Pakistan’s Day of Tragedies
The Peshawar attack proved two things principally. Firstly, we can never be sure of the worst being behind us; not so long as there exists even the trace of an enemy driven by an ideology of the Taliban, al Qaeda, ISIS, etc, mould. And secondly, our manner of dealing with the uprising, especially the fantastic ‘Good Taliban’ novelty, would have to be abandoned forever. Sadly, even though all parties came on board once the military went ahead with Zarb-e-Azb (after the Karachi airport attack), there were clearly elements in the political and security establishment that still favoured talks with the Taliban. And it took the Peshawar slaughter, the merciless gunning down of our children and their teachers, to finally unite everyone and thrash out the National Action Plan (NAP).
The security situation has clearly improved in the year since Peshawar. There have been fewer attacks and a large number of bad guys have been sent to their beloved paradise. Movement on the first two points of NAP – executions and military courts – was particularly swift, and more killers of our innocents were delivered the death penalty. Yet there are areas that require more urgent attention. There have been visible efforts to curb hate speech, yet pockets of belligerent extremists continue to provoke without check. Also, more needs to be done about armed militias, terror financing, militancy in Punjab, and particularly greater integration between the dozens of agencies that litter the security landscape.
Dec16 will stand out as the Day of Tragedies for our country. The first tore away a part of Pakistan and the second amputated a part of its soul. The loss of ‘71 was quantifiable, but the magnitude of Peshawar cannot be calculated. The only bigger tragedy still conceivable would be this day coming and going again without us having gone the whole way to eliminate this cancer of extremism and terrorism. And, as discussions leading to NAP pointed out, we will continue to be soft targets unless we go for the throat of the enemy. That will require a mix of lethal force and careful education, especially forming that crucial national narrative. Hopefully we will have overcome these problems by the time this sad day visits us again next year.
