Where is Mullah Omar?... By F Z Khan
29 August, 2012
As the United States has issued a warning to its citizens travelling to Pakistan in the wake of possible terror threats in the country, the top American general, John Allen, who is commander of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said in an article published on Tuesday that the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, was hiding in Pakistan along with his commanders. The article focused on the recent increase in the attacks on the US troops from the Afghan security forces, which the Taliban claim the responsibility for. "Omar lives in Pakistan, as do many of his commanders. From that safe vantage point, they've sent hundreds of young, impressionable, largely spiritual and helpless youths to their deaths and detention in Afghanistan. For this, they must forfeit their honor and any claim to Islamic virtue." The point is whether Mullah Omar and others are really in Pakistan? If yes then where? Do the Americans know? If they know, why don't they pin-point? Earlier they have been giving ambiguous statements about OBL's presence along the border areas of Afghanistan but never hinted of his presence in or around Abbottabad. Despite satellite-watch, hi-tech ground gadgets, surveillance and detection facilities they remain unable to determine the OBL's or that of Mullah Omar's exact abode. They have been claiming of the presence of Quetta Shoora, which the time proved that it existed nowhere. Pakistan arrested Mullah Dadullah who has now reportedly been killed in drone attack. The question is whether the Americans are keeping it as a secret? What for? Is Pakistan not willing to dismantle the hideouts of terrorists, who are posing threat to its own security? It means there is lack of intelligence sharing viz the mutual trust. Why? Are the over 40,000 deaths of Pakistani people and soldiers not enough to prove of their sincerity? The fact of the matter is by putting blame on Pakistan the Americans are trying to divert the real of issue of threat from within Afghanistan, that too not from the Taliban, but from their own trained Afghan security forces, whose personnel, though individually, are frequently targeting their American colleagues. An Afghan is Afghan, either Taliban or ANA personnel. He is unpredictable when it comes to challenging his honour and pride. Pakistan is nothing to do with it nor does it house Mullah Omar or any other. If these people are in Pakistan and Americans really know it, they need to share it with Pakistan so that it could catch them or expel them in order to save the country from ruining at the hands of an endless war on terror, which the Americans started and is now ours in the words of Pakistan army chief, Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. If by all means Mullah Omar is listening and he is reportedly against the deaths of civilians and attacks on Pakistan security forces, he should himself come out and leave the country for its people's sake, please. F Z Khan
Islamabad
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