Introspection – Pakistan and Terrorism

Mumbai terrorist attack was horrible and was the height of cowardice. It was like the massacre of Jalianwala Bagh, Amritsar or the massacre carried out in Qissa Khwani Bazaar, Peshawar by British Raj.

In Jalianwala Baagh and Qissa Khwani Bazaar massacre, the murderers were state backed and in case of Mumbai they were non state actors but both cases the violence was directed at non combatants, and this is the worst of humanity, if we can even ascribe any trait of humanity to it at all. Violence was perpetrated because either the power was abused (in case of state backed aggression) or it was misplaced in the aggressors in the first place.

While commenting on the recession, US President Teddy Roosevelt observed in Nashville, Tennessee: “If a section of the business world goes a little crazy, it will have to pay for it; and, being excessively human, it will want to blame some one else instead of itself.�

Same holds true for the nations and states too. Both India and Pakistan, specially the electronic media, where truth takes the bottom of priority list giving way to sensationalism, started to blame and point fingers at each other. I am not saying that all the conclusions drawn by the media are wrong ones, but sadly majority of them are half conjectures and nothing but the assortment of clichés that one can hear at any bar room or chai khanas of sub continent. More mortifying effect of such obscene way of informing and shaping public opinion is the shrinking of expression space for those who oppose the tide. Treason and being unpatriotic is the labels that have to borne by those who do this.

In these deafening voices of madness, what we need is introspection. A sincere and painful review of one’s own conduct in this pathetic environment that engulfs us today. Surely, all of it could not be the making of foreign powers to which we attribute every ill of our society.

I am not Indian, so it would be out of place for me to comment on the ills in that country. Furthermore, even if there is some problem in Indian society that affects me or my country, the answer is to strengthen our state institutions so that they can handle it in legitimate way. So, I will limit myself to my own country and see where we went wrong.

According to the Indian media, the sole survivor of the terrorists is a Pakistani and so were the dead ones. His home town is mentioned as Faridkot in Pakistan. In a recent interview, the Pakistani President said that it is still not certain on our part as to his citizenship as investigations are still going on. But frankly, do we think that the validity or otherwise of this Indian claim makes any difference except perhaps in pointing to an obvious fact that rots our society? The fact that anyone with his or her agenda against India or west and right resources can find not one or two but hordes of people willing to do what was done in Mumbai? Whose fault is it, if I may ask?

Oh yes, there is Kashmir; the jaundice that afflicts the states of both India and Pakistan. But is there any justification for any citizen of Pakistan to go to Kashmir and raise arms against Indians? No. Same is true for Afghanistan, and was true for Afghanistan even in the heydays of Afghan Jihad. No person of Pakistani citizenship should have been allowed to go either to Afghanistan or Kashmir for waging Jihad. We did train Afghan freedom fighters and also belonging to other countries’ militants for Afghanistan, as did Indians in case of LTTE and Mukti Bahani in 1971, but using of Pakistani citizens? Were we mad, or were we interested in appeasing the US more than US itself against the Russians that we forgot that these Pakistani citizens will ultimately come back and haunt us? Did we really believe that once they achieved the agenda of Pakistan in Afghanistan, they will return their arms? Of course, we must have been either mad or utterly incompetent not to comprehend the fall out.

Here is an interesting observation. Two provinces of Pakistan, NWFP and Balochistan share border with Afghanistan. But one hardly sees any Baloch among the terrorists. They might be carrying out their own struggle for more rights and do resort to terrorism from time to time against state of Pakistan, but they are nowhere to be seen among the ranks of terrorists that we are talking. Why? Because the governor of that province during Zia era took great pains to contain the Afghan elements within the refugee camps and did not allow the intermingling of Pakistani elements with them. He was also a General, a serving one at the time of his Governorship, but had more sense in comparison of the other lot of our napoleons.

Then came the post USSR withdrawal period, where we continued our folly of mistakes. Although, I believe that the doctrine of strategic depth was anything but a blunder of first order keeping in view the nature of Afghan elements and region’s history; still the damage could have been controlled had we not allowed the citizens of Pakistan to join the ranks of Taliban. It should then be no surprise for anyone that likes of Nek Muhammad and Abdullah Mehsood are all ex-commanders of Taliban.

Modern state is defined as the entity that has monopoly over violence within geographical boundaries in which it operates. As noted earlier that the power was misplaced in the non state actors in the first place, and that is what we over the years have done in Pakistan. When the defining criterion of state is not taken care of, we are bound to have a time bomb at hand, and in our case this time bomb has exploded, and has been exploding for last so many years in this country and now perhaps to the neighboring one.

Don’t we think that there should be a commission in Pakistan to investigate this unauthorized delegation of state authority to such non state actors? Isn’t it as important as banning extremist outfits like Jamat ud Dawa? I am not a legal or constitutional expert, but isn’t dispensing power to non state actors a crime against the state itself, and those who committed it should be brought before the court on the charges of high treason. Empowering Taliban or training foreign elements could be an error of judgment, but allowing local elements with state like powers is something that is totally illegal.

But instead, those ex–generals still inform the public opinion on TV channels, the most vulnerable of our society are bearing the brunt of the mess that they created. Simple people of Pakistan and especially those of tribal areas whose traditional valour, hospitality and belief in Islam was manipulated are now the cannon fodder of the consequent fall down of their policies. The socio political culture of tribal Pathans, which was already tribal and not geared towards the progress, was totally ignored. Instead of integrating them and bracing them for the progress and demands of a modern state, they were used as foot soldiers by our napoleans, so much so that the environment in those areas is even more backward than it was in the late seventies.

We have to purge the tribal areas and all the Pakistan of non state actors, but to make sure that this does not happen again, we have to make sure that those who did this in first place and who are still thriving in our society are brought to justice. If we ignore this then we don’t have to blame anyone else for our downfall.