Daily Times

Sir: Recently I engaged in a Twitter debate which revealed to me just how short some people’s memory spans are. The person I was debating was convinced that since the United States (US) had killed Maulana Fazlullah through a drone strike, he must have been an ally of Pakistan.

I reminded him of the many crimes the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had committed against Pakistan, including perpetrating the Army Public School (APS) massacre and playing football with the decapitated heads of executed Pakistani soldiers. He argued that these crimes had only taken place because the Pakistan army had attacked them first, yet he still called himself a supporter of the Pakistan army!

It is because of narratives like these that we have lost so many people to the scourge of terrorism. As a nation, we have become blinded by a jingoist national narrative. We are willing to forget the crimes perpetrated against our children as long as the criminal is willing to kill Indians and Americans as well. This can only be called hate-fuelled insanity. Nothing justifies the murder of innocent civilians, especially children.

Maulana Fazlullah was an enemy of Pakistan and a child-murderer. To call such a man an ally is disgraceful, and in my opinion our security agencies should keep a close eye on people who are willing to whitewash his atrocities.

IMRAN BUTT

Lahore

Published in Daily Times, June 25^th 2018.