'Radical Sunni-Deobandi groups main source of terror in Pak'

New Delhi, Mar 15 (PTI) A prominent global thinktank has
termed the radical Sunni-Deobandi groups as the "primary
source" of terror in Pakistan and said their continued
patronage by the army has influenced Islamabad's relations
with India and Afghanistan.

The "expanding influence" of the Pakistani Taliban was
"due to support from long-established Sunni extremist
networks, based primarily in Punjab, which have served as the
(Pakistan) army’s jihadi proxies in Afghanistan and India
since the 1980s," the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in
its latest report.

"Their continued patronage by the military, and their
ability to hijack major policy areas, including Pakistan’s
relations with India, Afghanistan and the international
community, impedes the civilian government’s ongoing efforts
to consolidate control over governance and pursue peace with
its neighbours," the Brussels-based body said in the report
titled 'Pakistan -The Militant Jihadi Challenge'.

It warned that "the expanding influence of radical Sunni
groups remained the primary source of terrorism in Pakistan"
and maintained that their links with terror outfits like Al
Qaeda made them "even more dangerous".

The ICG said the fresh attacks in the Pakistani provinces
of Punjab, the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Balochistan’s
provincial capital Quetta "demonstrate the threat posed (by
them) to the Pakistani citizen and state".

Asserting that dismantling of the Sunni extremist groups
"must become the core of the government’s counter-terrorism
policy", it said these extremist outfits were "simultaneously
fighting internal sectarian jihads, regional jihads in
Afghanistan and India, and a global jihad against the West.
Their links to international networks like al-Qaeda make them
even more dangerous than before."

The ICG said the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attack
presented Pakistan with an opportunity to reshape its response
to terrorism, "which should rely not on the application of
indiscriminate force, including military action and arbitrary
detentions, but on police investigations, arrests, fair trials
and convictions. This must be civilian-led to be effective."

The current political crisis in Punjab "will provide a
decisive test for the Pakistan Peoples Party and Nawaz
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League to resolve their differences
through the political process", said ICG's Asia Program
Director Robert Templer.

"If the democratic transition falters, the military and
the militants will be the sole winners. Genuine democratic
governance, in FATA as well as the rest of the country is the
best defence against the spread of extremism in Pakistan," he
added. PTI ARC
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