Global Terrorism, Global Determination

22 December 2010 | 11:45 Code : 9723 General category

Nozar Shafe’i

Last Wednesday’s suicide bombing in Chabahar that was carried out on the sacred Shi’a day of Tasou’a and claimed about 40 lives, once again sparked off debate about Pakistan’s likely involvement in such attacks, or at least its deliberate negligence toward its shared borders with Iran. Following the suicide blast, Iranian military officials and politicians have warned Pakistan and demanded further cooperation from their eastern neighbor. Condemnation is not enough, according to Iranian officials, and Pakistan must share its intelligence with Iran over such attacks. Nozar Shafe’i, South Asian affairs analyst believes that the battle against terrorism needs global determination:

Evidential or circumstantial? It actually makes no difference. If Iran’s claims about Pakistan’s role in the Wednesday suicide attack against Shi’a mourners are based on firm evidence, then Islamabad is legally bound to cooperate with Iran in order to arrest the agents and masterminds of the attack. Based on various MoUs signed between Tehran and Islamabad, neither country should host opposition groups. In this regard, Iran is absolutely entitled to demand Pakistan’s cooperation.

Tehran’s claim may of course be circumstantial. But in all of its suspicions, Iran has the right to view its eastern neighbor with some doubt. In Pakistan’s security strategy, the volatile state of Baluchistan—Pakistan’s westernmost state adjacent to Iran’s Sistan-va-Baluchistan province—is controlled by the country’s intelligence service, ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence). The claim that the all-powerful ISI might have been unaware of Baluchistan’s comings and goings is dubious. Even if the ISI did not plan the attack, Iran expects it to exercise further control over the border so that terrorists cannot exploit Pakistan’s territory for launching attacks against Iran.

Meanwhile, Islamabad can benefit from cooperation with Tehran. For one thing, separatist sentiments are much more powerful in the Pakistani part of Baluchistan, compared with the Iranian part. Instability in Iran’s Baluchistan will have exponential reverberations on the other side of the border, causing much trouble for a country already known as a failed state. Battling against secessionism and sectarianism is advantageous for both countries.

Leaving Pakistan’s required collaboration aside, terrorism is, after all, a global phenomenon, and in need of a global determination. Information sharing over terrorist activities should be somehow excluded –or less influenced by- inter-state ties. This is not an ideal but an imperative for international security. Reinforcing a terrorist group such as Jundullah -which launched last Wednesday’s terrorist attack in Chabahar- will have consequences at the regional and global levels.