Counter-Terrorism: Another Cure That Is Worse Than The Disease

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September 10, 2009: India and Pakistan find themselves with a common enemy, in the form of Islamic terrorists dedicated to running all non-Moslems, out of Indian Kashmir. Although Pakistan, as part of peace talks with India, has agreed to put the Kashmir issue (which is political dynamite inside Pakistan) aside while many other issues are resolved, the Islamic terrorists inside Pakistan will not relent. These Islamic terrorist groups, which Pakistan allowed, and initially encouraged, to be formed for the "war" on Indian Kashmir, have refused to abide by any truce, or be part of any peace deal with India. This has led to increasing violence in northern Pakistan (especially in the Pakistani half of Kashmir.)

To put this in perspective, last year the Pakistanis reduced the number of Islamic terrorists sneaking into Indian Kashmir to 126. But so far this year, nearly 250 have come across. The Islamic radicals have gone to war with the Pakistani government. Most of the fighting, that is reported in the West, is what is going on near the Afghan border. But there's a smaller, and nastier, battle going on at the Indian border as well. Ceasefire violations on the "Line of Control" (border between Indian and Pakistani Kashmir) went from three in 2006 (the start of the peace negotiations between the two countries), to 21 in 2007 and 147 last year.

But on the Pakistani side of the border, there are more battles between Islamic terrorist groups and Pakistani security forces. Despite this, the Islamic terrorists are still in business, although weakened because of having to take on Pakistani security forces.

The fighting against the Pakistani terrorists has not gone as well as hoped for, because a large minority of Pakistanis still support terrorism against India, and Islamic conservatism in particular. Thus the Pakistani government faces civil disorder in many areas where Islamic radical religious schools, and terrorist training camps, operate. While India has been dealing with Islamic terrorism, the Pakistanis face that, and civil disorder, and civil war, as well.

It was the Pakistanis who allowed the Islamic radical movement to grow and prosper, when they decided, three decades ago, that this might be the cure to the corruption and malaise that afflicted the country. It didn't work, and now that cure is worse than the disease.