Washington: Pakistan is in peril of succumbing to an Iranian-style Islamic revolution, an official US study has warned, saying that mushrooming fundamentalism in the nation is finding support from the Army and intelligence.
Pakistan slipping into an Iranian-style Islamic
revolution is described as one of the biggest threat to the
world, the Quadrennial Defence Review Independent Panel has
told the US Congress in its final report submitted last week.
It has expressed serious concern over increasing
Islamic fundamentalism in the country that has its support in
its Army and the intelligence.
"Some `associated movements` will pursue lesser and
more local goals, with the biggest danger to Pakistan, where
the ruling elite (including the Army and intelligence services
that helped create, continue to tolerate and aid such groups)
is vulnerable to an Iranian-style revolution that Islamists
would exploit," the report said.
Appointed by the Congress, the Quadrennial Defence
Review Independent Panel is charged with conducting an
assessment of the assumptions, strategy, findings, and risks
described in the Department of Defence`s Quadrennial Defence
Review (QDR).
The QDR, a report required by law and provided by the
Defence Department to Congress, is intended to assess the
national security environment over the next 20 years and
identify the defence strategy, forces and resources required
to meet future challenges.
After the Department of Defence issued this year`s QDR
on February 1, 2010, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and
Congress constituted an independent panel to review the report
as part of the National Defence Authorisation Act of 2010.
Former Secretary of Defence William J Perry and former
National Security Adviser Stephen J Hadley served as co-chairs
on the Panel, and the Department of Defence asked US Institute
of Peace to facilitate the Panel’s work.
"Salafist `jihadi` movements, wedded to the use of
violence and employing terror as their primary strategy, will
remain both an international threat to the global system and a
specific threat to America and its interests abroad.
"This remains true even as current al Qaeda leaders
age and their goal of a restored caliphate becomes ever more
impractical," it said.
According to the report, some of these groups will set
their sights on the United States, as recent attacks linked to
Yemen prove.
"The greatest risk to the United States is that
weapons of mass destruction or the materials and expertise to
produce them will find their way into the hands of fanatical,
murderous jihadists," it said.
PTI
