By Amir Zia
Monday, November 11, 2013
The News
Ironically, the local Taliban perception about Pakistan is closer to the Americans, who also view our civil and military authorities with great suspicion and accuse them of duplicity and double cross.
Let’s give the local Taliban militants their due. Let’s admit and muster courage to applaud their clarity of mind, singleness of purpose and strength of conviction. The manner in which they swiftly selected the new leadership and restated their agenda in unequivocal and unambiguous terms should serve as a lesson to our fickle-minded and wavering civil and military leaders, who are pleading and begging for talks with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and its allies.
The US drones did get Hakeemullah Mehsud, but so what? There are plenty of others to offer their heads in his place. During conflicts and wars, neither is there any room for doubt nor any time to mourn and groan for long over the bodies of fallen comrades. The doers see the world in black and white. The grey areas are for good-for-nothing armchair pseudo-intellectuals and chatterers.
The depressing, long-winded speeches – such as the ones delivered by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in which he discussed Mehsud’s killing with great grief and sense of loss – are often seen as self-defeating. This kind of melodrama hardly serves any purpose. While the interior minister lamented over Mehsud’s death and cursed and blamed the US for obliterating the man he portrayed as Pakistan’s only hope for peace (eureka!), the militants took the slaying of their leader as an opportunity to expand their message and beat the drums of war louder.
Less than a week after Mehsud’s killing, the TTP selected the hard-line cleric Mullah Fazlullah, aka Mullah Radio of Swat, as its new ameer and named a little known militant commander from Swabi, Sheikh Khalid Haqqani, as his deputy. The duo is known for uncompromising and rigid views, radicalism and penchant for merciless actions.
The TTP also took no time to reject peace talks with the government and vowed to avenge the death of its leader by taking the battle to the plains of Punjab and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League high-command which has so far enjoyed immunity from the dreaded terror assaults. The TTP also reiterated that the mainstream liberal parties – the PPP, the ANP and the MQM – will continue to remain high on the hit list of its militants and suicide bombers. The Pakistani security forces are already the declared enemy of the TTP, Al-Qaeda and their allies which see them as an ally of the US and the west.
In a nutshell, there is no double-talk. No indecisiveness. No confusion – but only steely resolve and determination. The militants want to remodel Pakistan in line with their interpretation of Islam and they are ready to pay and extract the price for it. Democracy and Pakistan’s constitution have no place in their world order. They openly say so. They are determined to take on the US and its either perceived or real local allies. They never hide this fact. They want to continue using Pakistani territory to foment terrorism around the world. They do it without apology. Killing or being killed is necessary to achieve their goal. They are not afraid of it. Actions define their words and words supplement their actions.
This is an adversary that blows up schools without remorse. It carries out suicide bombings at mosques, imambargahs, churches, markets and other public places without guilt. And it attacks security forces and sensitive defence installations with pride. If forcibly stalling the polio vaccination is seen as a sacred duty by the TTP and its allies, making an assassination bid on teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai is also considered a just cause.
A glimpse of what Mullah Fazlullah is capable of doing was reflected during his reign of terror in Swat not very long ago. It was the army that had to reclaim this territory, which Pakistan had lost to the militants. He is also the man whose group took the responsibility of the killing of Pakistan Army’s Major General Sanaullah Niazi in a roadside bombing in Upper Dir this September.
According to the 19th century Russian revolutionary, Mikhail Bakunin – considered the father of anarchist theory –“the urge for destruction is also a creative urge.” In that sense the Taliban can be called creative (with apology to Comrade Bakunin) as they are committed to destruction even if they fail to produce a better society.
With Fazlullah on the steering wheel of the TTP – the juggernaut that is a loose amalgamation of more than three dozen big and small militant groups across the country – ordinary Pakistanis should get ready for tougher times ahead.
Now compare the clarity of purpose and resoluteness of action of the TTP and its allies with the confusion and virtual state of inaction within the ranks of Pakistan’s elected government, mainstream opposition and the civil and military establishment. The government, and many of the opposition politicians, continue to repeat the mantra of holding negotiations with militants as the one and only option despite the TTP’s firm ‘no’ to talks following the appointment of its new chief.
But perhaps the vision of our leaders is too clouded and blurred. They fail to see the reality or grasp the gravity of situation. No wonder, Nawaz Sharif, our third-time elected prime minister and a most experienced hand, remained stuck to the old script in Karachi while expressing his desire to hold peace talks without taking into account that the TTP has already removed whatever mirage of talks there was on the table.
