Let’s get this straight, once and for all : if the United States of America had not invaded Afghanistan 10 years ago, Pakistan would not have been subjected to the appalling violence that has plagued the country ever since. It seems to have been forgotten that the invasion drove hundreds of vicious barbarians across the border into Pakistan where they motivated like-minded fanatics to help wreck the country. Their aim is to establish a regional regime of fundamentalist bigotry, supposedly in the name of religion.

The crassness of Washington in blaming Pakistan for having suffered 38,000 of its own citizens killed in terrorist attacks is mind-boggling. There is frenzied expostulation about militants entering Afghanistan from Pakistan and creating havoc – which they undoubtedly do – but rarely a word about what happens in reverse.

Last week I was in Mohmand, having a look around and speaking with the Pakistan Army brigade commander responsible for operations in the north of the Agency, abutting Afghanistan. The previous night his brigade had suffered two killed in an attack by militants from across the border. It was yet another example of sacrifices that are ignored by such as Secretary of State Clinton who on October 20 yet again criticised Pakistan for not “ridding their own country of terrorists who kill their own people and who cross the border to kill in Afghanistan”. What a fatuously offensive comment.

In August about 400 Taliban from Afghanistan attacked three border posts in Chitral and killed over 30 members of the police and Chitral Scouts. And the world yawned. It only happened in Pakistan, after all.

But when there are incursions into Afghanistan from Pakistan, the lights flash and the tom toms beat, and Pakistan gets all the blame.

The brigadier in Mohmand described Operation Brekhna which took place in three phases from January to September. There were feats of amazing bravery on the part of his officers and soldiers

fighting a well-trained enemy who had vast amounts of arms and ammunition – most of it from across the border. The brigade and the Frontier Scouts suffered 74 killed and 250 wounded, of whom 47 were maimed in IED explosions.

Washington yawned again, and continued to allege that Pakistan’s government, army and ISI are supporting murderous thugs such as the Tehreek-i-Taliban which has boasted about carrying out the Chitral killings. Even the BBC has joined in the campaign of vilification.

In the course of one phase of Operation Brekhna the brigade disarmed 1671 IEDs in a 30 kilometre strip of territory. The soldiers destroyed nine bomb factories and uncovered elaborate tunnel and cave systems, in one of which was a 40 bed hospital with saline drips and much other medical equipment. It was obvious that enormous quantities of ammunition had been acquired from sources in Afghanistan. In one example, over 10,000 rounds of 12.7mm heavy machine gun ammunition were captured. Now that doesn’t mean much in terms of truckloads, but the weight of this number of rounds is some 2250 pounds, without belts, links and ancillary bits and pieces, which by any standards is a difficult load to transport in the truckless jagged mountain terrain of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. But nothing was done on the Afghan side to prevent its movement, or that of massive quantities of other weapons and equipment. Foreign and Afghan troops do not venture into the region between the border and the Kunar River, and militants continue to operate from base camps in the area.

Mohmand was not the highest of Pakistan’s pacification priorities until last year. First of all there was the imperative of taking on the Taliban in Swat and its surrounds, and conducting operations in other Fata agencies. The army has now restored peace to most of South Waziristan, and the commander 11 corps in Peshawar told me his formations are concentrating on border security and assisting in rebuilding the devastated regions from which the militants have been ejected. There were 80 killed and 243 injured in the army’s operations. Yet on October 17 the Washington Post had a headline declaring that “Pakistan leans toward talks with Taliban, not battle”.

The Swat operation was also successful, resulting in defeat of the extremists and restoration of normality, as I saw last week. But this victory also came at a terrible price, with the army suffering 228 killed and 757 wounded. No doubt the clever commentators who blame Pakistan for America’s shambles in Afghanistan will find some way of explaining that the army’s losses in Swat in some fashion mean that Pakistan is failing to fight the Taliban. And of course Ms Clinton had to declare on October 13 that “We are going to press the Pakistanis even harder about being a positive player” in America’s desperate search for a face-saving exit from their Afghanistan debacle. She and all the others in Washington who so vigorously criticise Pakistan do not realise how deeply offensive this sort of arrogant garbage can be to soldiers whose comrades have shed their blood because of America’s war.

There have been few if any reports in foreign media about the army’s accomplishments in defeating militants – and not much cover of the fact that the leader of the sadistic savages who subjected the inhabitants of Swat to brutal tyranny is now in a safe haven across the border in Afghanistan. The evil Maulvi Fazlullah, who all but destroyed the Swat region, is based in Nuristan, from where he announced recently that he and his followers would continue to attack those who favour law, order and decency in Pakistan.

Yet Washington continues to berate, insult and menace Pakistan for allegedly supporting these Taliban barbarians who are threatening the very existence of the country. The US claims that Pakistan fights only against the Taliban who try to destroy Pakistan but supports factions of the Taliban who fight against foreign and national troops in Afghanistan. What an interesting distinction. It is intriguing to imagine just how differentiation can be made between groups of murderous thugs who are all intent on eliminating tolerance, progress and civilisation.

Last week, as I watched trucks laden with massive marble boulders shuddering down the roads in Mohmand to the factories in Peshawar I reflected that this commerce had been impossible before the army’s operations in the Agency. When I saw the files of schoolgirls chattering their way along country roads in Swat I remembered that female education had been impossible before the army’s operations in the District. And when I contemplated the reports of dead and wounded of the army and Frontier Scouts I resented the fact that their sacrifice is regarded as trivial by those who constantly blame Pakistan for America’s failure in Afghanistan.



The writer is a South Asian affairs analyst. www.beecluff.com

