Afghan Jihad

The implications of so-called “Afghan Jihad” in transforming the state and society of Pakistan are numerous.
First, it destabilized Pakistani society by inducting the culture of weapons, drugs and religious fanaticism, including sectarian violence. Second, the state actors, while heavily involved in patronizing the “Afghan Jihad” believed in using religious sentiments and the availability of thou-sands of trained persons for accomplishing Pakistan’s strategic objectives in the Indian controlled Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). Was it not a coincidence, that the Soviet military withdrawal from Afghanistan in February 1989 was followed with the outbreak of popular uprising in J&K? Nevertheless, the genesis of extremism in Pakistan can-not be properly understood without linking it with the dynamics of ‘Afghan Jihad” and the surge of Islamic radical groups in the country.