on the job with a taliban recruiter

An interesting article by Massoud Ansari in The Asia Times highlights the role of Pakistani madrassas in ongoing recruitment:

Says Haji Sardar Lashkari, a former provincial minister in Balochistan: “How is it possible for senior Taliban leaders and the likes of Mullah Dadullah and other most-wanted Taliban remnants to come to Pakistan quite often, convince students at the religious schools openly or even to attend social gatherings like weddings, without the knowledge of the ISI and other secret agencies?”

The answer is that a shared religion has still failed to make a nation of Pakistan, and that the ISI (and presumably the US) is prepared to put up with quite a lot rather than see the Baluchis and/or the Pathans tear Pakistan apart in a revival of the bloody separatist campaigns they waged in the last couple of decades. There’s a good analysis on Jammu-Kashmir.com. A couple of years ago I helped an elderly Pathan with his immigration procedures. I don’t think I’ll be taking up the invite to visit his family and take a trip over the border just yet, even carrying the British Indian army rifle his grandfather apparently used in Burma 60 years ago.

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