By IANS,
Islamabad : It is time to reflect on “the jihad enterprise the Pakistani state has been peddling for the last four decades”, a Pakistani daily said, adding that “the policy of duality and ambiguity may have run its course” following Osama’s killing in Abbottabad.
An editorial in the Daily Times Thursday said that Al Qaeda has issued a threat to all Americans that while “their President Obama may be safe behind a wall of security, the American people are not, and should expect retaliation for the killing of Osama”.
“These sentiments and the threats from al Qaeda are hardly unexpected. The world at large would have to remain vigilant against any such manifestations.”
Osama bin Laden was gunned down May 2 by US commandos in his Abbottabad hideout that was located a stone’s throw from Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul.
The editorial said that Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf’s had pursued a “dual policy of attacking Al Qaeda and protecting the Afghan Taliban after 9/11, a policy that continues to this day long after Musharraf’s departure…”
It went on to say that whichever way the “current friction between Washington and Islamabad is eventually ironed out, it is time to reflect seriously on the pros and cons of the jihad enterprise the Pakistani state has been peddling for the last four decades”.
“Arguably, in the light of the happenings in Abbottabad, the policy of duality and ambiguity may have run its course and be poised, if it is persisted with, to offer more pain than gain.”
The editorial advised that “Pakistan’s interests would be best served by remaining an ally of the US against terrorism, while revisiting and realigning its stance on the Afghan Taliban to accord with the emerging scenario in Afghanistan, the region, and in the troubled relationship with the sole superpower”.