Pakistani warplanes and ground forces killed at least 77 militants in a northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said Friday, days after Taliban fighters killed 148 people - most of them children - in a school massacre.
Pakistan has a long history of supporting domestic terrorists and terror organization working across its borders. When the Taliban hijacked Afghanistan to form an Islamic state between 1996-2001 and carried out ethnic-cleansing of its minority (the Hazara and others), Pakistan was among the three countries that choose to recognize them despite strong worldwide condemnation
Pakistan’s addiction to jihad eventually destroyed its own security. The policy was first used in the 1980s, when Pakistan, then with full U.S. backing, supported Islamist warriors against the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union. After the Soviet withdrawal, Pakistan turned the jihadists on long-term enemy India in the 1990s, especially in the disputed region of Kashmir. By the mid-1990s, Pakistan promoted the emergence of a new Islamist movement in Afghanistan, the Taliban.
When everyone in the world was searching for bin Laden, the leader of a terrorist organization, guess where he found a safe haven? Pakistan.
Pakistan has also conveniently ignored act of terrors that are committed across the Indian borders
Lakhvi’s release on $5,000 bail triggered swift condemnations from India and raised questions about Pakistan’s pledges to crack down on militants following the siege of an army-run school earlier this week that killed 132 children and 16 staff members.
Lakhvi, the operations commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, is one of seven Pakistani nationals facing trial for the attacks in India’s commercial capital that killed 166 people in November 2008.
Since the Pakistani authority could act fast when they choose to (like today), I sometimes wonder why they never act against domestic terrorism (violent acts) carried out within the country by shadowy groups such as the various attacks against the Shias, Christians and also the Sunnis and political assassinations.
According to this news report Pakistan seems to be moving away from supporting the Jihadist groups.
In the wake of the Peshawar school massacre, some U.S. and Afghan officials are beginning to express optimism that Pakistan may finally be changing its decadeslong policy of supporting jihadist groups. Pakistan’s military for several months has been moving away from the policy, under which these militant groups have long been used by the country’s spy agencies and security establishment against India and Afghanistan.
It isn’t clear, however, to what extent the military, which runs security policy independent of the civilian government, will adhere to the new zero-tolerance approach to jihadists.
In recent months, it seemed to apply only to many of the groups based on the western border with Afghanistan, including the Pakistani Taliban. The country hasn’t seen a move against militant outfits focused on India to the east, or some of the groups that target Pakistan’s own Shiite minority.
But many doubt that Pakistan would end its support for terrorism as long as they are not targeted
“There is no change,” said Christine Fair, an assistant professor at Georgetown University. “Pakistan defines its threat as coming from those militants who cannot be persuaded to kill in Afghanistan or India.”
References
http://www.latimes.com/world/afghanistan-pakistan/la-fg-accused-plotter-of-mumbai-attacks-ordered-back-to-jail-20141219-story.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/pakistan-kills-dozens-of-militants-after-school-massacre/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/pakistan-moves-to-end-policy-on-good-taliban-1419013453
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