Our Announcements
Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn't here.
Posted by malika in PAKISTAN POLITICS on August 21st, 2013
Asif Haroon Raja
Presidential election held on 30 June 2013 kicked up lot of dust owing to PPP’s cranky behavior. PML-N’s demand to seek a change of date was not with mala fide intention. It was wrong on part of well-meaning but secular Fakhru Bhai not to understand the significance of 27th Ramadan which fell on 6th August and that many either sit in Aitiqaf or perform Umrah during last ten days of Ramadan. He should have owned his mistake and changed the date rather than showing his inability to do so when requested by PML-N. He displayed weakness when he was required to act firmly to stop pre-poll rigging and rigging on polling day, but became rigid at a wrong time. Rather than taking decision he passed the buck to the Supreme Court.
PPP’s attitude was debatable and it gave an impression as if Raza Rabbani would win the contest if held on 6 August and not otherwise. Judging from the political strength of each party and alliance of MQM and JUI-F with PML-N, victory of Mamnoon Hussain was a foregone conclusion. The only wishful possibility visualized by Rabbani was absence of large number of PML-N and JUI-F Parliamentarians on 6 August because of Aitiqaf/Umrah might pave his way to victory. He also naively thought that nomination of a weak candidate by PML-N might help him in winning over dissidents from PML-N and allied parties. Hidden motives were to make the election and judiciary controversial.
Notwithstanding some undesirable reservations expressed about Mamnoon, none will disagree with me that anyone howsoever mediocre but clean would be better than tainted Zardari. Hence boycott of election by PPP and its two worthless allies was in bad taste. PTI wisely decided to take part in election and field its candidate, although Imran Khan has still not got reconciled to general elections results and has landed himself in avoidable trouble. Mamnoon won with an overwhelming majority and will enter the presidency as a ceremonial president in September, putting an end to palace intrigues pursued by his predecessor.
Presidential election was no issue; what concerns Pakistanis are insecurity of life and property, energy crisis, faltering economy, declining morals and values, erosion of national sovereignty and honor, media’s negativity and foreign interference. Blood is oozing out of every pore of Pakistan for the last many years without blood transfusion to replenish the loss. As a result, the state is getting enfeebled with every passing day. The only preventive measure taken is to barricade the country by putting string of barriers and check posts and pitching security forces against faceless enemy which is well-trained, well-equipped and supported by external powers. While lawless FATA has to some extent been secured because of heroics of Army and FC, settled areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and urban centres where police is in the forefront remain in turmoil. Militants stab the chosen target with ease and get away. No fool-proof system has been devised to nip the evil in the bud by preventing occurrence through timely intelligence.
This myth has also been broken after the DIK jail break about which all concerned had been forewarned well in time. Police sluggishness, ineptness and collusion with the militants were reasons behind the embarrassing outcome. It was in knowledge of all that the police are involved in high scale corruption and in league with the criminals particularly in Balochistan and in Sindh. Performance of KP police was relatively better in facing militancy. Some say this downslide is owing to unclear policy of PTI government regarding TTP.
While the effect of this demoralizing event had not faded away, the nation was subjected to another embarrassment in Islamabad on August 15 where a lone gunman kept the capital city police in a spin for over five hours. But for Zamurrad’s bold act, the high drama would have continued till next morning. Having seen the conduct of Islamabad Police and its senior officials on TV, it can be safely concluded that it is unfit to confront even minor challenges.
It is indeed mind boggling that our security forces have been fighting war on terror haphazardly for a decade without national security and counter terrorism policies. This is despite the fact that Pakistan is the biggest victim of terrorism. Reason behind this criminal neglect is that the elites have secured themselves within the confines of Red and Green zones, bulletproof vehicles, and ring of security guards while leaving the masses to fend for themselves. In hundreds of acts of terror, the underprivileged class has suffered the most. This unfortunate class had neither been taken into confidence to participate in US imposed war nor is in direct clash with the militants. It is caught between the crossfire of security forces, militants and foreign agents.
