Mumbai attacks
Re: Op-Ed: "This fire needs to be put out," by Fareed Zakaria (Dec. 2).
In this context, Fareed Zakaria should take a look why a prominent Pakistani-Canadian scholar thinks that the extremists inside Pakistan in collusion with rogue elements in the ISI were behind the Mumbai attack. Dr. Tarek Fatah, a prominent Pakistani-Canadian scholar and author of Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State, in an article, "All signs point to Pakistan," published in Canada's National Post, wrote: "The terrorist mayhem in Mumbai had barely subsided when I received the first e-mail suggesting the attacks had been carried out by agents of Mossad -- Israel's foreign intelligence agency -- masquerading as Islamic terrorists to give Muslims a bad name. ... If at all there was an intelligence agency whose footprints can be spotted at the crime scene, it appears to be rogue elements from Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), which is hell-bent on disrupting India's (recently improving) relations with neighbouring Pakistan."
Dr. Fatah goes on to elaborate: "For two decades, the ISI has been the de-facto government in Pakistan, toppling regimes, aiding the Taliban, giving cover to al-Qaeda fugitives and running a business empire worth billions of dollars. In July, the new democratically elected government in Islamabad, led by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, attempted to bring the ISI under civilian control. Under threat of a military coup, it had to perform a humiliating about face within 24 hours."
Dr. Fatah concludes: "Most security commentators agree that the Deccan Mujahedeen is merely a tag of convenience, and that behind this well-planned terror attack lies Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT), a major militant group fighting in Indian Kashmir -- the same group that has recently warned Zardari to desist from warming up to India."
As such, India should differentiate between the Pakistan's civilian government and its military establishment. The elected government of President Zardari has no control over the military establishment which will never tolerate any civilian interference. In fact, the civilian government lives under the constant fear of being overthrown by the military. Despite constant attacks by the extremists in collusion with rogue elements of the ISI as Dr. Tarek Fatah so correctly pointed out, India must try to cooperate with Pakistan's civilian government and help it to isolate the renegade military elements. Only then this fire can be put out.
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