The TTP is definitely in no mood to oblige. It sees the Pakistani government and the army as American stooges. It distrusts the government’s words and actions. Ironically, the local Taliban perception about Pakistan is closer to the Americans, who also view our civil and military authorities with great suspicion and accuse them of duplicity and double cross. This speaks volumes about the wisdom and political acumen of our strategists and policymakers.
If the militants are able to build pressure by resorting to acts of terror and drilling their narrative at every level through the well-oiled propaganda machinery, their apologists and backers in the mainstream political parties – from Imran Khan to Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Munawar Hasan – confuse the issue of extremism and terrorism by focusing on the symptom rather than the real cause of turmoil.
They have the audacity to trigger debate on whether Hakeemullah Mehsud was a martyr or those Pakistan Army soldiers who are killed in the line of duty. If – to believe Munawar Hasan of the Jamaat-e-Islami – Pakistani soldiers are fighting the American war, they therefore do not deserve the title of martyrs. End of the line.
Most civilian leaders – by design or default – see American drone assaults as the central cause of conflict in Pakistan rather than the result of the presence of Al-Qaeda and its allied foreign and locals militants on our soil. Pakistan’s failure to establish the writ of the state on its territory triggered these drone assaults. If Pakistan wants to put an end to them, it will have to ensure that its territory is not being used to provide shelter to terrorists from around the globe or launch attacks on other countries.
But the Sharif government, bowing to the pressure of the Taliban and their friends, is focusing more on taking up the issue of drone strikes both at internationally and domestically rather than addressing the real causes of extremism and terrorism.
In this context, the mantra of peace talks appears more bizarre as the government has so far failed to define rules of engagements with these extremist groups. And now after the TTP’s clear ‘no’ to the talks, all debate on this issue is useless. The sooner our rulers realise this and pull themselves out of their state of self-denial, the better for the country.
We as a nation are right in the middle of this protracted conflict. We have either to prevail or perish. There is no third choice. It is time for the leadership to show courage, conviction and clarity of mind to overcome the challenge. Confusion, inaction and efforts to appease extremists will serve no purpose. The delay in action will only go against Pakistan.
Monday, November 11, 2013
The News
Ironically, the local Taliban perception about Pakistan is closer to the Americans, who also view our civil and military authorities with great suspicion and accuse them of duplicity and double cross.
Let’s give the local Taliban militants their due. Let’s admit and muster courage to applaud their clarity of mind, singleness of purpose and strength of conviction. The manner in which they swiftly selected the new leadership and restated their agenda in unequivocal and unambiguous terms should serve as a lesson to our fickle-minded and wavering civil and military leaders, who are pleading and begging for talks with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and its allies.
The US drones did get Hakeemullah Mehsud, but so what? There are plenty of others to offer their heads in his place. During conflicts and wars, neither is there any room for doubt nor any time to mourn and groan for long over the bodies of fallen comrades. The doers see the world in black and white. The grey areas are for good-for-nothing armchair pseudo-intellectuals and chatterers.
The depressing, long-winded speeches – such as the ones delivered by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in which he discussed Mehsud’s killing with great grief and sense of loss – are often seen as self-defeating. This kind of melodrama hardly serves any purpose. While the interior minister lamented over Mehsud’s death and cursed and blamed the US for obliterating the man he portrayed as Pakistan’s only hope for peace (eureka!), the militants took the slaying of their leader as an opportunity to expand their message and beat the drums of war louder.
Less than a week after Mehsud’s killing, the TTP selected the hard-line cleric Mullah Fazlullah, aka Mullah Radio of Swat, as its new ameer and named a little known militant commander from Swabi, Sheikh Khalid Haqqani, as his deputy. The duo is known for uncompromising and rigid views, radicalism and penchant for merciless actions.
The TTP also took no time to reject peace talks with the government and vowed to avenge the death of its leader by taking the battle to the plains of Punjab and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League high-command which has so far enjoyed immunity from the dreaded terror assaults. The TTP also reiterated that the mainstream liberal parties – the PPP, the ANP and the MQM – will continue to remain high on the hit list of its militants and suicide bombers. The Pakistani security forces are already the declared enemy of the TTP, Al-Qaeda and their allies which see them as an ally of the US and the west.
