Appeasing The Militants

By Omar R. Quraishi

Both the federal and the NWFP government's strategy -- if there indeed is one -- of fighting extremism and increasing Talibanisation in the country is flawed to say the least. Of late, there has been talk -- and it's been going on for some time now -- that pro-Taliban militants have surrounded the capital of NWFP, Peshawar, from the north, south and west and that it is only a matter of time before they make their move on to the city.

This may sound like an alarmist scenario to some but it is not entirely unexpected to think that the Pakistani Taliban would stop at expanding their growing influence from beyond all of FATA to the settled districts of the NWFP and that having Peshawar under their control would perhaps be their crowning glory. If and when such a doomsday situation happens, the XI corps may be pressed into action, with an infantry division based in Peshawar and Mardan and an armoured brigade at Nowshera.

Signs of the extremists extending their sphere of influence to the city's district have already been reported with shopkeepers in the Peshawar's outlying areas saying that local militants have come to them and warned them to close down all shops that sell videos CDs, DVDs and cassettes. This was followed by the kidnap of several Christians from a Peshawar neighbourhood, ostensibly by militants of the Lashkar-e-Islam, which has been more or less allowed by the federal government to establish a strong foothold in Khyber Agency, which straddles Peshawar.

And around the same time that all this was happening came the depressing news that the town of Jandola in South Waziristan had fallen to Baitullah Mehsud's men. This obviously means that the peace talks between the federal government and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan are not delivering, and there is probably good reason for that -- foremost being the severe reaction from America and other western allies of Pakistan, all of whom seem convinced that allowing such deals only benefits the Taliban and consequently al-Qaeda and that the next attack on US soil will probably emanate from these sanctuaries provided to the militants by the Pakistan government.

Many in the country call this a blatant interference in Pakistan's internal affairs. However, even keeping America, NATO and other western stakeholders aside, is it really in Pakistan's own interests that extremists and fanatics clearly bent upon creating their own Taliban state be given such a free hand in the country? Have we not seen their misdeeds in attacking schools and colleges for girls, have we not seen that through their frequent attacks on video and music shops, on barbers and in general on anyone who disagrees with them (he or she is called a U.S. spy and summarily executed, and the dead body, usually, thrown on the roadside) that these people have no problem in using the sword (and of course the Kalashnikov) to enforce their literalist and obscurantist interpretation of religion on everyone else.

As for the NWFP provincial government, it has to be said that while it may be well-intentioned and is sincere in wanting peace to return to the province, surely it needs to re-examine its approach vis-a-vis the militants in Swat. For weeks, the district was under curfew and a military operation was in full swing, which caused hundreds of deaths and led to many arrests, with the military then proudly claiming that the militants had been driven out of the district, had surrendered or were on the run.

Why, after such success against them, enter into a deal that allows them precisely the kind of autonomy and power in their area of influence which they wanted in the first place? Why give Maulana Fazlullah the right to have his own radio station when such a concession is allowed to no other citizen of Pakistan? Does this mean that the power of the militants is such that the state -- not by admission but indeed by its actions -- is willing to capitulate and allow them a degree of freedom which taken to its logical culmination may well end up threatening the country's territorial integrity?

This is, of course, compounded by the fact that the people of this country are fed a healthy diet of half-truths and fibs and presented only one side of the story. For instance, according to a recent survey conducted in Pakistan while over half of those surveyed were concerned over the growing influence of the militants, a mere eight per cent wanted the government to fight and eliminate the militants. Compared to this, around fifty per cent thought that the problems affecting the country internally were being caused by America (proof, if ever it was needed, that we are also the land of the conspiracy theory).

It is probably these very people who also think -- like many educated and apparently moderate people -- that those who died at Lal Masjid were all 'innocent' done to their deaths by a military under (who else's) America's influence. Of course, these people have forgotten the vigilante actions of the Lal Masjid students, the several kidnappings and hostage-takings they were involved in and the routine threats they used to give to Islamabad's shopkeepers to not sell music or video products. Of course, 'innocent students' involve themselves in such things, defy the writ of the state at will, go around kidnapping people and summarily trying and convicting them of moral turpitude -- and that's why the government sees it fit to not even prosecute them!

Perhaps, the fact that Peshawar is now encircled on at least three sides by sympathisers and supporters of the Lal Masjid vigilantes and who owe their allegiance to the likes of Baitullah Mehsud, will awaken those Pakistanis who still are unable to see where the real danger to their country comes from. And maybe, just maybe, this will bring them around to repudiating the passive support, nay sympathy or even admiration, many ordinary Pakistanis -- brainwashed and indoctrinated by years of Islamisation and appeasement of militants by military-led or military-controlled governments -- have for such elements.

Courtesy: The News Pakistan