There are no Taliban in Pakistan but few aged mujahideen still living in the tribal areas since 1980s when they fought against Soviet forces in Afghanistan on the behest of Americans. Oh no, there are no Punjabi Taliban; it’s an attempt to give this conflict an ethnic color. Why should Taliban settle in Karachi? Its topography doesn’t suit their temperament. How come there could be a Quetta Shura? Quetta is an open city, not in the tribal belt. No, there are no Haqqanis in North Waziristan, it’s an Afghan tribe. Mangal Bagh and Hafiz Gul Bahadar are our allies, they never create trouble for us.
It’s more than a decade we are being offered these sort of soothers, that we need not worry and all is well. Then why is there so much debate on whether Islamic State (IS) has taken roots in Pakistan or not? Regardless of graffiti appearing in major metropolises and allegiance announced by different splinter Taliban groups to IS Khalifa, Baghdadi, my question is: in presence of so many hate-filled sectarian militant-cum-terrorist groups, do we need IS as well?
We never miss a day which doesn’t bring the state nearer to failure — whether it’s the accidental recovery of dozens of girls of age 8-12 from a dilapidated house in Karachi where they were brought from an unknown and unregistered madrassah to settle a monetary dispute, or the cold-blood murder of four health workers on their way to administer polio vaccine in Quetta. Is there any functional and alive state in Pakistan? If there is one, who convinced the parents in tribal areas near Pak-Afghan to send their innocent girls to hundreds of kilometres away to Karachi only because someone has offered (better say, lured) them (girls) with some clothing and food?
No one knows, God forbid, what was going to happen to these unprotected and uneducated girls in Karachi who were completely cut-off from their families. If state is alive, then why are health workers risking their lives only for a few hundred rupees a day? Is this the worth of life in Pakistan, a few hundred rupees and promise of meal and clothing? We don’t need IS to destroy this country, we are already on auto-destruction mode. No need for an outside terrorist group to do it for us.
MASOOD KHAN
Jubail, Saudi Arabia
