Crisis in Pakistan

Afghans expect hike in cross-border flow of extremists with Bhutto's death
COLIN FREEZE

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- From President Hamid Karzai in Kabul to ordinary villagers near Kandahar, many Afghans had hoped that Benazir Bhutto would be the Pakistani leader who finally staunched the flow of extremists into Afghanistan.

That hope died Thursday when a terrorist attack killed the former Pakistani prime minister as she campaigned for election.

Now, some Afghans mourn Ms. Bhutto as a victim of Islamic extremism, while others see her as a victim of her own actions. Regardless, many expect the flow of violent extremists between the countries will only worsen, causing the region to grow increasingly instable.

"Day by day, the situation becomes worse," said a 45-year-old landowner known by a single name, Saifullah, who lives outside of Kandahar. "We now know al-Qaeda is very strong, especially in Pakistan ... the situation is out of control."

The landowner lives in the Panjwai district, a restive region near Kandahar that is among the districts where 2,500 Canadian Forces soldiers are stationed to fight the Taliban.

Saifullah said he has watched his country be torn apart by the forces of Islamic extremism, the same forces accused of killing Ms. Bhutto. Like many Afghans, he blames the machinations of foreign agencies, principally Pakistani military intelligence, known as the Inter-Services Intelligence.

It has been well known the ISI worked to direct violent Islamist extremists to Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s, a sore point for Afghans who have lived through increasingly brutal wars.

The landowner argued that ISI has always been the éminence grise in Pakistan that manipulates Afghanistan's politics. "After the [Afghan] mujahedeen, they made the Taliban, after the Taliban, they made al-Qaeda," said Saifullah, who added he was about "60 per cent sure" the ISI was complicit in Ms. Bhutto's killing.

He added that he is "100 per cent sure" the ISI is supplying the Taliban with bullets, money, guns and medical treatment, and that this is now well known in Panjwai.

This week, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, on a visit to Afghanistan, called on Pakistan and Iran to stop supplying the Taliban with weaponry. Officials from Canada have also been working to help Afghanistan and Pakistan discuss border controls with one another.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai travelled to Pakistan to meet his counterpart, Pervez Mussharaf, and Ms. Bhutto this week, ahead of the scheduled Pakistan election.

At the time, all three leaders had survived multiple assassination attempts, hatched by extremists who have found havens in a no man's land between the countries.

Ms. Bhutto was killed hours after meeting Mr. Karzai, who eulogized her as a woman whose views against terrorism were "so strong that no doubt those who are against peace and stability in this part of the world were afraid of her."

Other Afghans were less generous in their assessments. "I feel happy," said Nasrollah Khan, a 40-year-old teacher from Kandahar. "She was not a religious woman."

He pointed out that Ms. Bhutto had a role in encouraging the Taliban movement while leading the Pakistani government in the early 1990s.

"This fighting in Afghanistan, this was the work of Benazir Bhutto, another prime minister, and the ISI," Mr. Khan said. "So when I heard the news I said, 'Oh good:' They wanted to make fire in Afghanistan, now the fire has reached Pakistan."

Asked who could put out the fire, he said he doubted that anyone in the region could.

He suggested that "the world" would have to intervene. A United States and NATO led coalition has already committed 40,000 troops to Afghanistan.

Other Kandaharis suggested that in crisis there is opportunity. Sabir Ali, 29, said that Pakistan is now going to have to focus all its energies inward and become so preoccupied with internal politics it won't have time to meddle in Afghanistan's affairs.

"Pakistan will face fighting in their political groups, so they will forget Afghanistan," Mr. Ali said. "They will stop giving money to Taliban. This is a good chance for Afghanistan."