Futile to blame India, US for terror emanating from within Pak: Editorial

Islamabad, Dec. 11 (ANI): While the Pakistani leadership has been blaming foreign countries such as India and the United States for the recent wave of terror attacks in the country, which have claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent people, an editorial in one of country's leading English dailies has said that it is futile to blame both the nations for the ghastly acts.

An editorial in The Dawn denounced claims of involvement of foreign hands in the terror strikes that have rocked Pakistan in the recent past, saying the extremists were actually targeting innocent people to force the government to stop the military offensive in Swat and Waziristan.

It underlined that the struggle against the extremists was Pakistan's 'own war', and that it should not blame other countries for the inhuman act.

"Conspiracy theorists ask inane questions about who the perpetrators are even when the Taliban own their crime. Some say even now that the terrorists cannot be Muslims and that Muslims do not attack mosques, when the recent incident was not the first of its kind. It is futile to blame India or America. This is our war and the terrorists are fighting us because they want the army to stop action in Waziristan and Swat," the editorial said.

It said that the root cause of the current problem was the blunder committed by the then President General Zia-ul-Haq, when he allowed Pakistan to become an ally of the US in its war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

"It was because of this war that radicalised Arabs came to Afghanistan and Fata. It was because of this war that arms and ammunition flooded our society," the editorial added.

"Later the militants were used for a covert war against India for Kashmir although many among them also killed members of the Shia community. Our decision-makers accepted that as collateral damage," it went on to add.

The editorial concluded by saying that it was necessary that the Pakistani leadership makes efforts to remove the confusion about who actually are the country's enemies.

"There is a lot of evidence that militants taking the name of Islam are fighting our army so why should people be confused and point to foreign powers?" it said. (ANI)