The Nawaz Sharif government may still be at sea on the question of peace talks, but Taliban are not. Not that they don't want talks at all; they do want talks but on their own terms - spelled out once again by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan after the Bannu attack on the security force on Sunday. Their spokesman Shahidullah Shahid says his organisation is ready for "sincere and meaningful" negotiations despite having suffered "heavy losses" in the deaths of Hakeemullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman. Insisting the attacks are part of the TTP war on Pakistan's "secular system" he also promised more such attacks, and has lived up to his words. Next morning a suicide-bomber blew himself up at a checkpost near the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi. Nearly three-dozen people, mainly personnel of security forces, have been killed while many more injured some grievously. By moving its fight closer to the GHQ the TTP's spell of violence seems to have reached a crescendo. One may say the terrorist outfit carried out these deadly attacks on security forces to gain what is commonly called the 'position of strength' at the negotiating table if and when it is laid out. Given, that recent spike to the TTP-owned terrorism follows the latest move to kick-start the peace process, smacks of dubiousness. While the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has no doubts about its mission to prevail in Pakistan, the government is beset with a whole range of perceptions and perspectives ranging from zero-tolerance for terrorism to votaries of Taliban mindset. No wonder then Maulana Samiul Haq has welcomed the Taliban offer of talks made immediately after the Bannu attack as a positive move. That the Bannu attack was in response to last month's military operation in Mirali, North Waziristan, and that the Taliban had no hand in the blast at the Tableeghi Markaz in Peshawar last week - the TTP is trying to convey that its target is none else but the security forces of Pakistan. Is it that in the wake of a pivotal shift of Taliban power from FATA to Swat, the place present chief Maulana Fazlullah hails from, the terrorist alliance is splintering up, and that as affiliates based in settled areas are for peace but those in tribal areas want war?
There are wheels within wheels; who is fighting whose war it remains an enigma. But that should not be the government's problem. Given the fact that incidence of terrorism is not something new and that the terrorists' agenda is simply impossible to implant in a democratic Pakistan by now a clearly articulated line of action should have been under implementation. Why the fight against terrorism should be held hostage to airy-fairy ideas like total national consensus and parliamentary unanimity. One would be too naïve to believe that the Nawaz Sharif government's political opposition would like it to get credit for winning this war against terrorism. In a nutshell, it is the present federal government's exclusive responsibility to combat the demons of extremism, a responsibility assigned to it by the majority of people of Pakistan. If this challenge is beyond its capacity it should make way for a national government. It cannot be both at the same time. If it finds the opposition in parliament co-operative enough to help it enact stringent anti-terrorism laws it should go for promulgation of ordinances to equip itself with adequate legal powers to take tough measures to rid the country of extremism and terrorism. Time is the essence. That the federal cabinet once again failed to stitch up the much-awaited internal security policy is indeed frustrating. But if others, like the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and company, believe that they hold the key to the door that opens out onto the dens of terrorists in tribal areas they should come forward and show their magic. So far, all that they have said, and done, hardly lends any credence to their posture of being the right leadership to get country past the demons of terror and religious extremism. Terrorism is no more the issue for point-scoring; it is a question of life and death for Pakistan.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Pakistan: Terrorists stalk everywhere
The Nawaz Sharif government may still be at sea on the question of peace talks, but Taliban are not. Not that they don't want talks at all; they do want talks but on their own terms - spelled out once again by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan after the Bannu attack on the security force on Sunday. Their spokesman Shahidullah Shahid says his organisation is ready for "sincere and meaningful" negotiations despite having suffered "heavy losses" in the deaths of Hakeemullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman. Insisting the attacks are part of the TTP war on Pakistan's "secular system" he also promised more such attacks, and has lived up to his words. Next morning a suicide-bomber blew himself up at a checkpost near the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi. Nearly three-dozen people, mainly personnel of security forces, have been killed while many more injured some grievously. By moving its fight closer to the GHQ the TTP's spell of violence seems to have reached a crescendo. One may say the terrorist outfit carried out these deadly attacks on security forces to gain what is commonly called the 'position of strength' at the negotiating table if and when it is laid out. Given, that recent spike to the TTP-owned terrorism follows the latest move to kick-start the peace process, smacks of dubiousness. While the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has no doubts about its mission to prevail in Pakistan, the government is beset with a whole range of perceptions and perspectives ranging from zero-tolerance for terrorism to votaries of Taliban mindset. No wonder then Maulana Samiul Haq has welcomed the Taliban offer of talks made immediately after the Bannu attack as a positive move. That the Bannu attack was in response to last month's military operation in Mirali, North Waziristan, and that the Taliban had no hand in the blast at the Tableeghi Markaz in Peshawar last week - the TTP is trying to convey that its target is none else but the security forces of Pakistan. Is it that in the wake of a pivotal shift of Taliban power from FATA to Swat, the place present chief Maulana Fazlullah hails from, the terrorist alliance is splintering up, and that as affiliates based in settled areas are for peace but those in tribal areas want war?
There are wheels within wheels; who is fighting whose war it remains an enigma. But that should not be the government's problem. Given the fact that incidence of terrorism is not something new and that the terrorists' agenda is simply impossible to implant in a democratic Pakistan by now a clearly articulated line of action should have been under implementation. Why the fight against terrorism should be held hostage to airy-fairy ideas like total national consensus and parliamentary unanimity. One would be too naïve to believe that the Nawaz Sharif government's political opposition would like it to get credit for winning this war against terrorism. In a nutshell, it is the present federal government's exclusive responsibility to combat the demons of extremism, a responsibility assigned to it by the majority of people of Pakistan. If this challenge is beyond its capacity it should make way for a national government. It cannot be both at the same time. If it finds the opposition in parliament co-operative enough to help it enact stringent anti-terrorism laws it should go for promulgation of ordinances to equip itself with adequate legal powers to take tough measures to rid the country of extremism and terrorism. Time is the essence. That the federal cabinet once again failed to stitch up the much-awaited internal security policy is indeed frustrating. But if others, like the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and company, believe that they hold the key to the door that opens out onto the dens of terrorists in tribal areas they should come forward and show their magic. So far, all that they have said, and done, hardly lends any credence to their posture of being the right leadership to get country past the demons of terror and religious extremism. Terrorism is no more the issue for point-scoring; it is a question of life and death for Pakistan.
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