The police which are the frontline force to check crime and terrorism have been thoroughly corrupted and politicized by the elites to serve their ends. Moral turpitude of all segments of society has nosedived and distinction between good and bad blurred. Rather, dishonest officials are patronized and rewarded while the honest are seen as misfits. This downslide started during Gen Musharraf era which allowed complete liberty of action to Washington to neo-colonize Pakistan and India given a free hand to crush freedom movement in occupied Kashmir. Five-year inglorious rule of PPP-ANP-MQM combine ruined Pakistan’s economy, social fabric and state institutions.
Till 2002, FATA was unofficially recognized as Illaqa Ghair where murderers, absconders, car-lifters, abductors and criminals could find refuge from hand of law. Now whole of Pakistan has turned into Illaqa Ghair since there is no rule of law, elites are biggest law breakers, accountability is absent, law enforcers and lower courts are corrupt. Terrorists having confessed committing over hundred murders are set free; terrorists nabbed during close combat in war zones are given bail; those in jail are freed by terrorists. Anti-terrorist courts violate mandatory timeframe and take their time to decide high profile cases, and those sentenced to death are not hanged.
A stage had been set to declare nuclear Pakistan a failed state, but God saved Pakistan from sinking by turning the victory of USA in Afghanistan into defeat and thus checkmating its imperialist designs. Since ISAF cannot possibly pull itself out of the quagmire without the help of Pakistan, the US is grudgingly tolerating Pakistan. Issues on which the US has been making hue and cry are being put up with and friendly gestures made. Its affability is however not at the cost of annoying India which continues to remain in its good books. USA is not putting any pressure on India to stop its hostile acts against Pakistan as is evident from ongoing escalation of tensions along the LoC. TTP and BLA have not been bridled by CIA.
It is heartening to note that the new government has firmed up to stem the rot and to not only clean the mess but also improve the economy and living conditions of the downtrodden. Some positive steps have already been taken. Electricity policy has been formulated and curse of prolonged load shedding marginally controlled. PM Nawaz Sharif’s address was inspirational and well-intentioned but good intentions require speedy and result oriented implementation. What is needed now is to take all stakeholders on board and finalize coherent national security policy and counter terrorism policy at the earliest to control the scourge of terrorism. Setting up of Rapid Response Force (RPF) and Joint Intelligence Secretariat to combat terrorism by the close of this month is satisfying, but police needs a big overhaul and so do investigating and prosecution agencies and lower courts. Effective RPFs and effectual intelligence setup are also required in each province.
As regards foreign policy, friendship with immediate neighbors is desirable, but it should not be one-sided and at the cost of honor and dignity. Clear distinction should be made between friend and foe since enemies guised as friends have caused more harm to Pakistan. It is good that grant of MFN status to India has been put on hold till normalization of relations. China being all-weather and time-tested friend, should be trusted and envisaged long-term projects executed.
The writer is a retired Brig, defence analyst, columnist and author of several books. [email protected]
Posted by ali rehan munir in LETTER FROM PAKISTAN on August 21st, 2013
Kazmi is a graduate student at the Department of Strategic and Nuclear Studies of the National Defence University, Islamabad. He frequently writes on nonproliferation and security issues in major…
In a September 1967 speech, V.C. Trivedi, the Indian Ambassador to an early UN arms control effort known as the Eighteen Nations Committee on Disarmament, said that developing countries could tolerate nuclear weapons apartheid, but not an atomic apartheid that prevented them from attaining the economic progress that civilian nuclear power can bring. Regrettably, today’s global nonproliferation architecture is being applied with such selectivity that it can truly be called the neo-nuclear apartheid. That architecture not only works against the peaceful use of nuclear energy in developing countries, it also undermines global nuclear security.
The Nuclear Security Summit process — which in recent years has been a focus of US nuclear proliferation policy — professes to tackle robust concerns. The Seoul summit held earlier this year, for example, addressed not just nuclear security, but nuclear safety, the integrity of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea.
But the positive elements of the Nuclear Security Summit initiative pale in comparison with the selective application of the nonproliferation regime to states that seek to create a nuclear power industry. The inequity of the nonproliferation regime is illustrated by its disparate treatment of developing countries.
