Table Of ContentThe Making of Terrorism in Pakistan
This book explains the origins and nature of terrorism in Pakistan and
examines the social, political and economic factors that have contributed
to the rise of political violence there.
Since 9/11, the state of Pakistan has come to be regarded as the epicen-
tre of terrorist activity committed in the name of Islam. The central argu-
ment of this volume suggests that terrorism in Pakistan has, in essence,
been manufactured to suit the interests of mundane political and class
interests and effectively debunks the myth of ‘Islamic terrorism’. A logical
consequence of this argument is that the most effective way of combating
terrorism in Pakistan lies in addressing the underlying political, social and
economic problems facing the country.
After exploring the root causes of terrorism in Pakistan, the author goes
on to relate the historical narrative of the development of the Pakistani
state to the theories and questions raised by Critical Terrorism Studies
(CTS) scholars. The book will therefore make an important contribution
to CTS scholarship as well as presenting an analysis of the many complex
factors that have shaped the rise of Pakistani terrorism.
This book will be of great interest to students of Critical Terrorism
Studies, Asian history and politics, Security Studies and IR in general.
Eamon Murphy is Adjunct Professor of History and International Relations
at Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia. He is co- editor of
Contemporary State Terrorism: Theory and Cases (Routledge, 2010).
Series: Routledge Critical Terrorism Studies
Series Editors: Richard Jackson
University of Otago, New Zealand
Marie Breen Smyth
University of Surrey, UK
and
Jeroen Gunning
Durham University, UK
This book series will publish rigorous and innovative studies on all aspects
of terrorism, counter- terrorism and state terror. It seeks to advance a new
generation of thinking on traditional subjects and investigate topics fre-
quently overlooked in orthodox accounts of terrorism. Books in this series
will typically adopt approaches informed by critical-n ormative theory, post-
positivist methodologies and non- Western perspectives, as well as rigorous
and reflective orthodox terrorism studies.
Terrorism and the Politics of Response
Edited by Angharad Closs Stephens and Nick Vaughan- Williams
Critical Terrorism Studies
Framing a new research agenda
Edited by Richard Jackson, Marie Breen Smyth and Jeroen Gunning
State Terrorism and Neoliberalism
The north in the south
Ruth Blakeley
Contemporary State Terrorism
Theory and practice
Edited by Richard Jackson, Eamon Murphy and Scott Poynting
State Violence and Genocide in Latin America
The Cold War years
Edited by Marcia Esparza, Henry R. Huttenbach and Daniel Feierstein
Discourses and Practices of Terrorism
Interrogating terror
Edited by Bob Brecher, Mark Devenney and Aaron Winter
An Intellectual History of Terror
War, violence and the state
Mikkel Thorup
Women Suicide Bombers
Narratives of violence
V. G. Julie Rajan
Terrorism, Talking and Transformation
A critical approach
Harmonie Toros
Counter- Terrorism and State Political Violence
The ‘War on Terror’ as terror
Edited by Scott Poynting and David Whyte
Selling the War on Terror
Foreign policy discourses after 9/11
Jack Holland
The Making of Terrorism in Pakistan
Historical and social roots of extremism
Eamon Murphy
Lessons and Legacies of the War on Terror
From moral panic to permanent war
Edited by Gershon Shafir, Everard Meade, and William J. Aceves
The Making of Terrorism in
Pakistan
Historical and social roots of
extremism
Eamon Murphy
First published 2013
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2013 Eamon Murphy
The right of Eamon Murphy to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
Murphy, Eamon.
The making of terrorism in Pakistan: historical and social roots of
extremism/Eamon Murphy.
p. cm. – (Critical terrorism studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Terrorism–Pakistan. 2. Islam and politics–Pakistan. 3. Pakistan–
Politics and government. I. Title.