In a nutshell, there is no double-talk. No indecisiveness. No confusion – but only steely resolve and determination. The militants want to remodel Pakistan in line with their interpretation of Islam and they are ready to pay and extract the price for it. Democracy and Pakistan’s constitution have no place in their world order. They openly say so. They are determined to take on the US and its either perceived or real local allies. They never hide this fact. They want to continue using Pakistani territory to foment terrorism around the world. They do it without apology. Killing or being killed is necessary to achieve their goal. They are not afraid of it. Actions define their words and words supplement their actions.
This is an adversary that blows up schools without remorse. It carries out suicide bombings at mosques, imambargahs, churches, markets and other public places without guilt. And it attacks security forces and sensitive defence installations with pride. If forcibly stalling the polio vaccination is seen as a sacred duty by the TTP and its allies, making an assassination bid on teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai is also considered a just cause.
A glimpse of what Mullah Fazlullah is capable of doing was reflected during his reign of terror in Swat not very long ago. It was the army that had to reclaim this territory, which Pakistan had lost to the militants. He is also the man whose group took the responsibility of the killing of Pakistan Army’s Major General Sanaullah Niazi in a roadside bombing in Upper Dir this September.
According to the 19th century Russian revolutionary, Mikhail Bakunin – considered the father of anarchist theory –“the urge for destruction is also a creative urge.” In that sense the Taliban can be called creative (with apology to Comrade Bakunin) as they are committed to destruction even if they fail to produce a better society.
With Fazlullah on the steering wheel of the TTP – the juggernaut that is a loose amalgamation of more than three dozen big and small militant groups across the country – ordinary Pakistanis should get ready for tougher times ahead.
Now compare the clarity of purpose and resoluteness of action of the TTP and its allies with the confusion and virtual state of inaction within the ranks of Pakistan’s elected government, mainstream opposition and the civil and military establishment. The government, and many of the opposition politicians, continue to repeat the mantra of holding negotiations with militants as the one and only option despite the TTP’s firm ‘no’ to talks following the appointment of its new chief.
But perhaps the vision of our leaders is too clouded and blurred. They fail to see the reality or grasp the gravity of situation. No wonder, Nawaz Sharif, our third-time elected prime minister and a most experienced hand, remained stuck to the old script in Karachi while expressing his desire to hold peace talks without taking into account that the TTP has already removed whatever mirage of talks there was on the table.
The TTP is definitely in no mood to oblige. It sees the Pakistani government and the army as American stooges. It distrusts the government’s words and actions. Ironically, the local Taliban perception about Pakistan is closer to the Americans, who also view our civil and military authorities with great suspicion and accuse them of duplicity and double cross. This speaks volumes about the wisdom and political acumen of our strategists and policymakers.
If the militants are able to build pressure by resorting to acts of terror and drilling their narrative at every level through the well-oiled propaganda machinery, their apologists and backers in the mainstream political parties – from Imran Khan to Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Munawar Hasan – confuse the issue of extremism and terrorism by focusing on the symptom rather than the real cause of turmoil.
They have the audacity to trigger debate on whether Hakeemullah Mehsud was a martyr or those Pakistan Army soldiers who are killed in the line of duty. If – to believe Munawar Hasan of the Jamaat-e-Islami – Pakistani soldiers are fighting the American war, they therefore do not deserve the title of martyrs. End of the line.
Most civilian leaders – by design or default – see American drone assaults as the central cause of conflict in Pakistan rather than the result of the presence of Al-Qaeda and its allied foreign and locals militants on our soil. Pakistan’s failure to establish the writ of the state on its territory triggered these drone assaults. If Pakistan wants to put an end to them, it will have to ensure that its territory is not being used to provide shelter to terrorists from around the globe or launch attacks on other countries.
But the Sharif government, bowing to the pressure of the Taliban and their friends, is focusing more on taking up the issue of drone strikes both at internationally and domestically rather than addressing the real causes of extremism and terrorism.
In this context, the mantra of peace talks appears more bizarre as the government has so far failed to define rules of engagements with these extremist groups. And now after the TTP’s clear ‘no’ to the talks, all debate on this issue is useless. The sooner our rulers realise this and pull themselves out of their state of self-denial, the better for the country.
We as a nation are right in the middle of this protracted conflict. We have either to prevail or perish. There is no third choice. It is time for the leadership to show courage, conviction and clarity of mind to overcome the challenge. Confusion, inaction and efforts to appease extremists will serve no purpose. The delay in action will only go against Pakistan.
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