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Thursday March 28, 2024

Lt Gen Amjad Shoaib denies remarks attributed to him

By our correspondents
September 20, 2017

KARACHI: Lt Gen (R) Amjad Shoaib Tuesday denied remarks attributed to him in a news report released by a foreign wire agency.  In a statement he said: "I am writing this in response to a story filed by a foreign wire agency, in which it has maliciously attributed some statements to me totally out of context, just to suit its own narrative.

The agency reporter had requested me for an interview on the issues related to the proscribed organizations in Pakistan in the aftermath of the recently issued joint communiqué by BRICS and some of the statements issued by various ministers. It was a 60 to 70 minutes long interview, recorded on camera which covered all the aspects related to the proscribed organizations, including the Army’s position on this issue as I understood based on the information which I have been gathering from here and there.

Following is the complete narration of my interview which was put across by me in response to various questions asked by the agency reporter Pakistan had signed an American brokered Agreement with India in Jan 2004 in which the two sides had agreed to keep the LOC inactive and calm. In order to honour this agreement, Gen Musharraf ordered the closure of all the militant camps in Azad Kashmir which were being run by various volunteer Jihadi groups mostly at their own. Instead of deradicalizing these people through a well thought out plan, these people were just ordered to disappear. This did not go well with these Jihadi elements because they thought that the Govt of Pakistan, under the American pressure had abandoned the Kashmir cause. Gen Musharraf was viewed by them as a traitor and thus most of their men, in defiance to their own leadership, took up arms against the people of Pakistan. Elements from Jaish-e-Muhammad formed Punjabi Taliban under Asmatullah Muaaviah and were responsible for some of the deadliest terror attacks in Pakistan. Similarly a large number of militants like Kashmiri from Lashkar-e-Tayyaba had joined TTP and had started terrorism against the state of Pakistan. After 2004, Lashkar e Tayyaba and Jaish e Muhammad, except for some rogue elements, had become almost dysfunctional. I told him that ISI or Pakistan Army never used them for any attack in India because this was not the way Intelligence Agencies operate. Intelligence agencies never use their own citizens for a violent action in another country. Like any other Intelligence Agency, ISI must also be having hundreds of Indian citizens as their moles which could be easily launched into action but Pakistan has not been doing so because of our official policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.

After the Pathankot terror attack, the Government of Pakistan ordered an inquiry, which was conducted jointly by IB and ISI. The inquiry after a hectic investigation concluded that no one from Pakistan was involved in this attack. However through our sources across the border we came to know that some rogue Jihadi elements, working on the directions of hostile intelligence agencies, had launched this false flag attack. During the course of our investigation our intelligence agencies had learnt that within the next few days another attack was going to be launched by the same elements, in the Indian State of Gujarat. On the directions of the Govt of Pakistan our NSA, Gen Nasir Khan Janjua informed his Indian counterpart Mr. Ajit Doval not only about this attack but also gave him names of six persons out of the ten terrorists who were going to be the part of this action. Pakistan would never have informed the Indians, if any of our institution would have been involved. I am sure the individuals involved in this failed attack were also Pakistanis but after apprehending them the Indians never took up this issue with our Govt. which is indicative of the involvement/connivance of their own agencies in staging such acts of terrorism only to malign Pakistan.

Pakistan Army or ISI has never used any elements from Lashkar or Jaish. We also know that the leadership of the proscribed organizations is no longer involved in any Jihadi activity. On one hand these organizations have been banned in Pakistan, on the other hand the Hurryiet leadership in Kashmir had categorically condemned their activities as in their opinion these were totally detrimental to their peaceful struggle. Although Lashkar and Jaish were not active in Jihadi activities yet their violent speeches against India and long processions were creating a wrong perception about Pakistan. ISI was particularly concerned about this aspect because an impression was being created that ISI was the moving force behind these organizations. Hence on a number of occasions ISI advised the Govt. to control their activities. It was recommended that if it was difficult for the civilian Govt. to do anything then the Army may be authorised to take action. It took two years for the army to convince the Punjab Govt to allow the rangers to operate in Punjab and that too in a limited role. Naturally, hundreds of these Jihadi elements can neither be culled nor they can be imprisoned because we do not have any cases against them in Pakistan. Even Hafiz Saeed’s detention is illegal and will not be sustainable in any court of Law. Hence in our opinion deradicalization of these elements through a well thought out plan and then bringing the nonviolent individuals into main stream life was the only solution to get over this problem. In Aril last year, ISI had handed over two proposed deradicalization action plans for consideration by the Govt. Most probably the PM had handed over these plans to NACTA for their further action. In addition to encouraging these groups to come into main stream politics, the two plans included a large number of other steps ranging from disarming the armed individuals to introducing wide ranging Madrassa reforms. Then came the DAWN leaks in which an effort was made to create an impression about the Army for supporting these Jihadi elements. This drew a very strong reaction from the Army because the DAWN story had depicted totally an opposite picture about Army’s sincere efforts to put the yoke around the proscribed organizations.

In reply to a question, I elaborated the internationally recognised concept of deradicalization. I also explained that except for a few individuals most of them are peaceful people and they should be separated and allowed to work as normal citizens. By bringing these parties in mainstream politics we will be able to keep a close eye on their activities. More over these parties will have to declare their assets and funds to the election commission every year. This will help the Govt in keeping a check on their sources of funding.

 I also narrated the research work on deradicalization of proscribed organizations, under taken by Pakistan Institute of Peace studies. As a participant in their study I had also made a mention to the forum about ISI’s proposal for the deradicalization of the banned organizations. During this exercise, PIPS administration had invited the heads or the representatives of the proscribed organizations to hear their side of the story. During the discussion on their activities, these people condemned all types of militancy and gave positive indication for adopting various deradicalization measures. During the lunch break, in my private capacity, I asked the representatives/leaders about their views on our proposals for their future role in main stream politics and national life. All of them were quite happy about the proposals and wanted to hold further discussions with their people.

Nowhere in my interview I had ever said that Army was pushing for mainstreaming the proscribed organisations because it was not true. But unfortunately the journalist who interviewed me used it as the main header of his story to make it more attractive for his readers. (In my interview, I did not tell the reporter that I spoke to the leaders of the proscribed organizations during the lunch). "