Amir Mir ISLAMABAD: In the aftermath of Pakistani military establishment’s decision to revise its doctrine and recognise domestic militants especially the Taliban as a larger threat than India, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has announced sending its fighters to Jammu & Kashmir and wage struggle for the implementation of Shariah rule in India.
Introducing a paradigm shift in its decades-old India-centric policy, Pakistan’s military establishment has recently added a new chapter to the Army Doctrine in the Green Book, describing homegrown militancy as the biggest threat to the national security. The Army Doctrine deals with operational preparedness and is reviewed intermittently. A special chapter titled ‘Sub-conventional warfare’ has been included this year in the Green Book which holds strategic papers by professional soldiers who give their ideas on various subjects. While emphasising that the biggest threat to Pakistan lies within not without, the new Army Doctrine states that the TTP and a host of assorted militants within, are a bigger security threat than India.’ The Green Book states that the activities of Pakistani militants, who have found refuge across the Durand Line in Afghanistan, now pose a real threat to the national security.
Before the new Army Doctrine, India used to be Pakistan’s No 1 enemy and most of the military resources were also being focused on India. In fact, about 75 percent of the 500,000 active duty Pakistan Army personnel are posted on the Indian border while only 100,000 patrol the Afghan border. But having decided to revise the Army Doctrine, the military leadership is most likely to rectify this skewed ratio by shifting more and more troops from its eastern border with India to the western border with Afghanistan. Nevertheless, it took the loss of over 40,000 civilian and military deaths for the all-powerful military establishment to finally classify the home grown militants as a greater threat than India.
However, in an apparent reaction to the change in the Army’s Doctrine, which was made public by Pakistani media on January 2, TTP’s deputy ameer and Hakeemullah Mehsud’s No. 2, Commander Waliur Rehman has announced in yet another video appearance [released on January 3, 2013] to send fighters to the Indian-administered Kashmir and wage a valiant struggle for implementation of Islamic Shariah in India. Wali, against whom the American FBI has announced a USD 5 million head money for his involvement in the December 2009 assassination of seven CIA officials in Khost, has spoken for the first time about the Pakistani Taliban’s ambitions of transcending beyond the Af-Pak border and taking them to Jammu & Kashmir, India and the United States.
The 45:52 minute video in Pashtu with Urdu subtitles has been produced by Umar Media, the broadcasting arm of TTP while its translation has been provided to the international media by the Jehad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) of Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a Washington based think tank. Formally released to internet on January 6, the video is titled “The false propaganda of the Dajjali (imposter) media revealed.” Claiming that the jehad launched by the Pakistan government inside [Jammu] Kashmir has failed to yield any desired result, the TTP video says that it would launch its own jehad in the Valley and talks about sending its own jehadi forces in the Valley.
Waliur Rehman has been shown in the video as saying: “The practical struggle for a Shariah system that we are carrying out in Pakistan, the same way we will continue it in [Jammu] Kashmir and the same way implement the Shariah system in India too. This is the only solution for people’s problems. Allah willing, the mujahedeen of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan will arrive in [Jammu] Kashmir and as per the Islamic Shariah will help the Kashmiris get their rights. As our ancestors sacrificed their lives for Kashmir and had got it liberated by force [in 1947-48], the same way their progenies [i.e. Taliban fighters], walking in the footsteps of their forefathers, will get [Jammu] Kashmir liberated [from India], and will help them get their rights. The government-sponsored jehad that Pakistan had begun cannot liberate [Jammu] Kashmir, and even if it were to be liberated, it will be for name only, but the system will not change [in favour of Islamic Shariah rule] and their fate will not be changed, and if it were to change, only Shariah system will change it. And it is our promise to those people [in Jammu Kashmir], that we will share their grief”.
Waliur Rehman further stated in the video: “As far as Pakistan’s dirty policy on [Jammu] Kashmir is concerned, as per which the Kashmiris have been ruined and shattered under the pretext of the Kashmir policy, their everything has been destroyed, we strongly condemn this policy too as much as we do about India’s atrocities.
Most terrorism experts are of the view that the latest anti-India TTP tape should be treated as a significant propaganda video in the usual sense of the term propaganda because it has been released soon after the Pakistani military establishment’s decision to amend its doctrine and recognise domestic militants especially the Taliban as a larger threat than India.
Earlier, in a video message release on December 28, 2012 following a spate of high-profile attacks claimed by the TTP, Hakeemullah Mehsud had stated: “If Pakistan is serious about negotiations [with TTP] it will have to give up the American slavery. We will then be ready for negotiations. But if Pakistan decides to open talks while remaining American slaves the talks will not succeed because a slave can never take independent decisions.” TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan subsequently said the main purpose of releasing the videotape was dispel the impression about differences between Hakeemullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman, adding that they had not extended any offer to the government about the ceasefire, but could seriously think about it if the Pakistani rulers accepted their conditions. The ceasefire conditions include Pakistan pulling out of the Afghan war and changing its constitution and foreign policy to bring it what Taliban claimed in conformity with Quran and Sunnah.