India rejected the NPT and tested nuclear weapons — but still managed to be treated well under the nonproliferation regime, with the Nuclear Suppliers Group granting it a waiver to trade in nuclear materials in 2008. Because it is a signatory of the NPT, Iran has limited access to peaceful nuclear technology through Russia, even though Tehran stands accused of covertly attempting to develop nuclear weapons. And North Korea — a nuclear-armed state that withdrew from the NPT and threatens its neighbors — has been offered help with civilian power reactors during negotiations over its nuclear weapons program.
Meanwhile, Pakistan — which has gone to great lengths to support the global nuclear nonproliferation regime — has been denied membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a decision that greatly hampers Islamabad’s efforts to develop a commercial nuclear energy program.
Though the NPT is considered the pivot point of the nonproliferation system, the nuclear states outside the treaty are major players in the international security system, and they affect the world’s nuclear balance. It will be difficult for the Nuclear Security Summit process and other similar initiatives to gain global acceptance until the nuclear nonproliferation regime is applied with at least a semblance of fairness.
If the overall nonproliferation system is to become equitable and therefore effective, it must allow the non-NPT nuclear weapon states to participate in nuclear export-control cartels, so long as they contribute to controlling the proliferation of nuclear materials. Such a policy change would, as a byproduct, create transparency in the nuclear programs of non-NPT states and thereby enhance overall strategic stability.
The Pakistan example. Few outside of South Asia are familiar with the tribulations Pakistan has faced as it has attempted to support international nuclear security and grow a nuclear power industry.
Despite media and political claims to the contrary, Pakistan has supported the Nuclear Security Summit initiative and encouraged international cooperation and voluntary actions to ensure nuclear security. Furthermore, Pakistan observes nonproliferation norms in their letter and spirit. Islamabad’s nuclear security and safety structure rests on four pillars: a robust command and control system under theNational Command Authority, a thorough safety and security regulatory regime, a comprehensive system of export control management, and an extensive program of international cooperation.
Since the 2010 summit in Washington, Islamabad has taken eight steps to buttress the Nuclear Security Summit initiative:
Despite this exemplary record, Pakistan’s nuclear power industry has faced severe challenges in dealing with the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which, because of Pakistan’s limited cooperation with China in nuclear matters, would not grant membership in the cartel. (In this realm, Pakistan started cooperating with China in 1986, before China participated in the NSG.) A refusal to let Pakistan participate in the export control cartels, and especially the NSG, would seriously limit the country’s efforts to meet its growing energy needs through nuclear energy.
According to Pakistan’s Energy Security Plan of 2050, its needs to build nuclear power plants that will produce 8,800 megawatts of electricity within the next two decades. Participation in the Nuclear Suppliers Group is essential if Pakistan is to be able to acquire the equipment and expertise needed to build the nuclear plants that will fill this power gap.
India — which, like Pakistan, has not signed the NPT — was given an exemption by the NSG, and it has been able to advance its civilian nuclear power industry, relieving pressure on its challenged electric utility system and cementing strategic and economic partnerships with other countries. This differential treatment of India and Pakistan under the international nonproliferation regime is simply unfair.
Equity means security. The legacy of the Seoul Summit is a determination among state participants that their commitments toward nuclear security will remain “voluntary” until the states find the world nonproliferation regime equitable. The glaring inequities of the nonproliferation regime keep countries like Pakistan from meeting their energy needs and, thereby, harm their overall development. The unfairness of the nonproliferation regime is also keeping the world community from coming together around a common set of verifiable nuclear security standards. The sooner the nuclear nonproliferation regime ends its neo-nuclear apartheid policies and puts all countries on an equal footing, the more stabilizing the nonproliferation regime will become, and the safer the world will be.
Reference
Posted by Harry-Wood in Afghan -Taliban-India Axis, India, India Hall of Shame, INDIA'S HINDUISM, ISLAMOPHOBIA, Makaar Dushman, Muslim Haters on August 20th, 2013
India is the largest country in South Asia and its leaders never tire of boasting that India is the super power of the region and a potential world power. Indira doctrine advocated India’s unrestricted influence over the whole region. India is past master in covert operations and propaganda war and habitually resorts to intrigues, economic coercion and blackmail. It never shies of threatening to use military option to overawe economically and militarily weak neighbors. India has disputes with all its neighbors because of which it doesn’t enjoy best of relations with any. Latter have no choice but to bear with India’s high-handedness. They take India’s barbs and excesses with a heavy heart.
