Military

DATE=07/09/2002

TYPE=ON THE LINE

NUMBER=1-01151 SHORT #1

TITLE= PAKISTAN'S FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM

INTERNET=Yes

EDITOR=OFFICE OF POLICY 619-0037

CONTENT= CONTENTS IN DALET AND AUDIO SERVICES

THEME: UP, HOLD UNDER AND FADE

Host: This is On the Line, and I'm ------. Pakistan is stepping up its efforts against terrorists. Hundreds of troops are now scouring the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan for al-Qaida fighters who escaped from Afghanistan. Pakistan is mounting raids in response to recent terrorist attacks such as the car bombing at the U-S consulate in Karachi.

Teresita Schaffer is director of the South Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She says that terrorism poses an even graver threat to Pakistan than to the West.

Schaffer: There are elements of al-Qaida in many different parts of Pakistan. That's the only explanation I can find for the pattern of four major attacks aiming at foreigners, starting with the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl and winding up most recently with the bombing of the U-S consulate in Karachi. The real challenge to the Pakistan government is not whether they can help the U-S out in this struggle, which is obviously of enormous interest to the United States, but whether they will be able really to reclaim and ultimately rebuild the institutions of the state.

Host: Marin Strmecki is a former Defense Department official. He says a large threat to the Pakistani state is internal.

Strmecki: The state itself in trying to rebuild its authority has to deal with the fact that key institutions in the state have been compromised by radical Islamist groups, essentially the I-S-I, the intelligence service of Pakistan. One of the most important instruments in this battle, [the I-S-I] has a history of supporting these groups, being interconnected with the radical groups in Pakistani society -- and whether [President Pervez] Musharraf can get that agency to fully fight this war I think is the big question.

Host: Husain Haqqani is a Pakistani journalist who is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He says Pakistan got involved with Islamic radicals in hopes of using them against India -- a strategy that seems to have backfired.

Haqqani: It has [had] repercussions both in domestic terms, where they have spawned sectarian terrorist groups who have been killing members of the Shi'a minority, and at the same time, they have become part of the international terrorist network. Now, to try and make a distinction between those who were Pakistan's former allies in the battle against India and those who are international terrorists, I think is something that will not work because all of these people do see themselves as allies of each other and they will work and continue to work closely to each other.

Host: Husain Haqqani says that President Musharraf must rid the I-S-I intelligence service of those who support Islamic extremists if Pakistan is to succeed in its fight against terrorism. For On the Line, I'm ---------.