HV6433.P18M87 2013
363.325095491–dc23
2012022074
ISBN: 978-0-415-56526-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-86169-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Baskerville
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
Foreword by Richard Jackson viii
Preface xii
Maps of Pakistan xiv
Introduction: overview and theory 1
1 Islam in Pakistan: an overview 14
2 The colonial legacy and the making of Pakistan: class,
regionalism and factional politics 30
3 Birth pains: the decline of democracy, sectarian violence
and the intractable problem of Kashmir, 1947–1958 48
4 Jinnah’s dream fades: dictatorship, state terrorism and the
failure of secularism, 1958–1977 65
5 The turning point: Zia ul- Haq and the Islamization of
Pakistan, 1977–1988 84
6 The Afghanistan jihad and the making of terrorism,
1979–1989 101
7 Reaping the whirlwind: politics, terrorism in Kashmir and
sectarian violence, 1988–2000 117
8 The fallout from the US invasion of Afghanistan: politics,
terrorism and sectarian violence in Pakistan since 9/11 137
Conclusion: Critical Terrorism Studies, Islam and the
making of terrorism in Pakistan 160
Notes 168
Bibliography 197
Index 211
Foreword
Richard Jackson
After a decade of war on terror – and notwithstanding recent terrorist
attacks by Right- wing nationalists in Northern Ireland, Norway and
Germany, and the killing of several leaders of al Qaeda, including
Osama bin Laden – terrorism and international security threats con-
tinue to be narrated and understood, largely in terms of the unprece-
dented danger posed by ‘Islamic terrorism’ (Jackson 2007). The notion
that religious extremism – specifically, Islamic extremism – is the
primary driver of contemporary terrorism and one of the prime security
threats facing Western countries and its allies remains the dominant per-
spective of Western political leaders, the media and a great many
Western academics and ‘terrorism experts’. In particular, the main-
stream Western media continues to report and explain acts of terrorism,
largely in terms of their roots in religious extremism and without refer-
ence to political or historical context, employing a limited set of simpli-
fying frames. In particular, the media frames acts of terrorism largely as
sudden, unprecedented and inexplicable violence, seemingly unrelated
to the specific history or ongoing political developments of the actors
involved.
Within this pervasive and entrenched discursive field, Pakistan looms
large in the Western imagination as the epitome of current security threats
– an impoverished, politically unstable, nuclear-a rmed state, threatened by
fanatical and bloodthirsty Islamic terrorists, who would not hesitate to use
weapons of mass destruction, who sit at the centre of a global network of
terror and who are likely supported by elements in the military. Narrated
and understood in such apocalyptic terms, Pakistan thus represents the
quintessential nightmare of the contemporary Western collective imagina-
tion. In the words of President Barak Obama:
So let me be clear: Al Qaeda and its allies – the terrorists who planned
and supported the 9/11 attacks – are in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
[. . .] They have used this mountainous terrain as a safe haven to hide,
to train terrorists, to communicate with followers, to plot attacks . . .
For the American people, this border region has become the most
Foreword ix
dangerous place in the world. But this is not simply an American problem
. . . The safety of people around the world is at stake.
(Obama, 27 March 2009; emphasis added)
Such a widely accepted and entrenched discourse is not without real world
consequences. Continuing military operations by Pakistan and US military
forces against militants in the tribal regions, an expanded drone pro-
gramme, targeting militant activity across large parts of Pakistan and Afghan-
istan, the secret US raid to kill Osama bin Laden, which was undertaken
without informing the Pakistan authorities and ongoing efforts to capture
and render militants suspected of links to al Qaeda, among many other
measures and security programmes, have all directly emerged out of such
well established discourses of the security threat posed by Pakistan. In conse-
quence of such a paradigm and the policies it produces, cycles of violence
between militants, Pakistan and US military forces have, in recent times,
intensified and spread across ever larger areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In this context, where a widely accepted ‘knowledge’ of a particular
security threat feeds a series of violent counter- measures, which appear to
sustain and feed the very insecurity it is designed to counter, Eamon Mur-
phy’s book is both important and timely, aiming, as it does, at deep and
sustained analysis of Pakistan’s history of terrorism – state and non- state –
since the country’s independence. Taking seriously Critical Terrorism
Studies’ (CTS) admonition to question and challenge accepted wisdom
(Jackson et al. 2009), Murphy begins his study by adopting the position
that understanding terrorism necessarily requires close attention to
history, context and the dynamics of political conflict between antagonis-
tic social actors. More importantly, he starts with the assumption that ter-
rorism is a strategy of contention, employed as part of a wider struggle,
not some kind of incomprehensible evil or broader religious ideology.
As a consequence of adopting such an approach, The Making of Terror-
ism in Pakistan offers an incisive, textured and multi-l ayered analysis of
political development and violent struggle in Pakistan, from independ-
ence to the present day. Over the course of what is a fascinating and
trenchant analysis, a number of important lessons about the nature, causes
and responses to contemporary terrorism can be discerned.
First, in direct opposition to the dominant perspective expressed by the
media and Western politicians, terrorism in Pakistan is neither an apoca-
lyptic threat, nor the result of religious extremism, nor has it burst onto
the scene unpredictably. Rather, it reflects complex political develop-
ments and a series of contingent social factors over several decades of
political struggle. In particular, it reflects the way elites in Pakistan – mili-
tary, religious and political – have taken major risks over a long period in
their mutual efforts to consolidate power and influence; risks which have
directly led to the current state of ongoing violent conflict. In other words,
terrorism in Pakistan has become an ingrained part of a dynamic political
Description:This book explains the origins and nature of terrorism in Pakistan and examines the social, political and economic factors that have contributed to the rise of political violence there. Since 9/11, the state of Pakistan has come to be regarded as the epicentre of terrorist activity committed in the
