Daily Times

Terrorists who attacked the PNS Mehran on May 22 knew the ‘security blind spot’. At least that is what the Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the media soon after the operation. Further follow-up reports confirmed his observation. Now the entire media is asking how the terrorists knew about this ‘blind spot’.

The obvious conclusion is that the terrorists have some sympathisers inside the forces. This suspicion is further corroborated by the fact that the routes and timings of the naval buses, which came under attack a month ago, were seemingly also compromised by some insiders. The attackers on GHQ also had insiders with them. Musharraf’s assassination attempts were also done with insiders’ help. Salmaan Taseer was assassinated by his guard, abetted by his colleagues. So there is not one blind spot we are talking about. It seems that many people among our security establishment, politicians and journalists are ‘blind’ to the bigger reality.

How many more soldiers, law enforcing agencies’ jawans and civilians will have to give their blood to cure the ‘blindness’ of these officials, a section of politicians like Imran Khan, and journalists who are embedded with the establishment? They are blind because they cannot see that our security forces need spring-cleaning. The security forces should realise that jihad fi sabillillah (war in the way of Allah), which is their slogan, is also the slogan of the terrorist organisations in the country. As a matter of fact, they have been taught this by the establishment.

A 35-feet blind spot at the PNS Mehran can be covered to stop further physical intrusion of the terrorists. But the intrusion of the ideology of jihad and establishing the ‘Islamic Emirate of Pakistan’ or an ‘Islamic khilafat’ (caliphate) in Pakistan cannot be stopped by any operational security measures. The model for this Islamic ‘emirate’ or a ‘khilafat’ is that of the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan.

What is not recognised at the civil-military policy-making level is that while the military is selectively fighting the terrorist organisations and thousands of our security personnel have been martyred, they have not challenged the ideology of jihad. Thousands of mosques, madrassas and religious organisations are preaching jihad against the west and its allied governments in the Muslim countries. Are we not blind to this glaring fact?

Except for the PPP, ANP and MQM, others do not even have the courage to stand up to condemn the jihadi ideology, which is fuelling the killing of thousands of Pakistanis. Just look back at the May 2 incident. Only the PPP and ANP had the courage to say that Osama was the enemy of the people of Pakistan and that al Qaeda has damaged the Muslims’ image around the world.

The military establishment and right-wing politicians instead turned the debate to the violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty by the American choppers. Then all the media started beating the ‘effect’ — the US intrusion — and completely underplayed ‘the cause’. Osama had also violated the sovereignty of Pakistan. His al Qaeda ideology fuelled terrorist organisations have caused more damage to Pakistan than any other foreign power.

The literate uneducated journalists, religious parties, and a section of lawyers offered prayers for Osama, ‘honoured’ the murderer of Salmaan Taseer, and organised dharnas (sit-ins) against drone attacks, but these blind people did not see the killings of the 95, including 69 young Frontier Constabulary (FC) recruits, in Shabqadar, or the 12 soldiers and technicians who laid down their life at the PNS Mehran.

Now they have also a theory expounded by Imran Khan and some religious parties. They claim that Pakistan is suffering from terrorism because we decided to join hands with the US administration after 9/11. Let us analyse Imran Khan first. He can be given the latitude of ignorance because when Pakistan had started this war in early 1979, he was playing cricket. And when he came back he landed in the hands of people who gave him a tainted history lesson. Pakistan had started sending armed infiltrators into Afghanistan even before the 1978 Saur Revolution led by the left-leaning Khalq and Parcham parties. These parties were responsible for abolishing the monarchy in Afghanistan and supported Daud to overthrow King Zahir Shah. Afghanistan had remained under Russian influence from the times of the Czar. It was training, arming and funding of Hekmatyar and other so-called mujahideen that destabilised the progressive Afghan government and sucked the Soviet army into the war. The Soviet army had come on the invitation of the Afghan government. It was only after the Soviets came in that General Ziaul Haq lured the US to support the intrusion (read Charlie Wilson’s War).

Zia and religious parties led by the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) were US allies then. The JI and other religious parties were divorced by the US once the Soviet Union imploded and the Cold War was over. So when the Americans ask why they are against us, they should know better: it is the divorced wife’s bickering.

A question can be asked here that if we were wrong to wage war against Afghanistan jointly with the US in the 1980s, then how are we right now to side with Washington’s war in Afghanistan? We should remember that Najibullah’s government survived about three years after the Soviet forces left. But we were the ones who trained and funded the Taliban to take over the government. We opposed the Afghan government, which wanted to turn its country into a modern democratic state, and imposed a Taliban government, which could only give them primitive medievalism.

And when it came to choosing sides, the same protégé Taliban government sacrificed relations with Pakistan and the future of Afghans to save Osama — a champion of a permanent Islamic revolution. We then started playing the double game and gave protection to the Taliban who are till today intruding into Afghanistan. They are the cause of the drone attacks. Sir, you remove them, these attacks will stop.

We continue to dangerously mix religion with politics. The Pakistani establishment also started using jihadi organisations to destabilise India — a major mistake because it was bound to boomerang sooner than later. So the people who think that terrorism is because of drone attacks and our involvement in Afghanistan should not blindfold themselves with narrow nationalistic gauze. They should face the reality that Pakistan is undoubtedly directly and indirectly involved in terrorist activities in our neighbourhood, using the jihadi ideology. The same ideology has been turned by the terrorist groups into the belief that the Pakistani establishment is a renegade of the Islamic jihadi movement. The same ideology is providing the terrorists support from within our security establishment.

So what is to be done? The security establishment should shun the jihadi ideology and support to such groups, closely monitor that in the name of preaching Islam its rank and file is not indoctrinated with hate mongering, and purge the supporters of these organisations. The politicians should take the ideological challenge and develop a communication strategy scientifically to convince the people that the terrorists have declared war against Pakistanis using religion, and that we have to stand united for building a modern, democratic secular Pakistan. This is not a war against terrorism; it is defending Pakistanis from terrorism. Nothing short of that will work now.

The writer can be reached at ayazbabar@gmail.com