TALIBAN POSES THREAT TO WORLD SECURITY AS IT FLAUNTS MISSILE LAUNCH

By Vikas Khanna

The deadly Pakistan-based Islamist group Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) has become deadlier. If its claims that it has developed an indigenous missile named Omar-1 which it successfully test-fired are true then it poses a grave threat not only to Pakistan and Afghanistan but to the regional and international security as well. Terrorism has acquired new dimensions and threatens to alter the status of the world order. The scenario is very scary. The new firepower will not only help grow the influence of the fundamentalist Islamic forces, it will also endanger the actors who created them. 

And Pakistan will be the first to face the heat as its security forces have stepped up operations against the Taliban following a dastardly attack on a Peshawar school in which 145 people lost their lives, including 132 school children. And the Taliban has made its intentions clear by stating that its enemies will be on the run. From now onwards, the Taliban will not only be able to inflict maximum pain on its adversaries, it can widen its operations as the missile can easily be assembled and dissembled in accordance to the situation.

What we are witnessing today is a new version of terrorism. The movement is acquiring a very deadly shape after it has drawn in its fold several highly qualified technocrats, who are religiously motivated and indoctrinated bent on establishing an Islamist state. Technology is their latest weapon. With terror as their chosen instrument, these radical Islamists seek to remake the world. The more worrisome trend is the links between some retired Pakistani military and intelligence officials and nuclear scientists to Taliban and al-Qaeda militants. Without their help, it would not have been possible for the fundamentalists to acquire the technology to develop a missile.

The latest development will give Western leaders nightmares about militants acquiring nuclear materials, or worse, an entire weapon. When the militants can develop a missile, can that be far behind? It certainly will be next on the agenda of militants. And god forbids if that happens, the entire mankind will be endangered. The consequences of the cocktail of terrorism and nuclear weapons can be very devastating.

If militants have gained strength today, then Pakistan can not absolve its responsibility. It has allowed the militants to grow, giving them not only shelter but finances. Pakistan has long been suspected of playing a double game, fighting some militants while supporting those its generals have regarded as strategic assets to be used against rivals and neighbours, India and Afghanistan.

Not only that, Pakistan has notoriously played a vital role in nuclear proliferation. One cannot forget the enormity of what Pakistani nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan has done. He had created a whole illicit network by selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya. Was he doing it alone? Looks unlikely! The Pakistani establishment and the military in particular were completely complicit as Khan widened his nuclear black market.  The fear of nuclear terrorism in Pakistan stemming from the danger of radical Islamists overrunning the country and gaining control of the country’s nuclear assets is arguably the greatest threat. The possibility of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands looks more real now than ever. And the world can’t turn its eyes off.

Time has come for Pakistan to act and act decisively. It will have to shun its approach of differentiating between good militants and bad militants. The United States has often reminded Pakistan to fight militant groups that threaten Afghan, Indian and U.S. interests. It is high time that pressure is built on Pakistan to target all militant groups to bring security to the region. Pakistan should also realize that a lot of its own citizens have died as a result of terrorism. A lot of members of their military have fallen dead.

It’s important for Pakistan to recognize that threat and to act against that threat. Not only Pakistan, it is also the responsibility of the international community to ensure that these militant groups do not gain a foothold but are pushed back into the recesses of memory. The world can’t afford to remain a silent spectator now. The top priority should be to ensure that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and technology do not fall into the hands of terrorists.  (ENDS) 

WHOSE AAP IS IT BY THE WAY, MR KEJRIWAL?

By Vikas Khanna

The message is clear. AAP is Kejriwal and Kejriwal is AAP. It has become a one-man party surrounded by yes men of Kejriwal. Anyone who dares Kejriwal or questions his autocratic style will be shown the door. From now onwards, its Kejriwal way or the highway!

The way Messrs Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha were kicked out of the party well past midnight was on predictable lines. It was in the offing. The script was written long ago. In fact, Bhushan and company, too, were aware of it.  After having been booted out of the powerful Political Affairs Committee and the national executive of the party, this was something which was expected. In fact, Kejriwal had made his intentions very clear when the party’s national council met early this month. He had then thundered that he could not work with his colleagues-turned-rebels. The poison-dipped gutter language that he used against them in a leaked audio tape speaks volumes about the hatred that he has towards them.

Almost all the founding members of AAP, except Kejriwal, have either quit the party or have been axed clearing the way for the former bureaucrat to run the party according to his whims and fancies. With all the ideologues and eminent personalities from different fields leaving the parent party, what now remains in the party is a bunch of opportunist people who had joined the bandwagon to further their flagging careers. 

Is then AAP any different from any other regional party where satraps have complete stranglehold on the party? The rest being mere lackeys clinging on to the leader and his or her inner circle!

Today, Kejriwal stands exposed. The very ideals – clean, corruption-free and transparent politics – which were supposed to be the mainstay of AAP, have been sacrificed at the altar of his ego and his personal ambitions.

One wonders what makes Kejriwal feel that he is the only “mai-baap” of the party which was born out of a movement for a strong lokpal to end the “corruption raj”.  He hijacked the people’s movement of Anna Hazare and formed a political party piggyriding on the success of the anti-corruption agitation.

Mr. Kejriwal will do well to remember that AAP had many fathers. He alone did not father the AAP. In fact, he could not have done it alone. Hundreds of thousands of people joined the movement to give birth to a nascent party in the hope of giving a new direction to the country. Fed up of the massive corruption scams and little or lopsided development, the country’s youth joined the new party in droves. They had hopes, they had aspirations, they saw in the party a platform which could give wings to their dreams. 

But alas! That did not happen.

None had anticipated that the party, which rose to power within two years of its formation, would start disintegrating within two months of tasting power in its second avatar. The party is fast losing its credibility. The internecine squabbles in the party have affected the governance.  That Delhi was littered with garbage by the striking employees of MCD last month raising fears of diseases because Kejriwal and his loyalists were busy dousing fires in the party has not gone down well with the masses. Is AAP’s success story over? It is too early to predict. But if that happens, then only Kejriwal will have to take the blame.