Within days of Pakistan handing over Mohammad Sharifullah, the so-called mastermind of the Abbey Gate bombing outside Kabul Airport in 2021, to the US, the latter says he’s confessed to two other bombings:
Last year’s attack on the concert hall outside Moscow, and the bombing outside the Canadian embassy in Kabul in 2016.
Key question is where he was picked up. Pakistan says he was arrested in an operation on the Pak-Afghan border based on CIA inputs.
As Ramanathan Kumar, formerly of R&AW, India’s external intelligence agency, said on The Gist: “The point is Pakistan’s record, one is almost tempted to think, we’ve been through all this before. They produced the likes of Abu Zubeidah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad out of thin air.”
But for the Americans and many other countries, while they may be sceptical about Pakistan, the Islamic State today is the highest counter-terrorism priority.
It suits the Pakistanis who can ignore Al Qaeda and the India-centric terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, and focus on satisfying America. Who knows, if Islamabad played its cards correctly, it would well return as America’s favoured child in the region.
What does that mean for the US-led war on terror?
Kumar believes that with “geopolitical contestation coming back to the fore, counter terrorism and terrorism is slipping down the ladder to that extent. But most people would argue that terrorism has not gone away. I would link you to what is happening on the Pak-Afghanistan border to developments in Bangladesh, which is worrisome from our point of view.”
He recalled a time when terrorist groups were using Bangladeshi soil for activities directed against India and although that receded over the past 15 years or so, there could well be a regrouping of such forces in that country.
Kumar believes that terrorism could again rear its head as geopolitical contestation and the forces of radicalism and terrorism converge. All the more reason to keep the focus on the terrorism ball and ensure Pakistan’s tendency to exploit any opportunity is checked.
Tune in for more in this conversation with Ramanathan Kumar, formerly of R&AW.
