Militancy in West Asia

6 May 2013 06:30 pm

Southwest Asia is once again sliding into a state of anarchy. The Taliban and the like are on a rampage, and recent incidents in Afghanistan and Pakistan suggest that law enforcement authorities have taken a backseat.

 The election canvas in Pakistan is marred with violence, and the local Taliban have claimed responsibility for all the terror attacks carried out during political campaigns. More than 70 people have been killed in Pakistan in different poll-related terror incidents, and analysts fear the worst is yet to come. So is the case with Afghanistan where the so-called inside attacks have claimed the lives of several coalition troops. Seven soldiers serving with Nato forces in Farah province were shot dead by one of the Afghan accomplice in what many say are increasing acts of disgust. These have come close on the heels of similar green-on-blue attacks — orchestrated by non-state actors who had infiltrated in their rank and file.

Apart from daredevil shooting incidents, a number of roadside bomb blasts and suicide attacks have unnerved Kabul, which seems to be groping in dark as to what would be its political future once the coalition forces walked out by the end of next year. Nato and the US are in the process of handing security operations to Afghan forces and some have already been transferred. But the enigma is that Kabul has to excessively rely on air power and it is here that the vulnerability is born. While the West settles down with a new equation of security and cooperation with Afghanistan and Pakistan, it has to rewrite a new political dictum in order to neutralise the mushrooming of militant groups.

Courtesy: Khaleej Times