By
Sajjad Shaukat
Suicide bombers hit
three cities of Saudi Arabia on July 4, this year and killed at least four
people in the holy month of Ramadan, near the day of Eid al-Fitr. The first
attack occurred near the US Consulate in Jeddah. One explosion rocked Qatif in
eastern Saudi Arabia when a suicide bomber attempted to launch an assault at a
Shia mosque. The other suicide bomber detonated a bomb near the security
headquarters of the Prophet Muhammad’s Mosque in Medina, the second-holiest
site in Islam.
The bombings in Saudi
Arabia followed the recent terror attacks in Turkey, Bangladesh, Yemen and Iraq
which killed scores of people, and the Islamic State group (Also known as ISIS,
ISIL or Daesh) claimed responsibly for these assaults except those conducted in
Turkey and Saudi Arabia which are also thought to be carried out by ISIS.
Meanwhile, according to a latest report, a suicide bomber riding a motorbike attacked
a police station in the Indonesian city of Solo on July 5, leaving one officer
injured. Indonesia is the majority Sunni nation, also having Shias.
In case of Bangladesh,
assault on the Holey Artisan Bakery (Restaurant) in the diplomatic district of
Dhaka, a least 20 hostages and two police officers were killed. It also
includes nine Italians, seven Japanese and one American. Bangladesh’s 160
million people are almost all Sunni Muslims.
Western analysts opine
that the “ISIS, now under pressure in its core territory of Iraq and Syria from
where their militants are on flee owing to the successful military operations
led by Russian-supported forces. The group has started missions elsewhere in
the world.
However, triple blasts
in Saudi Arabia cannot be seen in isolation, as these are part of the secret
strategy of some state actors like US, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and India.
Their intelligence agencies, especially American CIA and Israeli Mossad and
Indian RAW are in connivance with the ISIS militants to obtain the collective
and individual interests against Russia, the Syrian government of President
Bashar al-Assad, Pakistan and Iran. In these terms, false flag operations such
as the terror attacks in Brussels and Paris, including Orlando shooting were
part of the same scheme. In fact, there is a co- relationship of the double
game and false flag operations.
It is notable that on
June 28, 2016, The New York Times wrote, “The mass shooting at a gay nightclub
in Orlando, Fla., on June 12 included a curious phrase: false flag…The
victims in the shooting? They were “crisis actors” hired to promote the story
as a pretext to impose tighter gun restrictions, the theory goes…the term false
flag relates to naval warfare when a ship would fly a flag that would conceal
its true identity as a way to lure an enemy closer. Today, it is commonly a
shorthand for an act of deception…conspiracy theorists have applied the label
to high-profile attacks, including the shootings by a husband and wife last
year in San Bernardino, Calif, that killed 14…the phrase has even been used to
doubt the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.”
In an interview with
Brazilian TV on June 14, 2016, the ex-wife of the Orlando shooter Omar Mateen
Sitora Yusufiy disclosed that American FBI pressurized her to keep quiet about
his homosexuality. Since the attack, Mateen has been dubbed an Islamic
terrorist by the politicians, senior officials and commentators in the US,
following reports he had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, as they
wanted to downplay the personal and self-hating nature of the assault.
Similarly, Bangladesh
which has been entrapped by India left no stone unturned in implementing
propaganda against Pakistan. As regards the terror assault on the Dhaka
restaurant, Home Minister of Bangladesh Asaduzzaman Khan blamed homegrown
Islamist terrorists and Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI and added, “there is
no IS or al-Qaeda presence in Bangladesh…the hostage-takers were all home-grown
terrorists and not members of IS or any other international Islamist outfits.”
This statement was opposite to the top officials of the country, who has
claimed that ISIS exists in Bangladesh. However, availing the opportunity,
Indian media also began a campaign, accusing ISI in this respect.
It is mentionable that
on January 13, 2015, at least seven personnel of the Afghan security forces
died during the suicide attack which targeted the Pakistani consulate in
Jalalabad. The ISIL claimed responsibility for the terror assault which coincided
with efforts to restart the suspended peace process with Taliban insurgents.
Pakistani sources suggested that Indian secret agency RAW was behind this
terror attack to thwart these peace talks. On May 21, 2016, the CIA-operated
drone strike killed the Chief of the Afghan Taliban Mullah Akhtar Mansour in
Nushki, Balochistan province of Pakistan. After the incident, Afghan Taliban
leaders refused to participate in the US-sponsored talks with the Afghan
government. Notably, in the recent past, with the help of Pakistan, a series of
meetings were held in Islamabad and Kabul among the representatives of
Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the US to develop an understanding for the
earliest possible resumption of stalled talks between the Afghan government and
the Taliban with view to ending nearly 15 years of bloodshed in Afghanistan.
