Pak cocks a snook at US

new delhi: the pakistani inter services intelligence and their diligent disciples, the ex-taliban warlords (like the governor of kandahar), must be having a quiet laugh at the americans on the way they facilitated the disappearance of major taliban leaders without being questioned by the us intelligence. the afghan amnesty for mullahs obaidullah and turabi is being attributed to traditional culture.but in plain english, this means the power of money. earlier, all these tribal chiefs were bought with drug money by the isi when afghanistan was overrun in the name of the taliban. now, the same trick has been used to get the senior taliban leaders to disappear into the vastness of pakistan, perhaps to reinforce mullah omar and osama bin laden, who presumably preceded them using the same old tradition. this development is bound to make the us task of cleaning the region of terrorism far more difficult. it also highlights the fact that the main battleground against terrorism is pakistan. the main adversaries the us and the global alliance face are not only the remnants of al-qaida and taliban but their mentors and supporters in the pakistani isi, army, government and political parties. when general musharraf unveils his plan to deal with terrorism in the next few days, the world will be scrutinising the steps he proposes to take against such elements. musharraf has no alternative but to crack down on all terrorist elements, particularly those in his own administration if he is sincere in his profession. his appointment of "national kashmir committee" under sardar abdul qayyum, a former "prime minister" of pak-occupied kashmir, brings out the real nature of the kashmir issue. qayyum is not a kashmiri and cannot speak the language. he is from the muzzafarabad area, which is ethnically an extension of punjab and totally outside kashmir ethnicity. as justice owen dixon pointed out, the state of jammu & kashmir "is not really a unit geographically, demographically, or economically. it is an agglomeration of territories brought under the political power of one maharaja". such a state existed for about 60 years when in 1947 pakistan invaded it. since then, for an equal period of time the kashmir valley has been part of the indian union while pok and the northern areas have been under the illegal occupation of pakistan. pakistan has no ethnic, linguistic or historical claim to kashmir except on the basis of the 'two nation theory', the clash of civilisations thesis. the dispatch of non-kashmiri talibanised mercenaries into the valley to perpetrate acts of terrorism is proof of pakistan being the epicentre of terrorism in kashmir, india and afghanistan. unfortunately, the correct nature of the kashmir issue has not been projected by the government of india to the world at large, or even to indians. the recent release of classified documents in britain reveals that the then us secretary of state, george marshall, was of the view that the accession of j&k to india was final and unchallengeable and the issue was muddied by the rogue british minister of commonwealth relations, philip noel baker, who defied his own prime minister and cabinet to favour pakistan.