Alarm bells or new strategy?
By Adil Zareef
PAKISTAN‘S interior adviser has announced a crisp new strategy for Swat, the details of which have not been divulged, although it was mentioned that Al Qaeda, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Tanzeem-i-Islami and the Tora Bora and Qari Mushtaq groups needed to be tackled. Fortunately, it has dawned on the authorities that the militants’ objective is not simply the imposition of Sharia but the destruction of Pakistan.
But the adviser was frugal with information when it came to details of civilians killed and injured and schools pulverised. It is only when the horrors of Swat abate that the enormity of the death and destruction wreaked on the peaceful Swatis will truly emerge.
The state’s being in perpetual denial has horrified both independent analysts and those living in the NWFP’s war-ravaged areas. The people here have been subjected to a sense of brutal insensitivity by the government and the latter’s obfuscation of the facts. Political parties stand motionless or speak with muffled voices.
At what price one may ask? Thousands of civilians in Swat district have left. About 200 schools have been bombed and health centres, tourist resorts and forests ravaged. Several children and girls have either been abducted or gone missing. The state cannot ignore this reality for long. So where is the public outrage against this massacre?
There has been a lot of double talk. Generally, the public has been led to believe by the security agencies that RAW, Mossad and CIA mercenaries were bent upon dismembering Pakistan. Meanwhile, in the event of being threatened by India, the Taliban representatives say they will be on the side of the state. All this has created confusion in the minds of Pakistanis about the Taliban phenomenon (especially when it is recalled that they were abetted and financed by state agencies for reasons of ‘strategic depth’) conveniently blamed on Nato forces inside Afghanistan, the Indians and others.
The outright lies, distortions, cover-ups and fumbling by the state’s spokesmen have reached absurd proportions not only leading to a credibility deficit but the suffering of hapless civilians in the name of ‘national interest’.
Having bartered their political mandate for certain ‘terms and conditions’, the PPP-ANP duo is being blackmailed into fire-fighting in the aftermath of the Mumbai attack and covering up the state’s ‘strategic position’ about Taliban sanctuaries inside Pakistan.
It is not merely the clamping down on the Muridke madressah or the few training camps already on the western list. In question are hundreds of madressahs and training camps in Pakistan including the notorious Peuchar camp in Swat that remains untouched by Operation Rah-i-Haq. These threaten our state structure more. The government should shut these terrorist outfits.
It is a question of standing up to the very dark forces that threaten to undo the fundamentals of religious rationality and a moderate worldview and of challenging the dungeon of bigotry staring us in the face – and that we stubbornly refuse to accept.
Was it not a matter of grave injustice to have killed thousands in East Pakistan in the name of national interest? We have carried out similar military operations on the same flimsy grounds in Balochistan, killing the provincial leadership or forcing it into exile. This has led to the destruction of local livelihoods, and vast tracts of land have been taken away in the name of development.
Meanwhile, the ruthless oligarchy that enriched itself on Afghan blood during the Afghan war abetted by western and Saudi petrodollars has turned on its own citizens.
Had the ANP-PPP leadership been wiser it would have worked towards constitutional reforms by first restoring an independent judiciary. In Pakistan’s blemished history, for once the judiciary stood up to ruthless praetorian forces, asking intelligence bosses to account for the hundreds missing; besides there was the demand for constitutional transparency while conducting a ‘war against terror’. If the US was to blame for forcing Pakistan’s dictator into such terms, the political leadership too is guilty of carrying on with a discredited strategy and not setting its own house in order.
Instead of demanding accountability from Musharraf and transparency from the GHQ on the policy framework, the PPP-ANP duo let them off the hook. Under an undefined power-sharing mechanism the ANP is now paying a price in terms of credibility deficit and governance issues. Death warrants for the entire leadership living in virtual seclusion from the electorate have also been issued. The parties will eventually fall victim to the vagaries of this strategy.
Under no circumstances, should Pakistanis feel relieved because of a “better coordinated military strategy for Swat” promised by the ISPR. The obfuscations have gone on for too long. Pakistanis should demand an explanation from GHQ as to why and how thousands of diehard, ruthless Arab, Chechen, Uzbek, Tajik and Pakistani jihadis travelled from faraway Tora Bora and Waziristan when Musharraf was in power along with the MMA. Why were they allowed to wreak havoc on Bajaur and then Swat?
Where are these deadly ‘strategic assets’ being shifted to in the NWFP to repeat another gory game of death and destruction on Pashtun lands? Latest news from Dir and Mohmand points towards another wave of civilian exodus as these mercenaries are ‘transported’ there for bloodletting yet again. Who controls the NWFP, the ANP or the GHQ?
Unless we demand a full-fledged investigation by impartial world bodies this ghastly ‘war against terror’ unleashed on innocent civilians will not cease. The heartless butchers of this deadly game need to be uncovered to secure our future and for peace in the region. It is time the world spoke out with one voice: “Stop the genocide!” n
The writer is a member of the Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy.