Enough is enough

No more safe havens for terrorists, of any hue and variety

The crimes committed by the militants have been justified by some and covered up by others for long. A time has come to see the reality and take effective measures to cope with it.

A whole lot of politicians were for years reluctant to utter the word ‘terrorist’ while talking about the LeT, LeJ, TTP and other outfits of the sort. Imran Khan is still unwilling to call a spade a spade. There is a whole lot of media persons who cover up the crimes being committed by the militants.

A general explanation given by the apologists of the militants is that whatever they do is in fact a reaction to the occupation of Afghanistan by the US. Once the foreign troops leave the country, the Afghan Taliban would cease the attacks followed by their counterparts in Pakistan who act on account of strong ethnic and religious ties with those fighting on the other side of the Durand Line.

The argument is historically unfounded. Even before the birth of Taliban, their Pakistani counterparts were indulging in acts of violence. This was long before the Americans were anywhere near Afghanistan. Sufi Mohmmad, chief of Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TSNM) and father-in-law and mentor of Swat’s Maulvi Fazlullah has been in business since 1994. Claiming that he wanted to enforce Islamic law Sufi Mohammad refused to take recourse to parliamentary methods to realise his goal. Instead he took to arms and laid siege to the Saidu Sharif city airport demanding imposition of the shariah. This led to violent clashes between his militants and the law enforcement authorities. The TSNM blocked Malakand roads, forced commuters to remove music players from their vehicles. A PPP MPA was killed by the militants who were subsequently brought under control through military action.

Months before September 11, 2001, the TSNM was once again on war path. In April that year, the party demanded an Islamic judicial system to be urgently put in place in Malakand Division. It opposed the military regime’s plan to hold local body elections. The TNSM chief declared that there is “no room for vote in Islam and the concept of democracy which some religio-political parties are demanding is heretical”.

The militants belonging to Sipah-e-Sahaba, the predecessor of the present day LeJ, started to launch bomb attacks on Shia imambargahs way back in early 1990’s. Hundreds of innocent men, women and children died as a result of the indiscriminate attacks during the decade. The LeJ is now a part of the TTP.

What happened after the entry of the US troops in Afghanistan was an expansion of militancy to FATA which had supplied volunteers during the Afghan war against Soviet troops and the civil war that followed. But till then there had been peace inside the tribal area. The criminal blunders on the part of Musharraf, like the ill-conceived operations in FATA and overuse of force during the siege of Lal Masjid, led to the swelling of the ranks of militants. The Americans contributed their bit by launching the attack on a Damadola seminary that killed numerous innocent people also. Musharraf maintained the attack had been conducted by Pakistani military. Henceforth, military personnel and installations turned into a favourite target for the militants. The suicide bomber, unknown before in Pakistan, became a weapon of choice for the terrorists.

A succession of militant leaders in the tribal areas that included Abdullah Mahsud, Nek Muhammad, Baitullah Mehsud, and Hakimullah Mehsud decided to target the Pakistani state. Under Baitullah Mehsud, Qari Hussain gained notoriety for recruiting, training and dispatching suicide bombers to play havoc all over Pakistan. It is claimed that Baitullah provided the killers who assassinated Benazir. The suicide bombers from tribal areas attacked mosques and shrines of popular Sufi saints killing hundreds of devotees. Finding that attacks of the sort could not be justified as a reaction to the occupation of Afghanistan by the US-led foreign troops, the militants’ apologists attributed these to Pakistan’s unspecified enemies or to US security agencies like the former Blackwater. Anyone asking for evidence was dubbed as unpatriotic.

It was easier to explain away attacks on military personnel and establishments. These were motivated, according to the militants’ apologists, by the widely seen collaboration between the US and Pakistan military. So it was justified to attack the GHQ, even kill retired servicemen and their children in Parade Lane mosque as it was to target Mehran Airbase.

And now we come to another source of suffering for the people. Resorting to the age old practice of the criminals in tribal areas, the TTP kidnaps innocent people for ransom and for getting its killers in government custody freed. Hundreds of businessmen have been abducted over the years to extract ransom. The TTP has kidnapped foreigners and important local figures for both ransom and for the release of its activists.

One of the two Chinese engineers taken hostage was killed during an operation for his release. A Polish engineer doing survey work for a Pakistani oil company was kidnapped. He was subsequently executed after the demand for the release of captured militants was not met. A video showing the killing was released.

It is not difficult to imagine the suffering undergone by hundreds of Pakistanis whose relatives have been kidnapped on orders from by militant leaders stationed in Waziristan. Shahbaz Taseer, son of late Governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer, was abducted from Lahore in August last year. He has yet not been recovered.

Three videos have appeared during the last few days with the grim warning that if the demands of the militants were not met by specified dates, about a dozen Pakistani hostages would be executed.

One of the videos shows abducted employees of Gomal Zam Dam who are seen begging the government and WAPDA to accept the TTP’s demands before December 3, failing which they would be executed. Another video shows FDA employees who were abducted by the TTP nearly a year back while conducting a survey for minerals. The hostages are shown begging the government to arrange their release as the kidnappers would otherwise kill them by December 6.

The independent media and the civil society are under threat after the foiled attempt on Hamid Mir’s life.

Besides the issue of human suffering, there are several other vital issues raised by the government’s failure to bring the perpetrators of these horrendous crimes to book.

Unless those who are under the oath to defend the country and its people take action, Pakistan would be widely seen as a failed state both abroad and at home. Who would come to invest in a country where the state is unable to guarantee personal safety of any one, be he a Pakistani or a foreigner? There is a likelihood of development and exploration work in areas adjoining FATA grinding to a halt. What is at stake is Pakistan’s image and that of its security establishment in the international community. There is a need to take urgent action to deny the militants the security of their strongholds in the tribal areas, particularly North Waziristan.

The writer is a former academic and a political analyst.