It is part of history that after Partition in 1947, Indian Congress leaders instead of helping Pakistan in settling down had overloaded Pakistan with myriad of problems to smother it in its formative years. Indian military annexed Hyderabad, Junagadh and Manavadar whose Muslim rulers wanted to accede to Pakistan. It also forcibly occupied two-thirds Kashmir in October 1947 whose ruler was Hindu but great majority of population Muslims. War was thus forced on Pakistan. Soon after, Goa, Daman and Diu were also overpowered. All told, 565 princely states were made part of Indian Union. After creating Bangladesh (BD) in 1971, RAW supported Rakhi Bahini and gave it a preferential treatment over BD armed forces. Later on, RAW created Kadir Bahini to create trouble for Gen Ziaur Rahman and Gen Irshad Hussain regimes. Subsequently, Shanti Bahini was created to support Chakmas in Chittagong Hills.
RAW incited trouble in Sikkim in 1973 and in 1975 the kingdom of Sikkim was absorbed. Expansionist India’s next target was Bhutan. It was put under so much of pressure that it accepted India’s hegemony and agreed to act as its vassal to retain its independence. Landlocked Nepal which was a Hindu kingdom was terrorized to toe its line by halting food, medicines and oil supplies and instigating riots. Burma enjoyed excellent relations with Bangladesh but India strained their relations by fomenting trouble in Arakan Province and forcing 250,000 Arakenese to migrate to BD. The two neighbors are now arch enemies.
Maldives is also frightened through false flag operations. RAW trained the Tamils to bring about armed rebellion and carve a Tamil State out of predominantly Sinhalese Island. Of the many groups trained, LTTE was the deadliest. It took Sri Lankan military 30 years to crush the insurgency.
Pakistan has always aspired for peaceful and friendly relationship with all its neighbors based on equality and mutual respect and has resented overbearing attitude of India. It stands up to Indian intemperance and belligerence boldly. This stance is not to the liking of Indian leaders and in reaction they have been continuously devising strategies to make Pakistan a pliant state and make India a world power.
India is so intensely averse to the existence of Pakistan that it has gone to war with Pakistan thrice and two localized conflicts. From the book by Basant Chaterjee (Inside Bangladesh Today) we now know that Pundit Nehru had been scheming since August 1947 to reclaim East Bengal and make it an integral part of undivided India. After the demise of Quaid-e-Azam and Liaquat Ali Khan, regionalism raised its ugly head in smaller provinces particularly in East Pakistan where India started a whispering campaign to poison the minds of the youth and seculars against West Pakistan. India exploited the cultural affinity between East and West Bengal by underplaying Allama Iqbal and promoting poetry of Tagore.
Since over 90% posts of teachers and professors were held by Hindus, they played a key role in subverting the minds of students and making them hate West Pakistanis. History books of the subcontinent were distorted to paint Muslim rulers in poor light and ancient Hindu rule glamorized. Their hatred against Hindus was gradually mellowed and converted into amiability. Cultural programs and stage dramas enacted by Hindus helped in bringing a change in the mindset of the Muslim Bengalis. Bengali nationalism was stirred by agitating language issue. Politics of agitation was introduced through frequent strikes and mob violence.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman came into prominence in East Pakistan during the language riots in 1948 and in 1952. His rebellious stance against West Pakistan Establishment made him popular among Bengalis. He joined Awami League (AL) as a disciple of Suhrawardy. After the death of Suhrawardy in 1964, he maintained his pro-India stance and went astray.
RAW was established in 1968 with the primary aim of subverting East Bengalis and detaching eastern part from Pakistan. BSF under Brig Pande assisted RAW in its clandestine activities. Mujib was invited to Agartala in November 1963 where secession plan based on six points was finalized. The two surrogates of RAW, Tajuddin Ahmed and Nazrul Islam of AL were tasked not to let Mujib deviate from his course of secession.
