Farrukh Khan Pitafi’s Official Website « Pakistani general’s assassination in a terror attack shows how Musharraf and terrorists are connected (posted originally on Monday, February 25, 2008)

Pakistani general’s assassination in a terror attack shows how Musharraf and terrorists are connected (posted originally on Monday, February 25, 2008)

A powerful bomb hit today the car of the Surgeon General of Pakistan, the senior most post of the Army Medical Corps (AMC), killing him and seven others on the spot. The attack certainly carries in it a number of messages. For instance what comes in your mind when you hear this? Oh shoot, Pervaiz Musharraf was our man to fight terrorism and now that he has lost and new party is coming in power no one will be able to fight the menace. Likewise you may start doubting the credibility of the army to fight the war when it cannot stop a general from being killed by terrorists so near its own headquarters. But like always the truth may lie elsewhere.
Let us point out that the general killed today was quite an unlikely target. Why? Because even a kid on the street knows that the Army Medical Corps and other technical wings are considered not quite regular part of the mainstream army. That is exactly why Army sided with Musharraf in 1999 when Nawaz Sharif tried to replace him with Ziauddin an engineering corps man. It is hard to understand what purpose could this serve for the terrorists. It should not be forgotten that the moratorium of the Jihadis / Taliban is still not over. In fact they have offered to hold talks with the new government. This trigger happy attack can hardly benefit them for they have been trying to prove that they do not want to keep killing people without a purpose. After all, it was their moratorium or else the army’s prowess that the elections were held in relatively peaceful environment. Thanks to today’s attack both things are being questioned now.
Again Lt General Mushtaq Baig was a bearded man with evident allegiance to religiosity. It is unclear why someone with strong religious beliefs would like to kill him without any strong reasons. Unfortunately since the authorities immediately dubbed it a suicide attack no serious investigation will be likely to take place.
While I have pointed out that how this attack tries to dub the emerging leadership of Pakistan, both military and civilian as weak let me now show how it serves to bolster Musharraf’s credentials. He has led the war on terrorism for nearly six years now. The relationship between Pentagon and him is quite Pavlovian now. Since the neo-conservative blindness of the west has ensured that no one looks beyond Musharraf, the western leaders were quite at pain in understanding that there could be a war on terror and Pakistan even without Musharraf. Pakistani President has been losing face for almost one year now in the west due to his experiments with censorship and manipulation of the judiciary and the constitution. When recently after his imposition of martial law and assassination of Benazir Bhutto he visited Europe in the North Western areas of Pakistan a school was held hostage by the Taliban and the crisis was managed peacefully when Musharraf’s critical meetings were over. I had pointed out then that some how the terrorists keep helping Musharraf in exploiting the western fears to his benefit. Today’s episode is quite a similar example. Musharraf was losing support the world over after his party’s defeat showed how unpopular he was. His western benefactors had to face a lot criticism for their blind support to him. And that is exactly when the bomb struck.
The authoritarian credentials of the ex-general should not be disputed now. So should not be his outreach. During his second martial law he managed to close down the offices of Geo Television Network in Dubai along with its uplinking capacity. Only yesterday when his toadies tried to shut down YouTube’s access in Pakistan, the entire humungous web portal was suspended around the world for hours. While the west should have tried to weaken those who harbour terrorism and authoritarianism, here is a clear case it has evidently strengthen them. Terrorism and those fighting it then are somehow closely connected.

Posted by farrukh at 10:01:14.

Posted on March 3rd, 2008 under Old Posts • Print This Post • Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback

tj:
April 9th, 2008 at 8:46 pm

Your analysis is frankly quite bogus. Perhaps the urge to write forces you to write crap.

I expect more quality analysis from someone in your position.

“Again Lt General Mushtaq Baig was a bearded man with evident allegiance to religiosity. It is unclear why someone with strong religious beliefs would like to kill him without any strong reasons.”

Coz he wore a freaking uniform and was thus an enemy. Why do these same people blow themselves up in ‘religious’ gatherings? or in civilian places? They don’t give a hoot about ‘religiosity’.