Date Written : Dec 23, 2001
"Osama Bin Laden is already dead" - Musharraf
On one hand US special forces are looking out for Mullah Omar and Osama Bin Laden (OBL) and on the other hand Musharaff is saying "Osama bin Laden is already dead". Musharraf during his visit to China said that the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan was being closely watched and that bin Laden may well have died in caves around Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan, hit by repeated U.S. air raids. If OBL was dead in Tora Bora, how is his dead body not found till now? Mind us, US troops are looking for OBL, dead or alive. So if not alive, at least the US troops have to find OBL dead. If Musharraf is aware of OBL being dead, then he needs to tell US about this. Musharraf seems to be putting a face saving formula passed on from ISI to him, so that US can be mislead about his shuttling between Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).
US is continuously putting pressure on Musharraf to act against the terrorists operating from Pakistani soil. As on one hand the pressure increases from US; the ISI, supported by few Military commanders on the other hand will increase pressure on Musharraf to make weird and misleading statements like "OBL is dead".
With the help of ISI, the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) have now started opposing Musharraf, calling him anti-Islamic. LeT is the armed wing of the Pakistan-based organization, Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad (MDI), a Sunni anti-US missionary organization formed in 1989 which is headed by Professor Hafiz Mohammed Saeed. MDI and Al-Qaida are working hand-in-hand in Pakistan with the full knowledge of ISI, but not necessarily the Musharraf government.
LeT is based in Muridke (near Lahore) and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). After the US pressure on Musharraf government the LeT has removed its HQ address on its website. LeT trains its terrorists in mobile training camps across Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Afghanistan. Along with UTN, LeT assets were frozen earlier by US administration. LeT collects donations from the Pakistani community in the Persian Gulf, United Kingdom and other European countries; as also from Islamic NGOs, Pakistani businessmen and the criminal gangs operating in India mostly controlled from Dubai.
The terrorist camps in Pakistan and PoK are hiding places for Al-Qaida fighters.
These and other terrorist groups are having camps all across Pakistan and PoK. With the help of Pakistani ISI, Osama bin Laden can very easily stay as mobile 'guest' in these mobile camps without the information of Musharraf government. The ISI and Al-Qaida inter-network is widespread across Pakistan and Afghanistan. The ISI may keep on passing vital information to OBL of the whereabouts of US troops in Pakistan searching for him, either dead or alive.
Since US troops are also looking for OBL in Pakistan, the most secured place for Osama bin Laden would be Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). Although ISI had closed down most of the terrorists camps in PoK after US started bombing Afghanistan; the safest hide-out for OBL and Al-Qaida fighters will be still PoK. ISI and few Military Intelligence officers of Pakistan have also guided Al-Qaida fighers to go in and around PoK. In that case they can push them one-by-one into the Indian part of Kashmir and carry out more terrorist attacks in India like on Indian Parliament on Dec 13. Since the situation is already volatile, this will aggravate the situation and end up in Indo-Pak war, diverting the attention and ultimately the escape of OBL from PoK.
Now that US troops have their presence in Pakistan and President Bush is pressurising Musharraf government to act against terrorists, India should help Pakistan to jointly fight terrorism instead of fighting each other. US also needs to seriously think of asking Pakistan to vacate unarmed civilian population in PoK and start raiding several hide-outs in PoK with the help of Pakistan and/or India, before OBL escapes to other places.
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