West still ignores Pak's Taliban link

NEW DELHI: Taliban���s open support to Pakistan has exposed the secret alliance between the Pakistan army and the terror groups. In public, the Pakistan army, which has fattened itself on assistance from the US to fight the Taliban, naturally protests against the suggestion of a clandestine nexus.

But a senior Pakistan army official told journalists soon after the Mumbai attacks that the military and Taliban were fighting in FATA due to ���misunderstandings������ . ���We have only some misunderstandings with Baitullah and Fazlullah. These misunderstandings could be removed through dialogue,������ he had said. It was later revealed that the army officer was a corps commander.

It seems that the alleged threat from India will serve as the excuse or justification to resolve these ���misunderstandings������ . While this will not surprise India or the US which have viewed the Taliban as Pakistan���s proxy, an open alliance has reinforced the fear that the creeping Talibanisation of Pakistan���s establishment has gathered pace.

Fanatical jihadi troopers are moving determinedly out of FATA and into the settled areas of western Pakistan. A US Congress report in November said the���so-called settled areas��� ��� of Pakistan beyond the tribal regions had come under attack from pro-Taliban militants. Indeed, the ���Talibanisation of western Pakistan appears to be ongoing and may now threaten the territorial integrity of the Pakistani state������ .

While India is a lot more cognizant of this reality, anti-India rhetoric of Tehrik-e-Taliban���s Baitullah Mehsud should serve as a wake-up call for Western governments which still prefer to look at the thin sliver of army leadership that appears to be moderate.

They are neither innocent about Pakistan���s sponsorship of the Taliban nor of the fact that the collaboration has continued even after Islamabad signed up for the ���war on terror��� . They have, however, winked at evidence of continued camaraderie because of Pakistan���s promises of a new beginning and because of their dependence on the Pakistani army for success in Afghanistan.

A few weeks ago, the British press revealed that the UK had hushed up its success in a significant anti-Taliban operation in Afghanistan���s Helmand province in 2007 after discovering that the jihadi commander killed was a serving senior level officer in the Pakistan army. His military ID was found on him.
Another US officer, Chris Nash, went on record recently to say Pakistani forces flew repeated helicopter missions into Afghanistan to resupply a Taliban base camp.