This latest strike by the US predator in Balochistan gave a greater
setback to peace process for Afghanistan under the Quadrilateral Coordination
Group framework.
While, the US, China and
Pakistan are jointly working to facilitate the process so as to bring peace
both in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the whole region. But, Washington is
playing double game with Pakistan, because it is the only nuclear country in the
Islamic World, which irritates America, India, Israel and some Western partners
of the US. Hence, secret agents of CIA, Mossad and RAW which are
well-penetrated in the ISIS, the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are using the
militants of these terrorist outfits to destabilize Tibetan regions of China,
Iranian Sistan-Baluchistan, Pakistan’s province of Balochistan and Central Asia
(Russian interests) by arranging the subversive activities to promote
acrimonious sense of dissent, sectarian violence and to arouse sentiments of
separatism. In this regard, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is
their special target. Collectively or individually, these intelligence agencies
are also assassinating, Jundullah (God’s soldiers)—the Sunni militant group
which is active in Balochistan against Shias. Besides martyring several
personnel of Pakistan’s security agencies in the province, these foreign-backed
entities kidnapped and massacred many innocent people, including Chinese and
Iranian nationals.
It is of particular
attention that the US had planned to spark a civil war between the Sunnis and
Shias in wake of fake global war on terror to obtain the illegitimate interests
of the Zionist Jews and Israel. For the purpose, a study of Rand Corporation,
titled ‘US Strategy in the Muslim World After 9/11’ was conducted on behalf of
the then US Deputy Chief of Staff for Air Force. Its report which was released
on December 27, 2004 advocated that Sunni-Shia sectarian division should be
exploited to promote the US objectives in the Muslim World. The report was
first implemented in Iraq. CIA also got the services of Mossad to fuel
sectarian violence in Iraq. In 2004, major terror-attacks were carried out
against the Shias. Afterwards, a chain of Shia-Sunni clashes started between
Iraqi Shias and Sunnis, targeting each other’s mosques and religious leaders
through bomb blasts, suicide attacks etc. After Iraq’s experiment, more deadly
pattern of sectarian strife and clashes was conducted in Pakistan.
While hinting towards US
and Israel, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei had revealed, “The bloody
actions being committed in Iraq, Pakistan and Iran are aimed at creating a
division between the Shias and Sunnis…those who carry out these terrorist
actions are directly or indirectly foreign agents.”
Pakistan’s leading
Ulemas (Religious scholars) of the Shia-Sunni sects, including politicians have
repeatedly pointed out that external conspiracies were being hatched to destroy
peace in the country though sectarian divide.
Meanwhile, rift between
Saudi Arabia and Iran widened in the aftermath of the execution of
the prominent Shia religious leader Nimr al-Nimr as part of Riyadh’s
executions of 47 persons on terrorism charges, on January 2, this year. Saudi
Arabia and other Gulf countries like Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, including Sudan
broke off diplomatic relations with Iran.
The long rivalry between
Saudi Arabia and Iran came to a boiling point, as rulers and religious leaders
of both the countries were accusing each other of promoting sectarian divide in
the Islamic World on the Shia-Sunni basis, while manipulating Arab-non-Arab
differences.
The debate accelerated
in Pakistan regarding terrorism, sectarian divide, Saudi Arabia, ISIS etc. The
opposition leaders like Imran Khan said that
Pakistan should offer mediatory role in defusing the tension between Riyadh and
Tehran. They pointed out that aligning with the Saudi-led counter terrorism
alliance may spark sectarianism in the country and the region.
Besides,
Pakistan’s media commentators openly remarked on the TV channels that ISIS was
created by the US, and like America, Saudi Arabia wants to change the Syrian
regime of Assad—also due to the reason that Syria is a Shia country. They also
said that no Shia-country has been included in the so-called alliance of Saudi
Arabia to fight ISIS. And as to why Islamabad does not join the Russian-led
genuine coalition to fight the ISIS terrorists.
Particularly,
a senior media analyst of Pakistan, Najam Sethi elaborated that Saudi Arabia
have, in fact, decided to promote sectarian divide in the Muslim World.
