Terrorists in twilight zone

Wanted men are felled, but it is too early for India to lower its guard

- NAMRATA BIJI AHUJA

On October 6, 2003, US Deputy Secretary of state Richard Armitage huddled with Pervez Musharraf at the

presidential palace on the highly guarded Constitution Avenue in Islamabad. As he was heaping praise on Musharraf and Pakistan’s military brass for their efforts to dismantle the terror infrastructure in the country, a few kilometres away a car was stopped by a few armed men. Within seconds, the passenger’s body was riddled with bullets, and he fell in a pool of blood. The assailants fled, without leaving any trace.

The victim was Azam Tariq, head of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, who was on his way to Islamabad from Jhang. And he was just one of the dozens of extremists eliminated by unknown killers in Pakistan in a few months.

Those were not ordinary times. Stung by the 9/11 terror attacks, the US had forced Islamabad to take action against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, and masked men battering targets beyond recognition had become the new normal on Pakistani streets. Riaz Basra, founder of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was killed in May 2002 in Mailsi in Punjab. Asif Ramzi, a Lashkar-e-Jhangvi operative wanted in 87 cases, was killed in December 2002. He was said to have links to the kidnappers of American journalist Daniel Pearl, who was later killed by suspected Al Qaeda operatives.

Many theories emerged on the killings—the war on terror, internecine clashes, harbouring hordes of extremists becoming untenable for the Pak spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence—but the perpetrators were never caught. Terrorism, however, bounced back. On the run, many militants joined hands with terror groups sitting across in Jammu and Kashmir where outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen used their skills to multiply their cadre.