It’s always a bit rich that BB rails against the Taliban a lot these days, especially when her government was key in creating it in the 1990’s. The western media don’t let her forget it as well.
**Western media taunts Benazir for creating Taliban ghost **
The media here questioned former prime minister and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto for military and material support to Mullah Omar and other leaders of the Taliban movement in the mid-90s. Benazir Bhutto was facing a barrage of hostile questions from the media and academics over the issue of her controversial decision to back the Taliban movement in mid-90s. She has one-line reply to all these troubling questions: “we recognise now that it was a mistake”. But, despite her regrets, the ghost of Taliban created in 1993-96 by former interior minister Nasirullah Babar continues to haunt Benazir Bhutto even after 11 years, as she was being asked repeatedly about her role in the creation of this force despite propagating her progressive and modern image in the west.
Almost all newspapers here, who interviewed her, do not forget to remind the former prime minister that actually she had played a major role in fanning Muslim militancy by officially supporting the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. Benazir Bhutto in an interview with Daily Telegraph the other day had said it was her mistake to support Taliban although her interior minister Babar had always taken the pride in the fact that he was the architect of this movement. About Lal Masjid operation Benazir told The Daily Telegraph: “It was an unfortunate incident but I am grateful there was no policy of appeasement. “It is the end of ambiguous policies towards terrorism, which have encouraged militants.” Benazir called for a “post mortem” of the operation, meaning that further radical strongholds should be investigated. “How was this Madrassa able to develop in that way? There must have been some collusion (with the government),” she said.
