'If Pakistan breaks up, it will create 10 times more problems'

When Home Minister P Chidambaram agrees to release your book, there must be something to it. When asked what drew Chidambaram to the intriguingly titled ‘Jihad on Two Fronts: South Asia’s unfolding drama ’, a representative of Harper Collins India, the publishers, jumped in before author Dilip Hiro could. “We sent him the book. He liked it and so agreed to come.” Too bad the home minister had been called to Chennai on an urgent meeting and couldn’t make it to the book launch on Tuesday (18 October ) evening. It would have been interesting to hear the home minster’s reaction to the analysis of the London-based author, an expert on Central Asia, South Asia and Islamic affairs, of how the threat of jihad was far greater to Pakistan than it was to India. “Pakistan’s nuclear facilities have been attacked four times. And the major attack on the general head quarters in Rawalpindi that went on for 20 hours was a plot to negotiate the release of militants… In October 2009 alone, there were 25 major attacks in Pakistan. The genie is out of the bottle. And if it destroys Pakistan there will be much bigger problems. Who will then control the bombs.” [caption id=“attachment_111118” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Dilip Hiro, author of Jihad on Two Fronts, at the book launch in Delhi on 18 October. Photo: Naresh Sharma/Firstpost.”] [/caption] The genie the author was referring to was the Pakistan Taliban. “Pakistan Taliban has a life of its own and is threatening the Pakistan state itself. That kind of threat to Pakistan is no comparison to what India is facing. India has 1.2 billion people and Indian Muslims are a small percentage of that population. Plus, they exist in a democracy which gives them leeway to exercise some power….Pakistan’s very existence is at stake. And if Pakistan breaks up, it will create 10 ten times more problem than it is creating now.” The author, who has written 33 books including Inside Central Asia (2009) and A_fter Empire: The End of a Multipolar World_ (2010) and War Without End (2002), laid the blame for what is happening in Pakistan today at General Zia-ul-Haq’s doorstep. “Zia and what he did in Pakistan has created this particular ideology. All those who were trained in the days of Zia, are now in the middle and upper management of civil bureaucracy, in the Army. Obama’s drone attacks and missiles can kill only some people. But they cannot kill an entire generation,” said Hiro. He said that Islam until Zia was used only as ‘tactical device’ by its leaders. Before Zia, “there was no ideological commitment.” Hiro, however, remains optimistic about the future of Pakistan. “I don’t think Pakistan will break up. Two countries will make sure that Pakistan doesn’t break. One is America, the other is China. And they have their own reasons for it.” Jihad on Two Fronts has been described as offering a “cogent narrative on what the rise of militant jihad means for Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.”