| News Details |
| What Pakistan can learn from Headley | |
By Allabaksh
If there is one lesson which Pakistan can learn from the David Headley episode, it is that terrorism doesn’t pay.
David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani American, who helped carry out the Mumbai attacks of November 2008, has now decided to turn an approver and is willing to reveal all about his role, his mentors in Pakistan and every other detail which has remained in the cloud of mystery for the world, except for the US and Pakistan.
Now Pakistan knows Headley quite well. So does Headley about Pakistan and its jihadi machinery. Headley was a critical component of the Mumbai attack plan. Without Headley, the attack would not have taken place. Headley was identified, picked out, persuaded and trained by Pakistan Army’s highly secretive wing, known only as Section S, in the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency.
This process of identification of a deep asset like Headley could have been in the works for at least two to four years before the attack. This means that Pakistan Army had made the decision to carry out an attack of the magnitude of Mumbai a few years before November 2008. The Army chief at that time was General Pervez Musharraf. The ISI chief was Lt. General Ashfaq Kayani. The present chief, General Raheel Sharif, during the planning stage of the Mumbai attack, was the Military Secretary to General Musharraf. All three had a close knowledge of Headley and the Mumbai attack.
The Mumbai attack was obviously a top priority and highly secretive operation launched by Pakistan Army against India and therefore only top echelons of the force might have been kept in the loop about the entire conspiracy. Headley’s selection and training was only known to this handful few of the Generals. Headley would in turn know far more than what Pakistan Army would like the world to know about its terrorist activities.
Headley knows about the people who met him and facilitated his stay, briefing and training in Pakistan over a long period of time. He knows how Pakistan Army managed to send him to India and what were the conduits the army used to exploit his presence in India and the subsequent intrusion by 10 terrorists trained by Pakistan Army. Headley may not know the full extent of the jihadi empire supported by the army but knows well enough to nail the lie which the army and civilian leaders in Pakistan often brag in the international circles about their innocence. Headley can rip the mask of deniability from Pakistan Army and establish it as a fountainhead of terror, a force which needs to be sanctioned and punished and not supplied with weapons.
Headley has another trump card up his sleeve—he knows about Lashkar-e-tayyeba (LeT), a terrorist organisation which survives solely on the patronage of Pakistan Army. The Army had chosen LeT, over other terrorist proxies, to train and house Headley simply for the reason that LeT was the most loyal of all such groups and its leader Hafiz Saeed was a faithful orderly of the Generals. Saeed enjoys the privileges of such a patronage and is more loyal to the army than the king. Since Headley worked closely with Saeed and LeT he knows the extent of the relationship between the master, that is the army, and the agent, that is LeT. This could prove to be a problem for the Generals who would find it difficult to deny their over-arching patronage of a group which has been banned by most of the countries in the world and the UN.
Headley is therefore in a unique position to expose not only the army’s jihadi orientation and infrastructure but also that of LeT and the nature of its relationship with the army and its Generals. The Generals would find it difficult to deny or refute what Headley had to say. The world in general is already deeply suspicious of Pakistan army’s terrorist support and activities and Headley’s admissions before a court of law would nail whatever doubts there is about Pakistan’s role in creating terrorist groups and destabilising large parts of the world.
Headley’s video testimony in a court of law must be held against Pakistan state and the persons and institutions responsible for recruiting and training Headley and 10 or more terrorists to attack Mumbai must be punished. The punishment has to be exemplary. The states sponsoring terrorism must be severely dealt with. Supporting terrorism must invite global sanction. Pakistan therefore must face the consequences of raising and supporting terrorist groups like LeT and their activities against sovereign nations. The one lesson which Pakistan must be made to learn is that terrorism doesn’t pay.
(The author is a Kashmir based Freelance Journalist)
(Disclaimer: The views, observations and opinions expressed in above write up of Scoop News are strictly author's own. Scoop News does not take any onus or liability for the veracity, accuracy, validity, completeness, suitability of any of information in the above given write up. The information, facts or figures appearing in the write up in no way manifest the position, standpoint or stance of Scoop News and the Scoop News does not assume any encumbrance or answerability of the same.)
Editor
Scoop News,(scoopnews.in)
... |
| |
|
|
Share this Story |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|