Farhan Bokhari’s article “Pakistan suffers terrorism rise on Afghan border” (Report, January 30) presents comments misleadingly as if they are facts.
Contrary to his assertions that the surge in violence has raised fears among Pakistan’s officials that Pakistani Taliban militants based in Afghanistan are carrying out the attacks, the rising terrorism in the country is a result of the duplicitous policy of Pakistan’s military apparatus.
Following 9/11, Pakistan nominally allied with the west in the war on terrorism. Still, it secretly continued to breed violent radical religious militants and to use them to promote Pakistan’s geostrategic interests in the region.
According to the Center for Global Development, from 1951-2011, Pakistan received in total from the US nearly $67bn.
However, the double-dealing of Pakistan’s army during the Afghan war caused the death of tens of thousands of Afghans and thousands of western lives.
For decades, such proverbial duplicity has turned the nuclear-armed country into a failed state where the bosom vipers have now begun to sting their former charmers — the Pakistani generals.
Ehsan Azari Stanizai
Director, Sydney Lacan Study and Reading Network
Sydney, Australia
