Is China behind Pakistan’s anti-terror drive Azm-e-Istehkam? It’s not a first

Having made terrorism a tool of its state policy, Pakistan showed first signs of action against terror groups — those targeting local government — in 2007. It has undertaken about a dozen campaigns against terror groups, most of them being tactical and achieving limited objectives. However, two have been bigger and with definite China links. The third has just been announced.

About a week ago, the Shehbaz Sharif government of Pakistan announced a new military operation called Azm-e-Istehkam as part of its National Action Plan adopted in the aftermath of the December 2014 Peshawar terror attack at the Army Public School, killing more than 140 people, mostly children.

Azm-e-Istehkam means “resolve for stability”.

This announcement incidentally came a day after a high-ranking Chinese official, Liu Jianchao, voiced grave concerns at a political forum. Pakistani daily Dawn reported that Liu starkly highlighted that the deteriorating security situation in Pakistan undermined the confidence of Chinese investors, urging a ramp-up in security measures.

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Liu is the head of the International Department of China’s ruling Communist party, and a close aide of President Xi Jinping.

Liu’s remarks came in a series of ‘advice’ from Chinese leadership to their Pakistani counterpart after terrorists targeted Chinese workers in Pakistan in March this year. A comment on Pakistan’s stability and security from China always carries significant weight in the Islamic Republic as it is the largest foreign investor there. However, a reiteration of such remarks at all diplomatic levels signals China is pressuring Pakistan for something that has been a difficult call for any establishment in the country.

But this is not the first time that China gets what it wants in Pakistan.

The first Pakistani action against terrorists

Pervez Musharraf was the president and chief executive of Pakistan, when it all began in 2007. Musharraf ordered his forces to lay siege of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, the Red Mosque, captured by two Islamist fundamentalist brothers — Abdul Aziz, a cleric, and Abdul Rashid, a vice-chancellor — who were gathering militants and fighters to impose Sharia in Pakistan, with a greater moment since 2006.

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The military campaign against them was launched in July 2007. This came days after militants from the Red Mosque group attacked a Chinese massage centre and abducted seven Chinese nationals and two Pakistanis.

A fuming China demanded Pakistan to ensure the safe release of its nationals from the captivity of their abductors. The Musharraf administration got into action, and the Red Mosque released them in 17 hours.

Soon Pakistan’s Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao visited Beijing, where China’s Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang told the visiting leader to ensure better safeguard of Chinese people.

News agency Xinhua quoted Zhou as telling Sherpao, “We hope Pakistan will look into the terrorist attacks aimed at Chinese people and organisations as soon as possible and severely punish the criminals.”

Sherpao, in return, pledged that Pakistan would “take more rigorous actions”, Xinhua reported on June 27, 2007.

On July 3, Pakistan sent its army to the Red Mosque. Clashes continued for eight days before the forces could recapture the shrine. More than 100 people died on both sides. China specifically wanted Musharraf to clean up the Red Mosque. He did it.

Zarb-e-Azb, the second big anti-terror campaign

In 2014, Pakistan launched Zarb-e-Azb or “Strike of the Sword of Prophet Mohammed” in North Waziristan Agency, leading to massive clashes and displacement of civilians. In part, observers said, the military campaign launched by then Army Chief Raheel Sharif, was aimed at giving China an assurance that it was aimed to rooting out all support bases for Uighur militants in its western province Xinjiang.

A year later, when Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain travelled to China to meet Xi Jinping, he told the Chinese president that almost all members of the Uighur militant group the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) had been eliminated from Pakistan.

Islamist group ETIM, active in Xinjiang, aims to set up an independent state called East Turkestan and have bases in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Back in 2015, Reuters quoted Hussain as having told Xi as saying, “It [the military campaign] has also been very helpful in eliminating the ETIM element from our country and I think almost all the ETIM people in our country have been eliminated. Maybe, if they are there, there should be very few.”

And, now a political stability campaign

First, a look at a timeline that preceded the announcement of Azm-e-Istehkam.

In March, a series of terror attacks happened targeting Chinese nationals and economic installations. Three attacks, in particular, spooked China, prompting Beijing to demand accountability from Pakistan. China has been increasingly concerned about its economic investments in Pakistan.

The first attack happened on Pakistan’s Gwadar port, built with China’s help in restive Balochistan. Next attack also happened in Balochistan on Pakistan’s largest naval bases. The attackers cited Chinese investment in the region as their motivation. In the third instance, terrorists targeted a convoy carrying Chinese engineers working on a Chinese-funded hydropower project in north Pakistani city, Besham. China lost five nationals in the attack.

Back from political oblivion and exile, former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif undertook a private visit to China, amid speculation about the purpose of his visit. Some speculated that the Chinese leadership conveyed to him to bring stability in Pakistan for maintaining the current economic relationship.

In May, when a Pakistani delegation visited China to prepare for the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong spoke to them, reports said, about “the need for another Zarb-e-Azb against terrorist forces such as TTP, Majeed Bridge, BLA and others to crush them once and for all”.

And in June, when Shehbaz Sharif visited China in June, Xi Jinping told him to ensure safety of Chinese people, China’s interests and create a “safe, stable and predictable” environment for investment in Pakistan.

Against this backdrop, Chinese official Liu Jianchao met Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir and several top leaders of Pakistan on June 22 in Islamabad, where he sought a “decisive” action by the Pakistani establishment against terrorism to keep the country feasible for foreign investments. This also came amid Pakistan’s struggle to make the economic policy changes to meet the conditions that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has put to rescue the country from its economic mess.

The day after Liu’s meeting at a political forum in Pakistan, the Sharif government launched its new anti-terror operation, Azm-e-Istehkam. They say Pakistan’s “iron brother” China gets whatever it wants in the country. Is the Azm-e-Istehkam, another such case?