Pakistan’s homegrown extremism: War of narratives

The fault lies within the indoctrinated mindset

Following the recent resurgence of terrorist activity, especially the Wagah border incident, uncertainty prevails, terrorists reassert themselves as Zarb-e-Azb continues, and Pakistan gets played by multiple claims of Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) factions. Concurrently, the brazenness of the blasphemy law consumes the disposable lives of the lynched Christian couple.

By definition, terrorism is an activity, which is employed to inculcate fear in the minds of people, and it may not necessarily be using actual force but it could be mere intimidation to use force. The fundamental problem lies with the fact that these terrorist organisations are able to recruit from all over Pakistan despite an ongoing severe military crackdown, in addition to other counter-terrorism measures employed by the armed forces.

There is widespread speculation about the aftermath of the Wagah border attack, mostly to try and ascertain the cause of this audacious perpetration by a certain ‘militant’ faction. The attack was targeted at a highly sensitive area, surrounded by an ocean of security personnel, whereas the military claims to have annihilated the roots of terrorism and extremism in Pakistan via operation Zarb-e-Azb. This leaves us dumbfounded as a nation and unsafe in our homes, because the dreaded outspread of militants into other urban parts of Pakistan as a consequence of Zarb-e-Azb might just prove to be true, after all.

The nature of this attack leads us to a number of conclusions, because in addition to consuming innocent lives, it has multiple other political dimensions to it. The location makes its extremely controversial in several ways.

The solution to the extremism problem lies in eradicating illiteracy, slavery to dogmas, ever-growing religious intolerance, and regimentation of fickle minds by these theoretically holy men

Firstly, the terrorist reached the pinnacle of security arrangements laden with 12kg of explosives and went unnoticed until he reached the check post. It is believed that he blew himself up in panic after encountering an ocean of security personnel. This puts a serious doubt upon the credibility and expertise of the state’s security agencies’ intelligence network. Secondly, the location has multiple repercussions and puts a question mark to the relations between India and Pakistan, which have seen many ups and downs since the start of Nawaz Sharif’s regime. This attack could possibly be intended to further weaken bilateral ties. Both countries cannot isolate this event as an exclusive tragedy for Pakistan because the attack, without a doubt, had certain ulterior motives to it. Thirdly, the most important thing that created a stir, were multiple claims by terrorist organisations simultaneously. One could possibly say that the attack lost all its authenticity and gravity after this mass confusion and a series of counter claims. This was a turning point in forming the narrative of this attack because for once Pakistan was unsure about the involvement of any one terrorist faction or the possible involvement of other state or non-state actors. Fourthly, the state did not have any specific entity to blame for this suicide attack, which is why it shifted the paradigm to the values of solidarity, support and unity amongst Pakistanis. It went on to creating a vague narrative of the entire Pakistani nation standing strong despite the attack.

This was followed by a show of numbers at the border the next day after the attack. Such a misappropriation of power just to show solidarity within the fragmented nation by putting the lives of another sea of people at risk for vested interests was indeed a much greater sin against humanity. Lastly, eventually nothing happened the next day at the border because the security had been beefed up and agencies were extremely watchful of possible threats. This leaves a question mark on the credibility of this terrorist attack because suddenly within approximately 24 hours, the state was in complete control of the scene like nothing happened.

On the other hand, let us delve deeper into the basis of this extremist mindset in Pakistan, which helps militant organisations in indoctrinating the fickle minds of its minions. This could be related to the attitude of the nation at large, which breeds religious intolerance and religious ethnocentrism. The supposed values of Islam being superior to other religions and the manufactured narrative of jihad are misused by these terrorist organisations to recruit youngsters from remote areas. The false promises of a glorious entry through the gates of Heaven with every bomb set off boosts their recruiting power.

Hence, we see a linear correlation between religious intolerance, extremism and terrorism in Pakistan, among other things. Terrorism and extremism go hand in hand because extremism by definition is also a belief in an ideology

The solution to the extremism problem lies in eradicating illiteracy, slavery to dogmas, ever-growing religious intolerance, and regimentation of fickle minds by these theoretically holy men. The heart of the matter lies in the growing religious, national as well as ethnic ethnocentrism, and how it has captured the imagination of this nation at large by creating illusions of superiority.

This indoctrinated mindset is also evident in connection to the blasphemy law of Pakistan and how those in power misuse it against minorities. The nature and scope of blasphemy laws in Pakistan is highly ambiguous and it almost seems as if they were incorporated into the 1973 constitution under a certain targeted agenda to solidify a certain regime’s powerbase and legitimisation of a hostile military takeover. Blasphemy laws were incorporated through Sections 295-B and 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) during the despotic rule of General Zia-ul-Haq.

From that point on, this fragile nation has witnessed tyranny in the name of religion under the guise of this preposterous law. The fact is that it has targeted all those who oppose or differ from the mainstream narrative of Islam, propagated by a certain convoluted version, and has been used as a shield to massacre masses by breeding religious intolerance. The people answerable for the dilemma of religious minorities are not only conventional legislators who, but also privileged minority leaders who are as class-conscious and utilitarian as their Muslim equivalents. Reportedly, almost half the registered cases of blasphemy offences during 1986 and 2007 demonstrate that they mostly targeted weak non-Muslims.

Hence, we see a linear correlation between religious intolerance, extremism and terrorism in Pakistan, among other things. Terrorism and extremism go hand in hand because extremism by definition is also a belief in an ideology. One could say that a staunch belief in a ludicrous ideology supported by the manufactured narrative of religion is the root cause of this extremist catastrophe, whereas the origination of this extremist mindset in Pakistan during the 1970s is where it all possibly began.