The self-inflicted wound finally comes within reach of taking Pakistan’s life
What was so different about last week’s church bombings? Churches, mosques, imambargahs, shirnes, etc, have all been bombed by the dozen. There’s been plenty of agitation too. The Hazara protest stands out, of course; when they put their two-hundred-something coffins out in the open. But there’s never been the type of barbarity that followed the Youhanabad incident. The lynching would have been bad enough even if the victims were guilty. And many more questions have emerged since they were not.
In a way it is connected with the Dec16 school attack. At the time of the APC, and the following NAP, the state’s promise was taken at face value. If Peshawar could not generate consensus, and political will, to finally take out terrorist “of all hues and colours”, nothing would. So those in power were given the benefit of the doubt.
But the bombings continued. And as time went by, Nawaz’s promises no longer looked very promising. If there is finally a mechanism for greater intelligence sharing – courtesy NAP – then why isn’t there greater intelligence sharing on the ground? Why reports, after attacks, of prior intel sitting with one agency or another, but not making its way to where it can pre-empt attacks?
Also, there wasn’t much to back warnings against “aiders, abettors, and sympathisers” either. And there were a number of problems with Ch Nisar’s position regarding lal masjid
Also, there wasn’t much to back warnings against “aiders, abettors, and sympathisers” either. And there were a number of problems with Ch Nisar’s position regarding lal masjid. First, the rationale not to act negated the spirit of NAP to begin with. It was like saying ‘We’ll not spare the sympathisers’, and then saying ‘We can’t really act against them because we can’t handle the fallout’ when they do sympathise with the enemy. And when lal masjid rubbished his claim about the letter of apology, it was the interior ministry, and therefore the government, not just the minister, that was left with egg on its face.
There wasn’t much progress on police reforms either, which meant the first reaction force was still incompetent. So people, naturally, started losing faith in the government. And when there was another attack, and more incompetence, the mob took matters in its own hands. Where things can go if there’s another attack, since little is expected from the state save its usual rhetoric, is anyone’s guess.
The lynching, then, was another one of those self inflicted wounds that we have a history of. Things could have improved after Peshawar, but they didn’t, because we decided not do what was necessary to prevent the enemy from getting stronger. But the enemy, too, is a self-inflicted wound. The deep state nurtured it for decades, first for the Russian jihad, then for strategic depth, then for the Kashmiri jihad. They slept through the point of no return as the proxies went on a rampage, killing the Shi’a, then Christians, and now any minority that does not agree with their extremism.
The lynching, then, was another one of those self inflicted wounds that we have a history of. Things could have improved after Peshawar, but they didn’t, because we decided not do what was necessary to prevent the enemy from getting stronger
If only we had not shot ourselves so deep, the wound might not have come so close to taking Pakistan’s life. Every time the state decided against folding militant proxies – for still treating them as assets to fear of reprisal attacks – we crossed a point of no return. Raising and arming militias, allowing persecution and killing of minorities, manoeuvring religious parties into politics; all set precedents that eroded the writ of state and empowered the extremist lobby that is now eating the state from within.
The mob in Lahore was just another point of no return, which means that more of Pakistan has chipped away. And just like after Peshawar, there is talk of not sparing the terrorists, bringing those responsible to justice, and so on. Yet the only thing that has changed is that people have now started to act on their own. The government does not have far to look to understand what can happen when public discontent snowballs, and people finally come out in the open. Governments far more deeply entrenched than the one in Islamabad have been rubbished to the dustbin of history. And seemingly formidable countries have been reduced to ruin by this enemy. The government would be wise not to allow another point of no return.
