At dawn, on Sunday June 15, 2014, the Pakistan government gave the green signal to over 30,000 ground troops backed by air force jets to move into action in North Waziristan. This is the beginning of a long talked about and awaited military operation against the many and numerous Islamic terrorist outfits that have been wreaking havoc throughout the country for almost three decades. The terrorist attack on Karachi airport in the preceding week seems to have been the final straw. However, irrespective of various spins and gloss from Sharif and his coteries, it was the ‘generals’ who decided ‘enough is enough’. The reasons for the top brass to ultimately break the stalemate are many. Perhaps the most forceful and compelling reason was the pressure building up within the ranks of the military due to increasing numbers of casualties, the increasingly eroding military credibility in society, immoral and ill-gotten wealth of the top brass, the elite giving rise to unprecedented inequality and the fallout from the shooting of a controversial television anchor near Karachi airport.
According to a military spokesperson, 167 individuals, including the Uzbek mastermind Abu Abdul Rehman al-Maani believed to have helped orchestrate the five-hour Karachi airport siege, were thought to be among the dead along with many Uzbek and other foreign and local commanders. There is a mass exodus of civilians coming out of North Waziristan, a vast majority of whom are heading towards an already war-torn Afghanistan.
The political establishment across the spectrum has come out in support, with the PPP leading the loud chorus, closely followed by the religious right including the proscribed Islamic groups, with their guns blazing and calling for the military’s might to eliminate terrorism. Imran Khan’s PTI looked quite awkward when its ‘core committee’ announced its support for this operation. After the judiciary’s restoration movement in 2007, this is yet another occasion where the conservatives, liberals, the secularists, the Islamists and the so-called left and the extreme right wing have shown astonishing solidarity for the sake of their country. These air-conditioned politicos mistakenly think the military operation will surgically wipe out the terrorist networks. This shows the level of their understanding of the crisis this country is afflicted with and the catastrophic socio-economic conflagration the society is mired in.
Despite the mantra of the first ever handover of a civilian regime and deepening of democracy, the presence of the army is more visible and glaring in all cities and towns of Pakistan than even during the periods of martial law. As soon as the operation started, the scenes in the country were reminiscent of the declaration and imposition of martial laws in the past. Military vehicles and Armoured Personal Carriers (APCs) are patrolling all the major cities and towns with numerous checkpoints making day-to-day movement of ordinary people a cumbersome affair. The media moguls have given instructions for patriotic and nationalist songs with many anchors vociferously beating the drums of chauvinistic sentiment as if the country has gone to war.
The present rulers are terrified despite having a massive security apparatus. Their cowardice is perhaps best expressed by the lions of Punjab, the Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif personally visiting the Lahore Garrison Corps Commander to provide him military protection in his palatial mansions in Model Town, Lahore. His police force of 196,000 personnel, which has terrorised the ordinary working population of the province, seems inadequate. Islamabad’s security, where the elder brother is the third time prime minister, has already been handed over to the military.
This is not the first time the Pakistani military has declared an operation. There have been several just in this region. Most were aborted for reasons known only to the ruling elites. The military operation in Balochistan has inflicted horrendous brutalities both by the state and non-state actors. The Shia and Sunni proxies supported by the Iranian and Saudi oligarchies for their own designs are shedding Pakistani blood. However, it is mainly the Hazara Shias that are the most brutalised victims and have been mercilessly butchered by the Islamic sectarian beasts. The state has not only failed to protect but, according to some, is encouraging this horrid carnage. The situation in Karachi is far worse with numerous military and paramilitary operations over the years. The military operations are everywhere in one form or another but in the recent period they have become more frequent and bloody with ever increasing pressures and tensions within the state. The military has fought three disastrous wars, imposed four dictatorships and directly ruled the country for more than 50 percent of the country’s rather short but extremely chequered history. The only thing they achieved is greater suffering and intensified crisis in society. However, if the military has proved to be a disappointment for the rulers of this country, their democracies have been even bigger failures.
North Waziristan is rightly described as the centre of gravity of terrorism. Groups like Gul Bahadur, the Haqqani network (good Taliban), the so-called TTP, East Turkmenistan Islamic Movement led by the Uzbeks, remnants of al Qaeda and al Arab terrorists (bad Taliban) are running bloody havoc. The relations of these groups with the army, the US and other regional and imperialist powers have been dodgy and deceitful with changing loyalties and affiliations. Their main sources of revenue are extortion, the drug trade, kidnapping and ransom, and other criminal activities. It is fear that guarantees the booty and hence they all are competing with the state and amongst themselves using more heinous, cruel and inhuman acts of terror. It is precisely because of this that the multinational companies, imperialist and regional states make deals and contracts with them for their financial and strategic policies and interests. Hence their connections with certain sections of the state that have now vowed to obliterate them are not so concealed anymore. This operation will not be a straightforward military campaign, difficult to differentiate between friend and foe. After all, this has been the dilemma of the good and the bad Taliban that has been haunting and convulsing the establishment for decades now. It will be a long, protracted and internecine war that has very remote chances of reaching any clear and decisive solution or conclusion.
And if this operation fails what will happen then? The political elite is not only oblivious to that — they cannot even dare to think about it. These billionaires and brats are not the ones who are suffering. It is the workers and the poor who are the victims of this fundamentalist and economic terrorism being inflicted upon them by the system and the ruling classes through their state apparatus. When these toiling masses arise in a class war they will have no way but to do away with this whole edifice of plunder, tyranny, exploitation and terrorism. To accomplish this they will have to carry out a revolutionary insurrection to obliterate the system.
The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and international secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at [email protected]