Terrorists in Pakistan

At the beginning of last year, Germany was troubled by a video showing Islamist fighters calling out for people to "chose a life after death" by carrying out attacks. The most troubling bit was that the video had been filmed in German. But it had been shot in the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan, an area that harbors terrorists, according to Ahmed Rashid, expert on Pakistani politics. He says all recent major terrorist incidents that have taken place around the world can be traced back to "the frontier and the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan." He adds that the perpetrators "at some point visit Pakistan and some of them get in touch with al Qaeda."

"Most dangerous place"

Many experts have referred to this mountainous region between Pakistan and Afghanistan as the most dangerous place in the world, as Taliban and al Qaeda fighters move around freely between the two countries there. Rashid believes the region became a safe haven for terrorists in 2001, when "the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan escaped into Pakistan."

He says they were able to prosper because "they were never defeated by the Americans, they escaped into Pakistan, they sought refuge in the tribal areas, the tribal areas became radicalized and there was a lot of money floating around from al Qaeda."

The border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is over 2,000 kilometers. The climate is as harsh as its terrain. There are reports of European citizens who have gone to camps there for training.

Pakistan criticized

Though Pakistan has confronted the problem by cracking down on extremists in tribal areas, many experts, like Afghanistan’s National Security Advisor, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, believe there needs to be another approach. He believes, "we will not be successful unless we really get to the cause of terrorism."

Security experts criticize the Pakistani military for only conducting attacks on Taliban fighters in Pakistan who pose a threat to Islamabad, while sparing Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in the hope that they might become allies. The United States has taken its own course, using drones and remote controlled aircraft to eradicate the area of extremists. But Pakistani security expert Talat Masood is skeptical that the drones are having the effect they should be. He says, though there may be some tactical advantage to drones, there are also "great moral and legal and sovereignty problems" because they cause civilian deaths. He says they "are used as propaganda by militants and also arouse a very strong nationalist impulse, which creates a very serious backlash and anti-Americanism."

US military forces have been successful in eliminating high-ranking extremists, but drone attacks have also caused many civilian casualties. The question is whether or not the drone attacks have been more successful in eliminating and weakening terrorist structures or in inadvertently helping to strengthen them.

Author: Kai Küstner (sb)
Editor: Ziphora Robina