership. One hopes Ankara will be able to come up to the EU criteria by the time the summit takes place in December 2004.