Sunday, May 19, 2013

Pakistan: Malakand and beyond

EDITORIAL: Daily Times
In a particularly vicious attack, the militants who have openly plagued this country with bloodshed have reaffirmed their status as a force that cannot be negotiated with. Just after Friday prayers, two remote controlled bombs were set off outside two different mosques in Malakand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. As has become the modus operandi of the militants, the bombs went off quite close to one another with the first creating a panic and the second targeting all those civilians who rushed to the site to help. The targeted mosques were not far apart and the resulting casualties include 13 dead and more than 48 injured. The rescue efforts were further hindered because the area, Bazardara, is quite isolated and it took a long time for rescue teams to reach the sites of the blasts. While no one has so far taken responsibility for this act, it does not take a genius to guess that the usual suspects, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) may be behind the atrocious attack. This attack has come at a time when the attitude and direction of the militants is under particular scrutiny because of the overtures of the new governments-to-be. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), which is all set to have a major stake in the new set up in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has made it very clear that when it comes to the militants, there is room for negotiations. PTI senior leader and soon-to-be chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pervez Khattak, said on Friday that the party had no enmity with the TTP and that negotiations were on the cards. He even went so far as to say that the province was theirs too. That is a statement that should not be taken lightly. How can any government, old or new, even think about talking to the TTP, much less give them the ‘respect’ the new setup seems determined on giving them? As Friday’s bomb attacks show, the militants are not satisfied with mere shock and terror; they wish to inflict as much death and destruction on innocent civilians as possible. Why is the PTI not thinking about the victims of the terrorists? It is these civilians who voted them into power, the very people who are being massacred by the militants. What will be their reaction at the government’s willingness to negotiate with their murderers? And why is the PTI being so naïve? Have they forgotten what has been happening to the Awami National Party (ANP), which is the same party that agreed to hold negotiations and settle a truce with the TTP when it held Swat hostage? The ANP has been facing nothing but the murders of its leaders and party members by the very same Taliban for the last many years. Why is the PTI not looking at these past experiences? Also, has the PTI forgotten that the TTP declared the constitution, democracy and the elections — in which the PTI won a majority in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — as being against Islam? How does the party believe the TTP will accept the ‘legality’ of a party that won in these ‘un-Islamic’ elections? With their continuous attacks against the innocent people of this country, the armed forces deployed to protect this country, the political parties deemed to have a liberal, secular mandate and government representatives, the militants have proved they are no better than monsters. One does not negotiate or call a truce with bloodthirsty hate mongers; why does the PTI think it will be an exception?

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