A Sino-American
Turf Battle in Pakistan?
By Ahmed Quraishi
Islamabad, Pakistan
An anti-American Islamic fanatic is arrested
in Afghanistan, flown to Guantanamo Bay and then
released back to Afghan authorities. He’s
supposedly seething with anti-Americanism. But
after crossing the border and returning to Pakistan,
his first mission is to kidnap and kill a Chinese
engineer.
In doing so, Abdullah Mehsud also becomes the
first Pakistani to kill a Chinese citizen on Pakistani
soil in a high profile case, creating an unfortunate
precedent in the sixty-year long history of close
Sino-Pak ties.
Mehsud was anti-American. Or was he? We haven’t
seen him target any high or low profile American
assets since the famous 2004 kidnappings. But
he has single handedly done what others failed
to do: he effectively scuttled Chinese help in
a major Pakistani development project.
His sick explanation for this was, “I wanted
to embarrass the government of President Pervez
Musharraf.”
This twisted logic has resurfaced again in the
past few weeks with suicide attacks in Pakistan
targeting both Pakistani soldiers and Chinese
citizens in a single wave, starting with the kidnapping
of seven Chinese citizens in the Pakistani capital
by militants working for Rashid Ghazi, the leader
of the Red Mosque brigade. Mr. Ghazi maintained
strong ties to some fringe extremist elements
in the border area with Afghanistan. His contacts
included foreign fighters with shadowy backgrounds.
Targeting Pakistani soldiers and Chinese interests
is a strange combination. Islamic radicals, who
used to kill the Americans, are now ironically
targeting the Pakistani military and Chinese citizens.
What’s going on?
Chinese ambassador Luo Zhaohui told me recently
that ten private Chinese citizens working in Pakistan
died in terror attacks in three years. “And
the venue has also changed,” he says, “from
rural areas to big cities like Islamabad and Peshawar.
The motivation has also changed and become more
diversified. So I think maybe the security risk
my people face here is up.”
After the Red Mosque operation, some analysts
in the Pakistani strategic community detected
a clear attempt at provoking a confrontation inside
Pakistan between religious elements on one side,
including the moderate ones, and China on the
other. This attempt took the shape of successive
attacks against Chinese interests here coupled
with suspicious press leaks meant to inflame Muslim
passions against China.
A case in point: London’s Sunday Times revealed
quoting unnamed sources that China is summarily
executing Chinese Muslim militants arrested and
handed over by Pakistan. This report is meant
to inflame rightwing segments of the Pakistani
public opinion, already angry at Islamabad for
handing over terror suspects to Washington.
In the sixty-year history of confrontation between
Islam and the West over Palestine/Israel, this
appears to be the first real attempt at dragging
China into the battle. But the real loser here
– if this plan works out – is none
but Pakistan, China ’s strongest Muslim
ally.
China is helping Pakistan launch one of the region’s
hottest pieces of real estate: the Gwadar seaport
on the mouth of the strategic Arabian Gulf. This
piece of land is so hot that business interests
from Dubai and Singapore virtually fought a battle
in order to get the management rights for the
port. Gwadar gives China ’s massive western
provinces an energy and trade outlet. Pakistan
gets to give Central Asia the shortest trade route
to the sea.
India and Iran have been working overtime to thwart
this Sino-Pakistani project. The Americans, too,
don’t want to see China establishing a foothold
in Pakistan, at the crossroads of South, Central
and West Asia. The Americans have not said anything
yet. But actions speak louder than words. Example:
the shadowy terrorist organization named Balochistan
Liberation Army.
India and some elements in US-occupied Afghanistan
have created this outfit, commonly known as the
BLA. It has real training bases in Afghanistan
where there is no government beyond Kabul and
where the Americans, too, are not in control.
This is the same place where India has more ‘consulates’
than any other country in the world with diplomatic
ties to Afghanistan. Most of these consulates
are, ironically, close to Pakistan ’s western
provinces.
The Indians are doing something else near Pakistan’s
western border: building an airbase in Tajikistan
and transferring military aircraft there. Indian
diplomats in Pakistan are often embarrassed when
their Pakistani friends ask them about the purpose
of this overzealous attempt at projecting power.
They simply don’t have a convincing answer.
The point is, since the fall of Taliban regime
in Kabul and the sudden rise of foreign influence
inside Afghanistan, including that of the Americans
and the Indians, Pakistan ’s western regions
close to Afghanistan are witnessing the worst
kind of destabilization.
The last time our western regions were this unstable
is when Afghanistan was a Soviet proxy and being
used as a forward base for stirring a communist
takeover in Pakistan.
BLA is a killer of Pakistanis and Chinese, a shadowy
terrorist organization in the classic mold of
the Cold War foreign-trained and financed proxy
groups.
Washington refuses to designate the BLA a terrorist
organization. Pakistani authorities have known
for months now that both Abdullah Mehsud, the
supposed Pakistani Taliban leader, and the cadres
of BLA, are in Afghanistan.
This week, Pakistani security personnel swooped
in on Mehsud after he sneaked in from Afghanistan
and blew him to pieces. The right move at the
right time.
These days Washington is lecturing us, the ungrateful
Pakistanis, about how we don’t trust America
despite the ten billion dollars in aid since 9/11.
Pundits like the US presidential hopeful Rudy
Giuliani has gone to the extent of demanding the
overthrow of the Pakistani administration and
maybe even invading Pakistan.
The Americans expect us to bend backwards for
them when they don’t demonstrate even the
slightest consideration for their ally’s
legitimate security and strategic concerns in
the region.
But if Washington is trying to meddle in our affairs,
it is because the Pakistanis don’t have
a strong political system. Our messy domestic
politics have always been a nagging security concern
for us. And since the fabricated 9 March ‘crisis’,
our failed political system in its present form
has actually become a national security threat
and liability, providing openings for more emboldened
foreign interference, with money flowing in from
multiple sources to create instability and ensure
the win of certain elements over others in our
domestic context.
(The writer heads the Pakistan Task Force at FurmaanRealpolitik,
an independent Pakistani think tank based in Islamabad.
He also produces and hosts a foreign policy show
for PTV Network)
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