After December 1970 elections in which AL swept the polls through manipulation, Mujib stance in the wake of political deadlock became uncompromising. He defied writ of the government, created a state within state and instigated ethnic cleansing of non-Bengalis. He was told by his patrons in India to force Gen Yahya to use force so that India could convince the world that it was Pakistan Army that had first denied them their constitutional right to takeover power and had now opted to crush them under their boots. Thus, AL would have a convincing case to pick up arms in defence and also gain sympathy of the world. Military action would pave the way for India to organize a civil war in East Pakistan leading towards secession. No sooner military action was launched on the night of 25 March 1971 to re-establish writ of the state, province wide rebellion was triggered by Indian military trained Mukti Bahini. 59 training camps were established all along the border to train and launch the rebels. After nine months of insurgency and cutting off the province from rest of the world, Indian military barged in.
After depriving Pakistan of its eastern limb in December 1971, RAW started hunting in Sindh where it fomented Sindhu Desh movement with the help of GM Sayyed. Terrorist camps were established at Ganganagar, Jaipur, Udhampur, Kishingarh, Bikaner, Barmer, Jaisalmir and Gandhinagar. Services of Hindus living in Sindh who had migrated to India during the1971 war and those still residing in Sindh were hired and made use of by a RAW cell at Jaipur.
Al-Zulfiqar established in 1979 after the hanging of ZA Bhutto was taken over completely by RAW in 1981 to carryout sabotage and subversion in Sindh. Its efforts were complimented by KGB-KHAD-RAW nexus using Afghan soil. PPP’s MRD movement in Sindh in 1983 was fully supported by India. After the creation of MQM in Karachi in 1984, the party was hijacked by RAW in 1986. It was helped to create militant wing and control Karachi and then follow Bangladesh model. NAP later renamed as ANP supported Kabul’s Pakhtunistan stunt and at the behest of Indian Congress opposed construction of Kalabagh dam.
None can deny that India has striven to keep Pakistan politically, economically and militarily weak and isolated. India’s seven strike corps and four RAPIDs are poised against Pakistan. Its entire military might was deployed along Pakistan border in 2002 and 2009. It is even now engaged in massive covert war in Balochistan and FATA and is also resorting to water terrorism by building series of dams over the three rivers flowing into Pakistan in violation of Indus Basin Treaty. Idea of balkanization of Pakistan was conceived by India. However, to its utter disappointment, it finds Pakistan as defiant as ever. It refuses to budge from its stated principle of relationship based on equality and mutual respect. It refuses to forgo its principled stance on Kashmir. Turn of events in the endgame in Afghanistan has put its plans to demolish Pakistan in jeopardy. In sheer frustration India resorts to false flag operations and its latest one is along the LoC in Kashmir but each time its falsehood gets exposed.
The writer is a retired Brig, defence analyst and columnist. [email protected]
India Reality Check
Posted by AghaSaad in PARANOIA RUN AMOK on August 20th, 2013
Al-Qaeda’s chief bomb-maker Ibrahim al-Asiri is thought to have developed explosives that can be concealed in implants or bodily cavities and escape detection from airport scanners, according to The Mirror.
One staff member said: “There are genuine fears over this.
We have been told to pay particular attention to females who may have concealed hidden explosives in their breasts.
This is particularly difficult for us to pick up but we are on a very high state of alert.
It’s led to long queues here at Heathrow – much longer than usual at this time of the year.
But because it’s the summer holiday season, no one has complained.”
According to Philip Baum, editor of Security International, body scanners are good at identify objects outside the body but not inside and the “possibility of medically implanted explosives is a concern to the industry.”
Explosives expert Andy Oppenheimer said: “There is a great fear that al-Qaeda are planning on using internal devices to try and get through airport scanners.
“These explosives could be in breast implants.”
Another specialist, who asked not to be named, said breast implant bombs could be set off by injecting another liquid.
The expert added: “Both are very difficult to pick up with current technology and they are petrified al-Qaeda are a step ahead here.
“It’s pretty top secret and potentially very grisly and ghastly.”
Independent security analyst Paul Beaver said: “There are currently deeply serious concerns over body cavities and implants of all kinds – including breast implants – being used to hide explosives.
