:: Editorial

Pak ISI & terror: Iran says it too

Oct 20 : While details are sketchy, the suicide bomber who on Sunday killed several high-ranking officials of Iran’s elite force, the Revolutionary Guard, in the country’s Pishin district which borders Pakistan, could just be the link that confirms a key regional reality: that all of Pakistan’s immediate neighbours — India, Afghanistan and Iran — are by now under Sunni jihadist assault from terrorists that receive inspiration and sustenance from quarters in that country. This is hardly a coincidence, and speaks of the social, political and military processes that have tainted and ruined Pakistan over the past three decades. The bomber is thought to belong to the Jundollah group which had carried out a similar attack in a Zahedan mosque, killing 25, in May this year. The technique of suicide bombing is used exclusively by the Taliban and Al Qaeda in this region. There has been a degree of unrest in Iran’s Balochi-speaking area in recent years, although it is not thought to be as severe as in Balochistan on the Pakistan side. Also, Baloch nationalists on the two sides are not known to have organisational links. Nor have the Balochis in Pakistan come under the sway of the Taliban. As such, Taliban or Al Qaeda influence over the Baloch population in Iran’s southeast should be a matter of concern for Tehran.

When we look at the expanse of territory in which the Taliban and Al Qaeda have established a steady presence over time, it does look apparent that elements of the long-cherished Islamic emirate the world Sunni jihadists have already come to cohere. The large area in which this has occurred encompasses great swathes of Pakistan’s tribal belt, in particular north and south Waziristan, the areas of Pakistani Balochistan north of Quetta (where the Baloch nationalist movement is not preponderant), and now seemingly Sistan-Balochistan (on the Iran side). Geographically, this is hard country, where the social organisation is tribal, and development indices are low. In short, it is tailor-made for primitive practices and way of life favoured by takfiris such as Taliban and Al Qaeda. Influential quarters in Tehran have blamed the "Great Satan" (America) and its ally Britain in the context of the Pishin killing of its top Revolutionary Guard commanders. But notably, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called up Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to demand appropriate action, virtually pointing a finger at the nexus between official circles — and specifically the Inter-Services Intelligence — and jihadists in Pakistan. The Iranian leader has reason to be angry. Some time ago, when the United States was thought to be contemplating military strikes against Iran, it was widely believed that then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had got fifth columnists to soften up the Iranian Balochistan area to curry favour with Washington. Iran is cognisant of the danger posed to it by Al Qaeda and its allies in the region. In the wider context of the debate in the West, notably the United States, about withdrawing from the Afghanistan-Pakistan theatre in the not too distant future, regional players themselves will need to find meaningful answers to the conundrum thrown up by the Islamist movement that now looks like threatening Pakistan itself.