Battle for Afghanistan gets intensive in Pakistan

Islamabad, May 26 (ANI): The battle for Afghanistan is now getting more intensive in Pakistan and there are several unconnected and seemingly disparate incidents that may be eventually connected.

The picture that emerges is very foggy. For instance, the Mullah Biradar incident and the follow up arrests where the general belief was that the ISI had been one too clever with the Americans and Afghans by scuttling a peace process in which they were not members.

The Americans seem to have responded by rehabilitating Karzai in Kabul and by allowing Abdullah Abdullah to proclaim in Washington that no one could dictate to Afghanistan on its friendship with India.

The renaming of NWFP as Pakhtoonkhwa followed by Hazara protests has affected the Army.

Meanwhile talks among the Afghans in the Maldives are continuing. There is a view that these talks could not have occurred without the US and Pakistani say so.

The Times Square bomb attempt and the reluctance of the Pakistani authorities to allow access to ‘Major Adnan’ and Shahzad’s father-in-law Air Vice Marshal Bashir ul Haq is also interesting.

There has been trouble in Karachi on ethnic issues with sectarian killings. The economy remains a mess and dependent on IMF doles and largesse from the US.

A water, agricultural and industrial crisis looms.

The recent clampdown on Facebook, YouTube, Blackberry, Twitter and other Internet based means of communication may have originated in the Facebook Draw Prophet Mohammed’s Photograph campaign, but the extent of the clampdown is either an over- reaction or shows the extent of the Islamic hold in Pakistan.

Undoubtedly this has led to various speculations and conjectures about the nature and reason of this clampdown. (ANI)