Frontline Pakistan : The Struggle With Militant Islam - Arz-e-Pak

1 Frontline Pakistan
convinced Bhutto of his absolute loyalty and more importantly of his
incapacity to be otherwise. 7
Zia was not only an authoritarian; he also aspired to turn Pakistan
into an ideological state ruled by strict Islamic sharia laws. He was
an unpopular and controversial leader, whose survival in power
largely owed to the external factors that emerged after the invasion by
Soviet forces of Pakistan’s northern neighbour, Afghanistan, in 1979.
Pakistan became a frontline state and a bulwark in the West’s war
against communism.
General Zia brought in his close confidant, Lt.-General Akhter
Abdur Rehman, to head the ISI in 1979, as the spy agency became
a crucial cog in the resistance against the Soviet forces. Its tentacles
started to spread far and wide. An artillery officer, General Rehman
‘had a cold, reserved personality, almost inscrutable, always secretive,
with no intimates except his family.’ His officers remembered him as
a hard man to serve due to his brusque manner and reputation as a
strict disciplinarian. 8 ‘That made him an ideal man for the job,’ said
Brigadier Mohammed Yousuf, a former ISI officer who served under
him. General Rehman ran the organization until 1987. He was not a
radical Islamist, but a staunch Muslim nationalist.
Under General Rehman, the ISI, in partnership with the CIA,
conducted the biggest covert operation in modern history. The two
organizations had secretly collaborated for years, yet General Zia
was not prepared to give a free hand to the CIA. He laid down strict
rules to ensure that the ISI would maintain control over contacts with
Afghan mujahidin groups. No CIA operatives would be allowed to
cross the border into Afghanistan. Distribution of weapons to the
Afghan commanders would be handled only by the ISI. All training of
mujahidin would be the sole responsibility of the ISI. While the CIA
supplied money and weapons, it was the ISI that moved them into
Afghanistan. 9 The Americans relied almost entirely on the Pakistani
service to allocate weapons to the mujahidin groups. The framework
provided the Pakistani spy agency with almost total control over the
covert operation inside Afghanistan. The decade-long secret war raised
the organization’s profile and gave it huge clout. With the active help
of the CIA and Saudi Arabia, the ISI turned the Afghan resistance into
Islam’s holy war.
The decade-long conflict in Afghanistan gave the Islamic extremists
a rallying point and a training field. Young Muslims around the world
flocked to Afghanistan to fight against a foreign invader. Some 35,000