[Reader-list] Rushdie dubs Pakistan centre of world terrorism

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

*Rushdie dubs Pakistan centre of world terrorism*

New York (PTI): Terming Pakistan as the centre of world terrorism, noted
author Salman Rushdie has said the fact is that terrorist organisations are
all based in that country.

Rushdie also slammed Pakistan for its "cynical denial" that the terrorists
involved in Mumbai strikes were not its nationals.

"The fact is the world's terrorist organisations are all based in Pakistan.
Taliban are there, al-Qaeda are there, LeT is there. They are all there with
the active support of the Pakistani intelligence," he said while
participating in a panel discussion at the Asia Society.

Referring to the remarks of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that
three-fourths of terror plots had links to Pakistan and al-Qaeda, the
India-born novelist said Islamabad "can't go on pretending that there is no
evidence. That's all garbage".

He said that "when the President of Pakistan pretends that there is no
evidence against somebody, he is also complicit in that. It is time to say
to Pakistan this has to stop. You can't be a member of the free group of
nations, if you are among the world's sponsor of terrorism, which is what
now they have been".

The Mumbai strikes, he said, were marked by brutality by the attackers and
incompetence of government and security agencies in responding to them.

Expressing skepticism that Islamabad would dismantle the terror groups, the
panelists, during the discussion, said the world community should send a
clear message to Pakistan that terrorists are becoming a liability to that
country and it is in its own interest to dismantle them.

The U.S. administration too came in for strong criticism for considering
former President Pervez Musharraf an "ally in fighting terrorism" and giving
billions of dollars to him without any condition that the money should be
used to fight terrorists.

The panelists recalled that Musharraf was responsible for aiding
Lashkar-e-Taeba to fight in Kashmir during his years in the army and Rushdie
said he put up a western face to the Westerns but was mullah to extremists.

Rushdie strongly attacked Booker Prize winner Arundhiti Roy for linking the
Mumbai terrorist attacks to Kashmir, Gujarat riots and demolition of Babri
Masjid.

Besides Rushdie, the panelists included former Bernard Schwartz Fellow Mira
Kamdar, who had lost her cousin and her cousin's husband in the Mumbai
attacks, and author of *Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found* Suketu Mehta.

The terrorists, the participants said, are driven by a different philosophy
and ideology and want to take the world back into the medieval ages.

But they agreed that terrorists failed in their apparent bid to split Hindus
and Muslims and ignite communal riots as both the communities condemned the
attacks and vowed to unitedly fight terror.