As a fallout of massacre of 150 students and their teachers by Pakistani Taliban at APS, Peshawar, Dec 16, a series of high-level commitments were made jointly by political parties led by government and army to eliminate the menace of terrorism from the country. Among these mostly now forgotten commitments, one was to ban all the religious/sectarian outfits directly or indirectly involved in promoting terrorism. Apparently when we talked about ban this time, it was not a mere notification in newspapers but freezing of their assets, closing of offices and not permitting them to operate under new names.
Though somehow it was an agreed action item, but soon became a choking point for government as most of the to-be-banned outfits were (are?) in cahoots with the right-wing political parties and security establishment, were supported and used as needed be to fulfil ‘national interest’ in the disguise of jihad. Here started the circus — a list of banned outfits appeared on NACTA website, only to be removed within hours. Then came the announcement that Haqqani Network in tribal areas and JuD (political wing of LeT) in Punjab have been banned but in the next breath they were put ‘under watch’. It was obvious no one, neither government nor the security establishment, were physically or mentally prepared to divorce those who were once their near and dear ones.
In this backdrop it was quite a pleasant surprise to note the Azad Kashmir government’s decision to ban 63 organisations including LeT, LeJ, Jesh-e-Mohammed, Harkatul Mujahideen (both Aalimi and Islamic), Sipah-e-Sahaba and other sectarian outfits. Political wing of LeT, Jamat-ud-Dawa, was put under the watchlist. The Kashmir government’s notification was issued April 02 and press was briefed of the proposed actions to be taken against these banned organisations. Good news, isn’t it? But please be patient, let me first complete this jigsaw puzzle.
Fahim Abbasi, Additional IG Police, Kashmir, and head of anti-terrorism squad who dared to inform the public of the ban has been removed from his job, April 04.
Moral of the story: Stop daydreaming, it’s Pakistan of Zia-ul-Haq, not of Mohammed Ali Jinnah.
MASOOD KHAN
Jubail, Saudi Arabia