Islamic terrorists rule Pak-Afghan border areas: Rand Corp

The Pakistani-Afghan border is the prototype of an ungoverned territory that serves as a sanctuary for terrorist groups, and remains plagued by a multitude of security and governance challenges, finds a new study.

Washington, Aug 24 : The Pakistani-Afghan border is the prototype of an ungoverned territory that serves as a sanctuary for terrorist groups, and remains plagued by a multitude of security and governance challenges, finds a new study.

According to a study conducted by the Rand Corporation, in many ways, the areas that constitute the Afghan-Pakistan border region remain beyond the formal functional, geographic, and technical writ of Islamabad.

The study notes that the border areas are beset with numerous alternative centres of power.

"Foreign Islamist militants have been active in the border regions, particularly in FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas), which is believed to have hosted al-Qaeda, Taliban, and Central Asian extremists since Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)," says the report titled 'Ungoverned Territories; Understanding and Reducing Terrorism Risk.'

Quoting the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Rand says the tribal areas continue to form the crux of the residual Osama bin Laden network, allegedly including the base for an "elite" unit dedicated to preparing for and coordinating major anti-Western attacks.

Analysts contend that the cell, which is dispersed but able to communicate with regional affiliates around the world, now acts as the central operational hub of al-Qaeda.

"Pakistan has been unable to assert effective control over its border with Afghanistan. The frontier is mostly bereft of roads, greatly limiting the scope for security force deployment. In addition, immigration and customs procedures are almost nonexistent and reflect the stationing of officials who, for the most part, are corrupt, underresourced, and untrained," reports Rand, a private think tank that did the study for the Air Force.

The reports finds that the Pakistan Government has attempted to tighten control over the border with Afghanistan, but without much success.

"Despite this focus on Pakistan's borders, the Afghan-Pakistan border remains the least regulated region of Pakistan and the one where the legitimacy of the Musharraf regime is most questioned," it adds.

"US, Afghan, and Indian sources believe that FATA and Baluchistan have been systematically penetrated by al-Qaeda, Taliban, and Central Asian militants since 9/11, and that the border districts continue to serve as important basing and recruiting grounds for extremists. The environment in the border region certainly gives foreign jihadists what we refer to as invisibility, that is, the ability to blend into the local population and escape detection by the authorities," it says.

However, the Corporation notes that it is "not enough to simply focus on individual regions like the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, and how they become havens for terrorists."

The non-profit organisation urges the governments across the world to take a new approach to fighting terrorism by treating regions where governmental control is weak as a distinct category of security problems.

ANI