Introducing a paradigm shift in its decades-old India-centric policy, Pakistan’s military establishment has recently added a new chapter to the Army Doctrine in the Green Book, describing homegrown militancy as the biggest threat to the national security. The Army Doctrine deals with operational preparedness and is reviewed intermittently. A special chapter titled ‘Sub-conventional warfare’ has been included this year in the Green Book which holds strategic papers by professional soldiers who give their ideas on various subjects. While emphasising that the biggest threat to Pakistan lies within not without, the new Army Doctrine states that the TTP and a host of assorted militants within, are a bigger security threat than India.’ The Green Book states that the activities of Pakistani militants, who have found refuge across the Durand Line in Afghanistan, now pose a real threat to the national security.
Before the new Army Doctrine, India used to be Pakistan’s No 1 enemy and most of the military resources were also being focused on India. In fact, about 75 percent of the 500,000 active duty Pakistan Army personnel are posted on the Indian border while only 100,000 patrol the Afghan border. But having decided to revise the Army Doctrine, the military leadership is most likely to rectify this skewed ratio by shifting more and more troops from its eastern border with India to the western border with Afghanistan. Nevertheless, it took the loss of over 40,000 civilian and military deaths for the all-powerful military establishment to finally classify the home grown militants as a greater threat than India.
However, in an apparent reaction to the change in the Army’s Doctrine, which was made public by Pakistani media on January 2, TTP’s deputy ameer and Hakeemullah Mehsud’s No. 2, Commander Waliur Rehman has announced in yet another video appearance [released on January 3, 2013] to send fighters to the Indian-administered Kashmir and wage a valiant struggle for implementation of Islamic Shariah in India. Wali, against whom the American FBI has announced a USD 5 million head money for his involvement in the December 2009 assassination of seven CIA officials in Khost, has spoken for the first time about the Pakistani Taliban’s ambitions of transcending beyond the Af-Pak border and taking them to Jammu & Kashmir, India and the United States.
The 45:52 minute video in Pashtu with Urdu subtitles has been produced by Umar Media, the broadcasting arm of TTP while its translation has been provided to the international media by the Jehad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM) of Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a Washington based think tank. Formally released to internet on January 6, the video is titled “The false propaganda of the Dajjali (imposter) media revealed.” Claiming that the jehad launched by the Pakistan government inside [Jammu] Kashmir has failed to yield any desired result, the TTP video says that it would launch its own jehad in the Valley and talks about sending its own jehadi forces in the Valley.
Waliur Rehman has been shown in the video as saying: “The practical struggle for a Shariah system that we are carrying out in Pakistan, the same way we will continue it in [Jammu] Kashmir and the same way implement the Shariah system in India too. This is the only solution for people’s problems. Allah willing, the mujahedeen of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan will arrive in [Jammu] Kashmir and as per the Islamic Shariah will help the Kashmiris get their rights. As our ancestors sacrificed their lives for Kashmir and had got it liberated by force [in 1947-48], the same way their progenies [i.e. Taliban fighters], walking in the footsteps of their forefathers, will get [Jammu] Kashmir liberated [from India], and will help them get their rights. The government-sponsored jehad that Pakistan had begun cannot liberate [Jammu] Kashmir, and even if it were to be liberated, it will be for name only, but the system will not change [in favour of Islamic Shariah rule] and their fate will not be changed, and if it were to change, only Shariah system will change it. And it is our promise to those people [in Jammu Kashmir], that we will share their grief”.
Waliur Rehman further stated in the video: “As far as Pakistan’s dirty policy on [Jammu] Kashmir is concerned, as per which the Kashmiris have been ruined and shattered under the pretext of the Kashmir policy, their everything has been destroyed, we strongly condemn this policy too as much as we do about India’s atrocities.
Most terrorism experts are of the view that the latest anti-India TTP tape should be treated as a significant propaganda video in the usual sense of the term propaganda because it has been released soon after the Pakistani military establishment’s decision to amend its doctrine and recognise domestic militants especially the Taliban as a larger threat than India.
Earlier, in a video message release on December 28, 2012 following a spate of high-profile attacks claimed by the TTP, Hakeemullah Mehsud had stated: “If Pakistan is serious about negotiations [with TTP] it will have to give up the American slavery. We will then be ready for negotiations. But if Pakistan decides to open talks while remaining American slaves the talks will not succeed because a slave can never take independent decisions.” TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan subsequently said the main purpose of releasing the videotape was dispel the impression about differences between Hakeemullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman, adding that they had not extended any offer to the government about the ceasefire, but could seriously think about it if the Pakistani rulers accepted their conditions. The ceasefire conditions include Pakistan pulling out of the Afghan war and changing its constitution and foreign policy to bring it what Taliban claimed in conformity with Quran and Sunnah.
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