Daily Times

Although mankind has successfully landed on the moon and Mars, it has failed miserably in determining the definition of terrorism. This is mainly because terrorists in one nation may be considered freedom fighters in another and vice versa. However, terrorism can loosely be defined as the systematic use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.

After World War II, instead of overt full-scale wars, rival nations used clandestine operations and proxy wars that laid the foundations of the modern day terrorism phenomenon. The Middle East conflict, with the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, further fuelled the fire and the world witnessed much bloodshed in bomb blasts, indiscriminate attacks, kidnappings, mass murders and plane hijackings.

Pakistan, the ‘land of the pure’, tasted the first of such proxy wars in then East Pakistan in the late 1960s when India took full advantage of the differences between the leaderships of West and East Pakistan. Pakistan accuses India of training, equipping, harbouring and launching Bengali militants under the banner of the Mukti Bahini, but space for this was provided by the military crackdown in then East Pakistan to deny the Awami League its mandate in the 1970 elections. As a result, Bangladesh came into being. In 1977, General Ziaul Haq assumed power as martial law dictator through a military coup in Pakistan. He used Islam as a ploy to strengthen his grip on the helm of affairs and not only radicalised civil society but also Pakistan’s security establishment. This radicalisation later became one of the primary reasons behind the spread of terrorism in Pakistan.

In December 1979, the USSR invaded Afghanistan in order to support pro-Soviet forces and to crush the anti-Soviets. The western bloc, led by the US and its NATO allies along with Pakistan, China and Saudi Arabia, also rose to the occasion. Pakistan was centre-stage due to its important strategic location. Training camps were established near the Pak-Afghan border. Saudi Arabia used its religious stature and influence in the Islamic world to spread the slogan of holy war against the Soviets. Hundreds of thousands of Muslim motivated youth from all over the world were brought into FATA, where Pakistan and the CIA trained, equipped and launched them into Afghanistan to fight the ‘holy war’ against the Soviets. A chain of Deobandi madrassas (seminaries) was established across Pakistan. Religious figures and parties in Pakistan were funded with millions of dollars and given a huge central role to combat the Soviets in Afghanistan. This situation created a militancy culture in Pakistani society where every youth felt proud to own an AK-47 and be termed a mujahid (holy fighter). Deobandi seminaries, religious figures and parties with Pakistan’s security establishment backing were at the forefront to brainwash the youth for jihad. General Akhtar Abdur Rehman, being the mastermind of this ISI-CIA joint venture, broke the back of the USSR in Afghanistan through one of the best guerilla wars fought on earth.

The USSR withdrew from Afghanistan in 1988 while the US backed off, leaving various factions fighting each other. After the Soviet withdrawal, Pakistan kept supporting Pashtuns in Afghanistan against rival factions in the Afghan civil war. In 1996, the Taliban emerged on the Afghan scene with full Pakistani support. Religious students from Pakistan, trained during the Soviet war, also joined hands with the Taliban and captured the whole of Afghanistan. After the Soviet war, a huge number of fighters from various Arab and other countries permanently settled in FATA. They married women from various tribes and raised their families in the safe haven of FATA with arms and drugs being their primary source of income.

In 1979, Iranians brought about a successful revolution under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and established an Islamic state based on the Shia version of Islam. Pakistani Shia, inspired by the revolution, started a struggle against colonial powers operating against Islam and Pakistan. This was taken as a threat and, to counter the Iranian revolution, different sectarian outfits were created, emerging onto the scene in the 1980s. Saudi Arabia huge investment in seminaries, mosques and trusts in Pakistan contributed to sectarian hatred. This resulted in the worst form of sectarian bloodshed in the late 1980s and 1990s. Later, Iran supported the Northern Alliance while Saudi Arabia supported the Taliban in Afghanistan, resulting in a volatile situation between rival sects in Pakistan.

In the meanwhile, a militant movement kick-started in 1988 in Indian-held Kashmir. A significant number of fighters from the Soviet war joined hands with various Kashmiri outfits operating inside Indian-held Kashmir to fight the Indian forces. India accused Pakistan of waging a proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir. These outfits not only established their offices in Azad Kashmir but across Pakistan. This intensified the militancy culture and radicalised Pakistani society further. In return for working for the state’s strategic objectives, Pakistan’s security establishment gave the militants a free hand in Pakistan, resulting in sectarian violence in various parts of Pakistan.

Violence on an ethnic basis is one of the other reasons behind terrorism in Pakistan. Karachi, the economic capital and the backbone of the country’s economy, suffered most from this form of terrorism.

After 9/11, the US invaded Afghanistan in order to hunt down al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. Pakistan was forced to support the international coalition led by the US and its NATO allies against al Qaeda and the Taliban. After the fall of the Taliban government in Afghanistan in October 2001, a huge number of al Qaeda and Taliban militants moved to FATA for refuge. Military ruler General Musharraf left no stone unturned to make the US and western allies happy. He started a crackdown on various militant groups all across Pakistan. At the same time, Pakistan’s security establishment became unhappy with the US allowing India to increase its influence in Afghanistan. This created mistrust in the US-Pak relationship.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was created in 2007. Various militant outfits disgruntled with the Pakistani security establishment for parting ways with them and launching a crackdown on them, joined hands with the TTP, which provided an umbrella to sectarian outfits like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

The TTP is using the worst form of terror tactics including mass murder, bomb blasts, target killings, beheadings and suicide bombings. More than 60,000 Pakistanis, including security personnel, have lost their lives while the country’s economy has lost billions of dollars. The worst of all attacks was the barbaric and inhumane attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, 2014 in which 132 innocent children were killed. The Pakistan military launched massive operations in Swat, Bajaur, Khyber, North and South Waziristan and Orakzai Agency from 2008 to 2014 and broke the back of the TTP. The TTP’s top leadership was targeted through US drone attacks resulting in the deaths of Baitullah Mehsud and his successor Hakeemullah. The TTP is currently being led by Mullah Fazlullah, hailing from Swat and believed to be hidden in the Kunar and Nuristan areas of Afghanistan. The current military operation, Zarb-e-Azb, has further dismantled the terrorist network and hampered their capability to attack hard military targets inside Pakistan. Choosing a soft target like the Army Public School in Peshawar shows that the TTP is breathing its last and very soon the blood of innocent Pakistanis will triumph over the barbarians.

The writer is an IT professional and passionate writer and speaker. He can be contacted at meetkashi514@gmail.com