“It is taking longer to get through Heathrow and other airports in Europe and North America because of these fears.
“They are taking longer to screen people and there is definitely some sort of profiling going on.
The general alert state remains the same in the UK but overseas, the recent Pakistan prison breakouts and foiled attacks in Yemen are raising fears of a new jihadist wave of violence.”
Mr Beaver added: “The terrorist is getting clever, but so are detection methods.
The fact we know about the new methods suggests there are detection and counter-measure options.
Implant bombs are a one-way ticket anyway so the suicide bomber won’t care what the trigger might be.
It would have to be simple and straightforward – perhaps electrical.”
A Heathrow Airport spokesman said: “We don’t comment on specific security measures.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/
Heathrow Airport is on high terror alert amid fears women suicide bombers are ready to strike with explosives concealed in breast implants. Security checks have been beefed up after “credible” intelligence that al-Qaeda is plotting attacks on airlines flying out of London. One staff member said: “There are genuine fears over this.
“We have been told to pay particular attention to females who may have concealed hidden explosives in their breasts. “This is particularly difficult for us to pick up but we are on a very high state of alert. “It’s led to long queues here at Heathrow – much longer than usual at this time of the year. “But because it’s the summer holiday season, no one has complained.”
Al-Qaeda’s chief bomb-maker Ibrahim al-Asiri is understood to have developed the method of foiling airport scanners by concealing explosives in an implant or bodily cavity. It is also feared there is no shortage of volunteers willing to take part in an atrocity after hundreds of extremists recently escaped from prison in Pakistan. Explosives expert Andy Oppenheimer said: “There is a great fear that al-Qaeda are planning on using internal devices to try and get through airport scanners.
“These explosives could be in breast implants.”
Another specialist, who asked not to be named, said breast implant bombs could be set off by injecting another liquid. The expert added: “Both are very difficult to pick up with current technology and they are petrified al-Qaeda are a step ahead here. “It’s pretty top secret and potentially very grisly and ghastly.” Independent security analyst Paul Beaver said: “There are currently deeply serious concerns over body cavities and implants of all kinds – including breast implants – being used to hide explosives.
“It is taking longer to get through Heathrow and other airports in Europe and North America because of these fears. “They are taking longer to screen people and there is definitely some sort of profiling going on. “The general alert state remains the same in the UK but overseas, the recent Pakistan prison breakouts and foiled attacks in Yemen are raising fears of a new jihadist wave of violence.” Terrorists are believed to be plotting attacks with the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN.
It is also feared they may have developed an undetectable liquid explosive that could be soaked into clothing. For a suicide bomber sat in a window seat it would take only a relatively small blast to blow a lethal hole in a plane’s fuselage. Mr Beaver added: “The terrorist is getting clever, but so are detection methods.
“The fact we know about the new methods suggests there are detection and counter-measure options. “Implant bombs are a one-way ticket anyway so the suicide bomber won’t care what the trigger might be. “It would have to be simple and straightforward – perhaps electrical.” A Heathrow Airport spokesman said: “We don’t comment on specific security measures.”
The possibility of medically implanted explosives is a concern to the industry. There are two main ways of initiating a detonation – by chemical reaction or radio controlled detonators. The problem is another reason why we should be using behavioural analysis as the primary detection method to screen people at airports.
Body scanners are good at identifying things outside the body but not inside. Whether or not implants would make effective explosive devices in passenger planes is also questionable. The examples we have seen haven’t quite had the impact those behind them might have hoped for.
Posted by Haidery in CIA SUBVERSION IN PAKISTAN on August 20th, 2013
As Washington continues sending its development assistance aid in the form of drones to bomb civilians illegally inside Pakistan’s borders, allegedly to go after Taliban fighters, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif recently completed a trip to Beijing where he met Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, his first foreign visit after the May elections. The Pakistani Federal Cabinet subsequently approved the start of negotiations and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on developing a “China-Pakistan Economic Corridor”long-term plan, and an action plan between the development ministries of the two countries.
