Pakistan Blames West For Terrorism
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Writing this weekend in The News, Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani Prime Minister, recalls that Zia who... played a key role in assisting the US and the Mujahadeen to defeat the Soviet-backed Afghan government.

"This alliance not only brought modern weapons and technology to the Mujahadeen but converted my homeland from a peaceful nation into a violent society of Kalashnikov weapons, heroin addiction and a radicalised interpretation of Islam."

Thus...were the seeds of the current harvest sown. Her views have found many echoes in Pakistan...both in the marketplace and in the offices of think-tanks, politicians and commentators.

"You have created a monster and now you don't know what to do with it," said Senator Asfundyar Wali, the Awami National Party Senator...

Throughout the war, the CIA channelled an estimated $3bn into the hands of the Afghan resistance groups and their foreign fellow-fighters, many of whom still inhabit the region around the border with Afghanistan in the North-West of Pakistan--an estimated 25,000 of whom, the 'Afghan Arabs,' arrived from Saudi Arabia, Egypt , Algeria and more than a dozen other nations.

If the creation of a radicalised and militarised reservoir of fundamentalists is blamed on the buckling of Pakistan to US pressure in the 1980s, there is also a growing scepticism about the current alleged plot and its timing here. [the plot refers to an explosion that took place at the airport for the Punjabi city of Bahawalpur].

"These plots are essential for Bush to keep up the fear of terrorism, so the American public is constantly fearful," said Dr Shireen Mazari, director general of the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad.

On the issue of Al-Qaeda's alleged involvement, Dr Mazari said: "I think it's becoming a brand name that attracts disparate groups."

The cartoonist Maxim, in The Nation, has a balder interpretation but one that finds a growing audience.

His cartoon shows an Arab looking at three missiles marked UK, US and Israel and thinking: "Real WMDs--Weapons for Muslim Destruction."

This view has many supporters. Shafiq Ahmed, 35, deputy Imam at Al Huda Mosque in Islamabad, said:

"The plot seems to be a conspiracy to divert the attention of the international community from what is happening in Lebanon. Muslims are being terrorised and killed on the back of 9/11. No body is concerned about the Muslims' issues, even the UN are not...We believe if we fight against injustice, we go to heaven and if we cannot do something against these cruel powers we may pray for God for their destruction."

Usman Moosa, a 21-year-old student, reflects an equal resentment that Pakistan is portrayed in the West as the epicenter of terrorism.

"You don't have to blame Pakistan for what people do in another country, people who were born over there and educated over there,"

"Why do people always look at Pakistan?"


The above was extracted from:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1854229,00.html