NOVER a dozen soldiers of the Pakistan Army and paramilitary troops have perished and scores injured in the last week’s operations against terror suspects in the remote areas of South Waziristan Agency bordering Afghanistan. Islamabad’s sincerity in denying use of its oil by militants to carry out attacks against Afghan troops and Karzai Government’s supporters has never been in doubt. Due to the inaccessibility of the Pak-Afghan border area, militants have used the region as a safe heaven. Against this background, President Pervez Musharraf offered to fence the entire border to prevent illegal cross-border movements but the reaction from Kabul has unfortunately been negative. It is indeed the incompetence and miserable failure of the Kabul authorities to fight the militants who have been operating at will. Afghan Government officials have tried in vain to conceal their weakness by repeatedly alleging that Pakistan was not doing enough to rein in the militants. In fact, Afghan Government is ill-equipped to deal with the armed struggle by the militants. It has just not done anything to take on the terrorists. Apart from protecting high officials in Kabul, it has left other functionaries at the mercy of the armed fighters in remote provinces.
Top U.S. Administration officials have been publicly lauding Pakistan Government’s sincere drive against militants of Al-Qaeda and Taliban as part of the war on terror. In fact, Pakistan is the only country which managed to mop up hundreds of Al-Qaeda operative and ex-Taliban fighters. In the process, its President and Prime Minister have faced assassination attempts. Gradually, the Americans and the British leadership has come to believe that Islamabad is most sincere in the war against terrorism. It has committed a strong force of its troops to flush out suspects from the border area. The ongoing operations in South Waziristan Agency are not mock but real action in which Pakistan soldiers have suffered substantial casualties. After its successful operations earlier last week in Khattey Killay area, there was a lull which was broken by rocket attacks on Pak Army jawans and others in the Mir Ali sub-division military camp in which at least three soldiers and an unspecified number of Government officials were killed in the early hours on Sunday. The injured have been shifted to military hospitals. In the face of on-going operations against militants in the border areas, Kabul must now realize that its repeated assertions that Pakistan” was not doing enough” may eventually backfire. This charge must now stop. Afghan Government can establish its writ through a process of reconciliation. Use of force has not helped and will not. And continued dependence on foreign troops can not strengthen its credibility.

Bali again

TRAGEDY has revisited Bali. The Saturday explosions which killed at least 26 people and wounded more than 120 produced the all-too-familiar scenes of bloody chaos just days before the third anniversary of the nightclub bombings there which killed 202 people. Despite the authorities knowing who was probably behind this last attack and why it was launched — even knowing that it was coming — they could not stop it. Terrorism, it seems, has become almost frighteningly inevitable. No one has yet claimed responsibility but as with the blasts of three years ago, the attacks on Saturday bore all the hallmarks of Jemaah Islamiyah, the Al-Qaeda-linked southeast Asian organization that carried out October 2002 Bali attacks. The modus operandi was the same. Meant to inflict maximum damage on lives and property, the bombers struck as they did three years ago, just as thousands of diners had flocked to restaurants in tourist areas. Even the personnel seem to be the same; the latest attacks also involved suicide bombers, masterminded by the same two Malaysian fugitives accused of orchestrating the 2002 bombings.
Again, the reasons for the attacks are the same as before. The Jemaah Islamiyah wants to carve out an Islamic state stretching across Southeast Asia; its aim is to destabilize the region and bring Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines under a fundamentalist Islamic umbrella. And by choosing indiscriminate killing as the method of achieving their goal, they have, once again, brought shame to the cause they claim to champion. The attacks were no surprise. They came only a month after Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned of possible terrorist strikes. Western and Indonesian intelligence agencies have warned repeatedly that jemaah Islamiyah was plotting more attacks in Indonesia. Several other governments, including the United States, had warned about a high terrorist threat to foreigners in Indonesia before Ramadan. On Friday, the US Embassy in Jakarta reiterated its warning of last May that the threat of terrorism was high and that Americans in the country should be vigilant.
Perhaps there is scant comfort in knowing who did it or why — or even that it was predicted. The sole raw sentiment felt by those directly involved, as well as by outsiders, is that once again Bali has become a target for indiscriminate violence that has yet to be eradicated. The attacks prove that the terrorists will stop at nothing to make their mission known and their demands heard. Despite hundreds of arrests, including those of some key leaders which have weakened the terrorists, they remain one of the single greatest threats to society. It is anywhere and it is everywhere, though apparently nowhere. The hopes of all sane people are that the terrorists in Bali and elsewhere will not get their way. True, they have claimed lives and have maimed and they have frightened the public, both locals and foreigners. The only response can be all-out war.

—Arab News