Sir: I am writing in reference to Ms Marvi Sirmed’s article, ‘Bad drones, good Taliban’ (Daily Times, May 01, 2011). Her brilliant riposte to Mr Imran Khan’s ultimatum to the government raises pertinent questions which Mr Khan would be unable to answer satisfactorily. Mr Khan’s bluster is quite similar to other blusters of similar nature by various other politicians on the issue of terrorism. Unfortunately, no political party or politician has found it fit to condemn the religious jihadi terrorists operating with impunity in Pakistan. Their impunity derives from their proximity to powerful agencies and their emotional espousal of the causes close to Pakistani hearts. The ‘revolving door’ policies of various governments, most especially that of General Musharraf have also helped them a great deal. He could not even detain for long, leave alone prosecute, the senior jihadi leader who plotted his assassination. His ban of various jihadi terrorist outfits on January 12, 2002 was farcical because the ban was not imposed throughout Pakistan and they were able to detect the impending ban and clear their bank accounts. When an all powerful military leader like General Musharraf himself could not raise as much as a little finger against the powerful jihadi terrorists running amok in the country, one knows that control of these groups by their very own creators and mentors is long since lost. Further proof of this came in recent days in the form of the brutal assassination of Colonel Imam and repeated attempts on the life of JUI-F Chief, Mr Fazl ur Rehman. There has, no doubt, been some action by the Pakistani army against some FATA based Pashtun elements who had tried to attack Pakistan. The activities of many other groups, there or the Punjab-based groups along with the Afghan Taliban and warlords, have been tolerated in the fond hope that they will help re-establish and re-possess long lost strategic depth. This is gaining currency in the light of the impending demise of the US in Afghanistan and the likely crumbling of the Karzai-led government in Kabul. Such a change in neighbouring Afghanistan will have a serious impact on the political situation within Pakistan too. The closet Taliban are therefore crawling out of the woodwork to take advantage of and stake their claims in future power dispensation. For the powers that determine the foreign policies of Pakistan, these ‘closet Taliban’ are handy too. SUBRAMANYAM SRIDHARAN Bangalore, India