Is Pakistan against or in favor of terrorism?

When he was a CIA agent, John Kiriakou worked well with half of the Pakistani intelligence staff; they were western-educated, competent spies, top notch agents. They helped John nab senior Al-Qaeda leader Abu Zabayda.

The other half of the Pakistani agents had bushy beards, muttered beneath their breath in Arabic about who knows what. They looked like terrorists. John avoided them completely.

The half-half makeup of Pakistani intelligence into counter-terrorist/pro-terrorist factions is a microcosm for nation. Pakistan is an important U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism. It also seems to coddle (encourage? sponsor?) terrorists.

After India attacked Jaish-e-Mohammed installations on May 7 in retaliation to JeM terrorists who shot and killed Hindu and Christian civilians in Indian territory, Pakistan awarded JeM founder Masood Azhar $500,000 in compensation for the death of relatives at site, Firstpost reports.

Supposedly, Pakistan disavows terrorism.

Azhar himself was not present when the missiles hit his 18-acre training grounds in Bahawalpur. Listed as a terrorist by the UN’s Security Council, Azhar is credited with exporting jihad to Britain. For a month in 1993, he preached in 40 mosques that “youth should prepare for jihad without any delay. They should get jihadist training from wherever they can,” a BBC investigation found.

While most of his terror is directed against India in the regional dispute over Kashmir, his trip to the UK shows his recruiting Muslims worldwide to terrorism. Much of the Koran deals with “killing for the sake of Allah,” he told audiences. Azhar is thought to have directed the attack in Kashmir.

At the funeral for the terrorists (?) killed by India’s missiles, senior Pakistani military officers were present when another terrorist, Hafiz Abdul Rauf, offered prayers for the dead. Rauf is a US-designated global terrorist who has been involved in multiple terror attacks in India, including the 26/11 Mumbai attacks of 2008 and the Mumbai serial train blasts in 2006.

Supposedly, Pakistan disavows terrorism.

To India, the Pakistani government claimed it had nothing to do with the April 22 terrorist attacks that killed 26 in Pahalgam, India’s Swiss Alps.

Daniel Pearl‘s dad was not happy to see the Pakistani military backing up a known terrorist: “What exactly are you mourning? What role models you wish your children to revere? What have you learned from this man?” Pearl was lured to Karachi, Pakistan, by Omar Saeed Sheikh, where he was abducted and murdered in 2002. Sheikh was released from India’s custody in negotiations with hijackers of a 1999 Indian Airlines flight, whose operation was led by Azhar.

“Azhar was a Pakistani extremist and leader of the terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed,” Pearl’s father, Judea Pearl, complained on X. “While his group was not directly involved in the plot to abduct Danny, it was indirectly responsible.”

When he was arrested for his role in the abduction/murder of Pearl, Sheikh had the confidence that Pakistan would absolve him, despite his participating in terror. At his trial, he first said, “I don’t want to defend this case. I did this … Right or wrong, I had my reasons. I think that our country shouldn’t be catering to America’s needs.”

In his appeals, the Pakistani Supreme Court overturned his conviction and moved Sheikh off death row and into a safe house.

Pakistan DID help the U.S. find Osama bin Laden. BUT the doctor who ran a fake vaccination drive to collect DNA samples from bin Laden’s kids is now in jail in Pakistan. Shakil Afridi is serving 33 years for treason, proving that if you fight terror in Pakistan, you can be punished by the institutional government.

Supposedly, Pakistan disavows terrorism.

On one level, Pakistan maintains these terrorists because they are useful in the ongoing hostilities against India that have raged/simmered since Muslims from India migrated north to partition Pakistan in 1947. India fought to keep the Pakistani territory and lost. There have been five wars/conflicts since the partition.

On another level, Pakistan believes the whole Islamist doctrine of world conquest. General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq made the Islamization of Pakistan a centerpiece of his dictatorship from 1977 to 1988. Zia relied heavily on the massive politcial/religious movement Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan headed by Abul Ala Maududi, to legitimize his push for shariah and influence around the world.

Maudidi envisioned Islam taking over the world: “Islam wishes to destroy all states and governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam,” he wrote. “Towards this end, Islam wishes to press into service all forces which can bring about a revolution and a composite term for the use of all these forces is ‘Jihad’…. the objective of the Islamic ‘jihād’ is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system and establish in its stead an Islamic system of state rule.”

It is no wonder, then, that Pakistan is conflicted.