Extremism

Ansar Abbasi Twists Facts, History In Defence of Militants

Monday, August 20th, 2012

In his latest piece for The News (Jang Group), Ansar Abbasi requests homegrown solutions to Talibanisation something many people would probably agree with.
Unfortunately, he then goes on to spread a mixture of misinformation and pro-militancy which
undermines his original thesis, suggesting that Ansar Abbasis solution to Talibanisation is
actually to embrace it.
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Abbasi begins his piece by saying It is high time to seriously look for a home grown solution
and hear what the likes of Imran Khan say. PTI chief Imran Khan has gained fame for his
demands to withdraw support for the fight against terrorists including those located in North
Waziristan. But Imran Khan has not stopped there. In addition to calling on an end to support for
US efforts against militant groups, he has also called for an end to militant groups in Pakistan.
Imran Khan told Barkha Dutt on NDTV that Pakistan should eliminate all militant groups in the
country:
Imran Khan: No country should ever allow any militant groups within. Thats true. And I
believe that whenever Pakistan gets out of this war on terror, the first thing it should do is deweaponise. There should be no militants operating in Pakistan whether they are ethnic, whether
they are religious, whether they are sectarian.
Barkha Dutt: Including groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba that India, I know, has the most
concerns about; or the Jaish-e-Mohammad?
Imran Khan: No militant groups should ever be allowed to function in a state. Because you will
eventually suffer because of that.

Ansar Abbasi also terms the militant group of Jalaluddin Haqqani as pro-Pakistan Haqqani
Network. According to Abbasi, following the advice of Imran Khan and de-weaponising and
de-banding militant groups like the Haqqani Network would mean turning Haqqanis against
Pakistan and thus forcing them to join TTPs campaign against Pakistan.
What Abbasi fails to explain, however, is why a pro-Pakistan militant group is sitting on the
sidelines and allowing TTP to carry out attacks against Pakistanis? If the Haqqani Network is
truly pro-Pakistan, shouldnt they be fighting against TTP in North Waziristan where both have
camps?
And is not just Haqqanis that Ansar Abbasi believes are pro-Pakistan. Later he suggests that
Taliban and even al Qaeda are pro-Pakistan groups. Abbasis reasoning is that al Qaeda leaders
were unhappy with TTPs actions, therefore they must not be enemies of Pakistan.
The TTPs indiscriminate attacks against Muslims caused two al-Qaeda leaders Atiyyatullah and
Abu Yahya al-Libi to write to TTP leader Hakimullah Mahsud to express their displeasure with
the groups ideology, methods and behaviour. They also threatened to take public measures
unless they saw from TTP serious and immediate practical and clear steps towards reforming its
ways and dissociating itself from these vile mistakes that violate Islamic Law, the media report
said.
But disagreements between ideology and action do not mean that militant groups are enemies,
and disagreements between militant groups definitely do not imply that one or another group is
not the enemy of some third party. Actually, al Qaeda has a long history of expressing
unhappiness with the actions of allied terror groups including its own lieutenants. Documents
found in Osama bin Ladens hideout that was raided last year indicate that al Qaeda was not
frustrated with TTP only, but also with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and the al Shahbab
group in Somalia. Al Qaeda leaders have even had internal fights in which they warned each
other against ideology, methods and behaviour that they did not agree on. The most famous of
these internal fights was between al Qaeda leaders Atiyah and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
A top al-Qaida official warned Abu Musab al-Zarqawi six months before he was killed by a U.S.
airstrike that he would be removed as the terror groups head in Iraq if he did not consult with the
groups leadership on major issues.
An al-Qaida leader named Atiyah cautioned al-Zarqawi in an 11-page letter against the war he
had declared on Shiite Muslims.
The letter also criticized attacks the Iraqi branch had carried out in neighboring countries an
apparent reference to last years triple suicide attacks on hotels in the Jordanian capital of
Amman that killed dozens.
Ansar Abbasi not only makes excuses for al Qaeda and other terror groups, he also repeats
disproven conspiracy theories. Abbasi says the US has established a net-work of Raymond
Davis like agents within Pakistan, but he fails to note that actually Pakistan kicked out 331 US
officials suspected of being engaged in espionage over one year ago. Abbasi asks who protects

and feeds the anti-Pakistan Taliban in Kunar, Afghanistan? But he does not ask who protects
and feeds the anti-Pakistan Taliban in North Waziristan, in Karachi, and in Lahore. Neither does
Abbasi mention that US Gen James N Mattis, Mattis, Commander of United States Central
Command (Centcom) and COAS Gen Kayani consider TTP a common enemy or that TTP
leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed by a US drone strike.
The Investigative Editor of Jang Group has continually expressed his sympathies with al Qaeda,
Hizb-ut-Tahrir and other extremist groups, so this is nothing really new. Ansar Abbasi is entitled
to his opinion that supports al Qaeda and Taliban militants, but he is not entitled to twist facts
and history in order to justify his sympathies.