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U.S. incursions sow turmoil in Pakistan

Death and turmoil have rocked the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. The violence came after Washington ordered U.S./NATO forces in neighboring Afghanistan to violate Pakistan’s sovereignty by making attacks across the border without Pakistani permission. In addition, the U.S. has increased its pressure on the new Pakistani government to use extreme repression in its areas bordering Afghanistan.

An explosion, reportedly of a 1,300-pound truck bomb, destroyed the Islamabad Marriott hotel on Sept. 20. Early reports said 53 people died and nearly 300 were wounded.

According to a Pakistani government statement, a dinner for many high officials of the regime had been scheduled in the Marriott dining room that day but was rescheduled at the last minute to the prime minister’s residence. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced that the attackers were aiming to strike at Pakistani leaders and could have killed many. (Bloomberg News)

Washington’s intervention in the entire region from West Asia to South Asia has brought nothing but misery, death and displacement to millions of people, from Palestine to Afghanistan. Many fear this turmoil is now entering Pakistan, a country of 170 million people where the government possesses nuclear arms. On Sept. 22 British Airways canceled its London-to-Islamabad flights “in light of the security situation in Pakistan.”

Pakistani officials also said on Sept. 22 that tribal members and the Pakistani armed forces had both opened fire on U.S. helicopters that crossed the border from Afghanistan, driving them back over the border.

There is so much popular opposition in Pakistan to the U.S./NATO occupation of Afghanistan that many now blame Washington—not the Islamic forces in the border regions or the Taliban—for the increased turmoil in their country.

An article in a London newspaper asserts that “the public reaction to the bomb attack on the hotel was significant in that it did not roundly condemn the militants but reflected widespread ennui [dissatisfaction] with America’s military policy in neighboring Afghanistan.” (Telegraph, Sept. 21)

Was gov’t dinner the target?

There is press speculation that the Pakistani government’s decision to order its army to aggressively pursue a military campaign against forces in the border region supportive of the resistance had provoked the attack on the hotel.

Spokespeople for pro-Taliban groups in Pakistan, however, deny that their forces carried out the attack on the hotel. Amir Mohammad, an aide to a prominent Pakistani Taliban leader, said, “We have our own targets and we execute our plans precisely with minimal loss of irrelevant or innocent people. We have nothing to do with the Marriott hotel attack.” (Associated Press, Sept. 22)

Just hours before the bombing, Pakistan’s new president, Asif Ali Zardari, had made a speech before Parliament promising a full attack on pro-Taliban forces in what Pakistanis call the “tribal areas” on the frontier. Zardari is the widower of assassinated Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto. He grew extremely wealthy during the time Bhutto was prime minister, and is considered generally pro-U.S.

Bhutto was assassinated under suspicious circumstances in December 2007 while campaigning for election.

Even the pro-U.S. Zardari had to publicly insist that the Pentagon stop its cross-border incursions, as did Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan’s military chief. Zardari told the parliament, “We will not tolerate the violation of our sovereignty and territorial integrity by any power in the name of combating terrorism.” Legislators “loudly thumped on their desks to show their support.” (New York Times, Sept. 21)

Tariq Ali in Brooklyn

Progressive Pakistani political analyst Tariq Ali was in Brooklyn Sept. 20 at a meeting of the Pakistani-U.S. Freedom Forum to introduce his new book, “The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power.” He told Workers World that “Zardari had to make a statement on the border crossings that agreed with his military leadership.”

One of Ali’s main points to the Brooklyn meeting was that the U.S. policy of challenging Pakistani sovereignty had the possibility of provoking a split in the Pakistani military. This, Ali said, would “present the greatest danger of instability and chaos,” a threat not only to the Pakistani people but also to the U.S. goal of keeping control of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

Ali praised the movement of lawyers and their supporters who marched in defiance of the military regime of Gen. Pervaz Musharraf during the past year and who insisted on the reappointment of Supreme Court head-judge Iftikar al Chaudhry, whom Musharraf had pushed out. While Musharraf was forced to resign in August, Chaudhry has not been reinstated.

“The duel,” said Tariq Ali, “is the long struggle which has been waged by the people of this country, nearly 200 million of them, against a corrupt political elite backed by the military and the United States now for over 50 years.”