I intended to write on the US’s role in the ending of European colonisation and why it is important for us to understand this Atlantic divide as we go through turbulent times in the region and the world. However, as I was sipping my cup of tea, the television screen started flashing with the horrible news of an attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The news made me numb and six hours into it, I still feel numb, angry, sad and helpless. I have decided to pen some of my thoughts and analysis on this. If we think these are valid questions, we need answers for them and we should seek them.
Maybe the fact that the terrorists have attacked another educational institution a year into the Army Public School (APS) episode should not matter much for this time the name of the institution was Bacha Khan University and, for the masters of our destiny, the lives of anything linked to the ANP, PPP, et al matter half as much, they being the children of a lesser god. But we were told that post-APS the backbone of the terrorists had been crushed. And then we witnessed two attacks in Quetta and three major attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa in the last six days. If this is the havoc they can wreak with a broken back, I wonder what will happen if they become spiny. And then maybe in its glory to the Caesar chorus, the media may have ignored the inevitable waiting to happen, but those who had their eyes open and sense of hyper-optimism minimalised could see this coming. Put your hand on your heart and answer honestly: since APS, how much have we heard of the operation against “terrorists” in Karachi versus the operation against terrorists in the tribal areas, Punjab and other parts of the country?
In Karachi, we had the militant wing of the MQM, allegedly, and the Lyari gang. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the tribal areas, Punjab and Islamabad, we had the presence of the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Islamic State (IS) and other terror outfits. And lest you think I am exaggerating here, these outfits openly and proudly flaunted their presence in these areas through pamphlets, wall chalking and even communication to the media. The APS attack, which followed Operation Zarb-e-Azab, the latest bout of the war on terror that also led to the Pakistan Anti-Terrorism Act 2014, was carried out not by the MQM or the Lyari gang but by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and religious fanatics. Do we need to ask who diverted national anger to an operation in Karachi that not only made the National Action Plan (NAP) politicised and controversial but also made us lose focus of the real existential threat of Islamist extremism? Is it not a valid question to be asked of the masters of our universe, both civil and in the security establishment?
And then is it not true that just when we were resolving to root out the Taliban and their allies from Pakistan, we were eagerly pushing the Afghans to accommodate them in the power structure, and were seen by the world as the backers of the Taliban in Afghanistan? Do we not know of the inter-linkages that exist between the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban? If we do not, it calls for massive reorganisation of state institutions. If you think I am one of those peace-quacks who think Pakistan should become totally passive in Afghanistan, let me make it clear that I consider influence in Afghanistan vital for our national security. But then again, in 2001, when we decided to side with the Americans in their war against the Taliban and in 2003-2004 when the Taliban and their affiliates started carrying out terror attacks against our civilians and security personnel, did we not realise that we needed to find new forces in Afghanistan to do our bidding for influence there? That radical fanatic militants are loose cannons, not only to be blown up in Afghanistan but also in our own home? Was not a decade-and-a-half enough to build a parallel support base and power leverages in Afghanistan, a country that relies solely on us for its trade and basic needs? Whose failure is this that it has cost us the lives of 60,000 in total, including around 10,000 brave army and policemen?
Should not we hold accountable those who cried day in and day out appeasing and accommodating the Taliban? And here I do not have any quarrel with the religious parties, for it was their business projecting and protecting that ideology. The target here should be the PML-N and PTI who blocked every effort to rein in those fanatics till APS made it impossible for them to do so. And, even then, how swiftly focus shifted to Karachi’s MQM and PPP. It makes one wonder if failures in NAP are incompetence or connivance. For was not it the same interior and other ministers and PTI supremo who were shedding tears at the killing of Hakeemullah Mehsud? What surety do we have that their intentions have changed if the track record of last year or so is anything to go by? For maybe this lot will do the same when Fazlullah is targeted. Maybe it is time to question their intentions and not incompetence.
The author can be reached on twitter at @aalimalik