NEW DELHI -- The Oct. 8 South Asian earthquake struck at the epicenter of a principal recruiting ground and logistic center for global terrorists, leveling a number of terrorist nurseries and training camps in an area that serves as the last main refuge of al-Qaida. Much of the quake's destruction occurred in the two terrorist-infested areas of northern Pakistan where Osama bin Laden may be holed up -- Pakistani-held Kashmir and the North-West Frontier Province.
The calamity has brought foreign teams and troops to this restricted region in Pakistan, and given international donors the potential leverage to steer the area away from terrorism. The donors and NATO, which is sending up to 1,000 troops to the region in addition to the several hundred U.S. soldiers already there, can ensure that international aid is not used to rebuild the terrorist infrastructure destroyed by the forces of nature.
Several hundred members of underground terrorist groups were reported killed when the earthquake flattened their hideouts and training schools in the two mountainous regions. Several of these groups have enjoyed long-standing ties with the Pakistani military, especially its infamous agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, which reared them as part of its covert war in Indian Kashmir and its success in bringing the now-splintered Taliban to power in Afghanistan.