When Pakistan’s
opposition parties lashed out at the government in the National Assembly for
not coming up with a clear stance on the situation, arising out because of the
tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran and called for a parliamentary briefing
on the issue so as to make efforts to prevent Sunni-Shia conflict in the
region, Adviser to Pakistan’s Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz
stated before the National Assembly. “The Muslim World faces grave dangers in
the situation…Pakistan will continue to play its positive role to ease tensions
between Iran and Saudi Arabia and it advocates unity among the Muslim
countries.”
For the purpose,
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff, General Raheel
Sharif had visited Saudi Arabia and Iran. They held meetings with their rulers
in a bid to defuse tensions between the two countries. They called for
resolution of the crisis through peaceful means in the larger interest of the
Muslim world. In this respect, Islamabad decided to appoint a focal person on
Saudi-Iran issue.
Knowing
the double game of the US-led some Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, including
Turkey which are assisting the Sunni-based militant outfit ISIS with money and
weapons to oust the Shia-government of Syrian President Assad, and which also seem determined to promote
Sunni-Shia conflict in the Muslim World, in the
recent past, Islamabad refused to send its troops in Syria to fight against the
ISIS. Similarly, last year, despite the
insistence of Riyadh, Islamabad did not join the Saudi-led coalition which had
been conducting air strikes on Yemen. Instead, Pakistan’s parliament had passed
a unanimous resolution which stated, “The war in Yemen is not sectarian in
nature, but has the potential of turning into a sectarian conflict which will
have critical fallout in the region including Pakistan.” It urged the government
“to stay neutral in the Yemen” conflict and called upon “warring factions in
Yemen to resolve their differences peacefully through dialogue.”
On December 15, 2015,
Saudi Arabia announced a 34-state Sunni-based military alliance to fight the
ISIS. The alliance included Islamic states such as Egypt, Qatar, the United
Arab Emirates, Turkey, Malaysia, and some African states, with a joint
operations centre established in Riyadh. The name of Pakistan was also
mentioned in the list. Washington immediately welcomed the alliance. On
December 17, 2015, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry stated that he
was surprised to read the news that Saudi Arabia had named Pakistan as part of
the alliance, without Islamabad’s permission.
It is worth-mentioning
that Saudi rulers have been accusing Iran of fueling sectarianism and division
in the Islamic World by backing Yemen, Syrian regime and Hezbollah. But, ground
realities are quite opposite, as from the very beginning, Iran, Syria and
Hezbollah which have always supported the right of self-determination of the
Palestinians by condemning continued atrocities of Israel on them—have been
showing solidarity with the PLO and Hamas which are Sunni groups.
Confused due to his own
double game and that of the US-led Israel, which Ankara also implements, while
talking about the Istanbul Airport terror attacks of June 28, Turkish President
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated on July 2, 2016 that President Assad was
a more advanced terrorist than the Islamic State group, despite the deadly
attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport which Turkish officials blamed on ISIL.
There is another contraction, as a Turkish official told the AP that the “three
bombers who carried out the attack on Istanbul’s main airport had connections
to Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan,” having links with the ISIL.
Like Turkey, Saudi
Arabian rulers who have already been funding the ISIS, Al-Qaeda’s Al-Nusra
Front and the rebel groups in accordance with the directions of Israel and CIA
have been fighting for survival of their kingship. Hence, they do not bother
for division of the Islamic World on sectarian lines. In pursuance of the
Israel-led American secret strategy, Saudi Arabia has chosen the path of
leading unrest in the Middle East. But, Riyadh must know that more chaos in the
Middle East will also envelop Saudi Arabia, culminating Saudi monarchy.
Nevertheless, Saudi
Arabia is being deeply respected by the Islamic countries, as it is the
custodian of the two Holy Mosques. But, it is very shocking for all the Muslims
that it has decided to promote sectarian divide in the Muslim World by
manipulating the terror attacks in Saudi Arabia. Whenever suicide attack hit
Saudi Arabia, Saudi rulers propagate that holy places of Mecca and Medina are
under threat. The main aim behind is to get the sympathies of general masses of
the Muslim countries against Shias, Iran, Syria and Russia which have exposed
the US phony war in Syria and Turkish-Saudi support to ISIS. While Syrians,
Yemenis and Iranians are also Muslims and respect the holy places of Saudi
Arabia like the Sunni Muslims. But, they are against the Saudi-led Israeli
policy.
Undoubtedly, we can
conclude that the US, Zionist Jews, Israel, India, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are
the real planners who want to cause the Sunni-Shia conflict in the Islamic
World in order to obtain their covert collective and individual interests.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on
international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants,
Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
Email:
sajjad_logic_pak@hotmail.com
Courtesy Veterans Today
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