A view of the Beijing-funded “megaport” of Gwadar, in southwestern Pakistan (AFP Photo)
Xinjiang is also the heart of China’s known oil resources and a transit area for major oil and gas pipelines. The development will cost billions of euros, which China reportedly has now pledged in the form of ‘soft loans’. The railway infrastructure will provide crucial links for transporting oil and gas from the Persian Gulf and minerals and food from Africa will be the heart of the newproject.http://axisoflogic.
However, in six months this area will “suddenly” become a major “terror ground” that conveniently will disrupt the rail infrastructure link. It reminds me of the German Berlin-Baghdad Rail link to the Ottoman Empire before WWI that was the major cause for Britain to ally with Czarist Russia and France in the Triple Entente that became WWI in 1914.
Gwadar is the world’s largest deep sea port. It lies in the southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan in the warm water Arabian Sea. The design and construction of the final stages of the port, which began in 2002, is being carried out in collaboration with China. It has an immense geostrategic importance at the entrance to the Persian Gulf and is a likely substitute for the Port of Dubai. In 2011 Pakistan invited China to build a Naval base at Gwadar, something the Pentagon is eyeing very closely. China has yet to respond on that.
China’s needs for energy resources, food and minerals from the Gulf and Africa have boosted trade between the regions in the recent years. China’s trade with the UAE alone has grown 15-fold since 2000 to reach $37 billion. It is expected to reach $100 billion by 2015. Some 2,500 Chinese firms have offices in Dubai. China’s largest bank ICBC and the Bank of China also have branches in the Gulf sheikhdom where they are beginning to transact bilateral trade in Chinese renminbi rather than dollars.
The Chinese are currently upgrading some 600 kilometers of the China-Pakistan highway. The KKH was built in 1986 from Kashgar through Pakistan and the upgrade will make it suitable for heavy container traffic and linking it to Gwadar Port. China and Pakistan are also working to link Gwadar port and Xinjiang through a new Chinese-financed railway network. This will turn Gwadar Port and the KKH into a trade corridor for China and other Central Asians countries and create in Gwadar an energy, transport, and industrial hub providing direct and economical access to the Arabian Sea for both China and resource rich Central Asian states.
On January 30 this year, Pakistan turned over the management and operation of the Gwadar Port Authority to a Chinese company at the same time the Pakistan government signed up to the Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline, tying Pakistan, Iran and China more closely, something that caused pain in Washington.
It will generate billions of dollars in revenue for Pakistan and likely create about two million jobs.
Pakistan and China have signed agreements to help energy starved Pakistan to utilize the hydro-electric potential offered by the area by constructing the Diamer-Bhasha and Bunji dams.
China also wants to import gas from Iran by joining the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline that will pass through Gilgit Baltistan on the Pakistan border to Xinjiang in China. Also Pakistan and China have signed agreements to develop entirely new industrial cities in various parts of Pakistan along the route of the rail link, including at Gwadar.
Close to the Straits of Hormuz, Gwadar has the potential to become the gateway to Central Asia and China. It’s at the junction of the world’s three most important strategic and economic regions–Middle East, South Asia and Central Asian states—giving it the potential, barring new wars, to generate billions in annual transit trade. As part of a shift in policy, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have recently been eagerly pursuing trade and economic links with China.
In 2006 the US Armed Forces Journal published an article by Colonel Ralph Peters titled Blood Borders: How a better Middle East would look. In the piece, which appears to bear uncanny relevance to subsequent Pentagon and US State Department policy in the region, Peters calls for the creation of aFree Baluchistan.
His call was echoed by US Pakistan “expert” Selig Harrison, who reportedly enjoys strong ties to the CIA. In 2006 after Peters published his sensational article Harrison wrote in Le Monde Diplomatique and the New York Times that a Free Baluchistan movement was “simmering.” The call by Peters and Harrison for a Free Baluchistan began four years after China began building the first phase of the Gwadar Port.
The availability of a major alterative trade route that cuts distance and time from the present long and slow 8000 km route by ship from the Persian Gulf through the Malacca Strait to the eastern seaboard of China will give both the Gulf states, as well as parts of Africa where China is very active, and Asia, huge economic benefits.
