Daily Times

Extremism is a state of mind in which a person believes that his interpretations of the ground reality and his prescriptions for improving it are the only correct ones and all others are misguided or wicked. He becomes a militant when he tells people that they will deserve to be wiped out if they do not agree with him. If he attacks the existing establishment and its installations, he is engaged in an act of war. When he kills uninvolved non-combatants indiscriminately to spread fear and chaos and cause the impression that the existing political and social order cannot protect the citizen’s life and property, he is acting as a terrorist. In Pakistan at this time, two organisations, the Taliban and al Qaeda, answer this description. They have declared war against the state of Pakistan as well as the US. They are resorting to acts of terrorism in pursuing this war. Osama bin Laden was the founder and director of al Qaeda. He was also the central figure in planning and carrying out the 9/11 (2001) attacks on New York City and Washington DC.

President Obama and most Americans were pleased to hear that Osama had been killed by a group of American servicemen in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011. He declared the US’s determination to eliminate al Qaeda’s stations and functionaries in Pakistan. The government of Pakistan, on its part, perceiving al Qaeda as an enemy, has agreed to be the US’s partner in this campaign. Within a day or two of Osama’s death, al Qaeda leaders announced that they intended to avenge his ‘murder’ and they did so. A small group of its operatives forced their way into a naval base in Karachi, destroyed two very sophisticated airplanes that were parked there, seized a building, fired grenades at various targets in the compound, and engaged Pakistani military personnel in combat that lasted more than 16 hours. Four of them were killed and an unknown number fled after they had killed 10 soldiers.

Al Qaeda is a weird organisation. It is multi-national in its composition. Its operatives do not all come from the same ethnic and linguistic background. They are held together by the bonds of a common ideology, which is their own version of Islam. In Pakistan they do not have towns and homes that they can call their own. They do not speak the local languages. They are stationed at places as the Taliban’s guests who provide them living space, food, and other amenities. Some of their leading men may stay in one location for extended periods of time but most of them move from place to place. It is not easy to get hold of them. It is said that they have covertly spread to various towns from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa all the way to Karachi. American and Pakistani agents may be able to kill their top men but it would be extremely difficult to eradicate them as a political force. They are likely to remain as an item of unfinished business in President Obama’s agenda. It should be noted also that al Qaeda functions as a think tank that decides the targets that are to be hit, conveys this decision to the Taliban who then do the actual hitting.

Terrorism has haunted Pakistan more than any other country in the world. The fight against it has cost the lives of more than 5,000 soldiers and 30,000 civilians. The Taliban and al Qaeda who have mounted most of these terrorist attacks say that they will continue to hit targets of their choosing. Barely a week passes without some deadly attack taking place. The Pakistan army and law enforcement agencies have been fighting the Taliban for several years and have diminished their numbers and capability. But there are still enough of them to pose a serious threat to the state and its good order. It is possible also that they are able to replenish their losses by recruiting young people coming out of the seminaries. What is to be done then? There are pockets of support for Taliban and al Qaeda within Pakistani society. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad share their ideological orientation. They are all extremist organisations. The government of Pakistan has banned them but that has not put them out of circulation. They have resurfaced under different names and their leading men continue to do their work.

Government spokesmen, opposition leaders and organs of civil society, notably the media barons, all condemn terrorism. But it is also said that while the army and the intelligence agencies at their higher levels want to liquidate terrorist organisations, some of their subordinates are sympathetic to them. They do not fully implement the orders to battle them. These functionaries need to be identified and removed. Certain elements within the Islamic parties and the PML-N also have a soft corner for the Taliban and like-minded groups. The party leaders concerned should ask such supporters to clean up their act or leave. Terrorism in Pakistan has assumed frightful proportions and it will not wither away nor disappear unless a ruthless and comprehensive campaign to abolish it is undertaken.

President Ronald Reagan of the US maintained that extremism in defence of liberty was not a bad idea. Even that position might bear scrutiny. But the extremists in Pakistan are not liberators; they are here to destroy our institutions and way of life and impose upon us an ideological tyranny. They and we cannot coexist.

The writer, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, is a visiting professor at the Lahore School of Economics. He can be reached at anwarsyed@cox.net