Conveniently for Washington, which has no interest in fostering greater Chinese independence of energy supply, in recent months a growing militant separatist movement has erupted on the scene in Baluchistan, the Pakistan province where Gwadar is located. On June 15 this year, terror attacks including a suicide bombing of a bus filled with students and a gunfight in the city that left two dozen dead, hit the Baluchistan provincial capital of Quetta.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a militant separatist group, claimed responsibility. The BLA wasn’t acting alone. As the injured students were being rushed to hospital, they ran into an ambush by the ‘Pakistani Taliban’, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ). The BLA has been involved in attacks on government oil fields and gas pipelines. The Pakistan government accuses India of being behind the BLA. India recently has been moving closer to the US and to Japan in a military alliance that has a distinct anti-China bent.
Further, on July 29, jihadist militants armed with rockets and heavy weapons launched a concerted assault on a major prison in Dera Ismail Khan, close to the South Waziristan tribal agency in northwestern Pakistan, along the route of the rail-highway-pipelines from Gwadar to Xinjiang, freeing an estimated 250 militants affiliated with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
Xinjiang has recently suffered from new rioting by separatist Muslim Uyghurs. In late June in Xinjiang, home to some 10 million Uyghurs, two terror attacks killed 35 people days ahead of the fourth anniversary of the July 5, 2009 riot in the capital Urumqi that left 197 people dead. The Jihadist Uyghur terrorists apparently are being recruited in Turkey by an Uyghur independence organization, sent to Syria for combat experience and, if they survive, sent back to Xinjiang to carry out terror deeds there. China’s official daily, Global Times, reported in early July that a Muslim Uyghur from Xinjiang, Memeti Alili was arrested in Xinjiang during the new wave of terrorist acts and riots.
The Chinese daily reported that the 23-year-old Alili confessed to police that he had been recruited as a student in Istanbul by something called the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Aili was arrested when returning to Xinjiang to complete his mission to “carry out violent attack and improve fighting skills.” He confessed that he had been assigned to return by the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). ETIM is a terrorist group that aims to create an Islamist state in Xinjiang, which works alongside the East Turkistan Education and Solidarity Association (ETESA), an Istanbul-based exile group.
This picture taken on August 5, 2013 shows the shell of a burnt out bus being towed by a rescue vehicle along a street in Urumqi in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (AFP Photo)
Muslim Uyghur youth are being recruited to go to Istanbul to “study”, then recruited by ETIM and ETESA to fight as Jihadists in Syria with Al Qaeda and other jihad groups, according to China’s anti-terrorism authority. If they survive the Syrian battlefield training, the Uyghur jihadists are recycled back to Xinjiang in China, the end-point of the new Gwadar to China rail and road infrastructure “land bridge.”
The headquarters of ETESA, located in Istanbul include research, media, social affairs, education and women’s affairs departments. It aims to “educate and train Muslims” in Xinjiang and “set them free” by forming a Muslim state, according to a Chinese official. In 2004, in Washington Anwar Yusuf Turani established the East Turkistan Government in Exile. Washington seemed not to object, though many other countries did, including China. The Istanbul link of ETIM and ETESA is no accident. Istanbul’s Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly backed the Uyghur separatists in 2009 during the riots, calling them fellow Turkic peoples.
Meanwhile, as if to further underscore how vulnerable any China-Pakistani energy and trade corridor from Gwadar to Xinjiang would be, on the eve of US Secretary of State Kerry’s visit to Islamabad to meet Pakistan’s Prime Minister just after the China deal of Pakistan, the US made several drone attacks inside Pakistan in the North Waziristan tribal region. They killed at least six people. It was the fourth US drone strike since Sharif was re-elected as Prime Minister in June, all in the crucial North Waziristan en route to Xinjiang. Despite Pakistan’s strong protests Washington refuses to halt the CIA-run drone attacks.
With the CIA drone attacks, the Baluchistan attacks of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Baloch Liberation Army, as well as Jihadists being sent into Xinjiang from Turkey and Syria, we can expect unrest to increase in Baluchistan province and upwards to Xinjiang as the huge China-Pakistan infrastructure plans materialize in coming months.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
© 2025, All Rights Reserved by Pakistan Think Tank.
