Daily Times

Never say never again. Somethings are just not in your hands at all. Our people barely passed through the painful first anniversary of the Army Public School (APS) massacre and now another school has been attacked. Granted, this time around, it was an institution of higher learning. Ironically, this was a university named after an exemplary, non-violent man.The signature of the attack and its standard procedures are fairly common in this terror-stricken land. While the overzealous media will remain on the scene for a few more days, dissect the events to the nth degree and beat every previously repeated reason to pulp, nothing substantial will come out of it.

Pardon my straightforward scepticism but I have reasons for that. I find myself a bit less agitated and frustrated because I detach myself from the circus on the tube. The same goes for social media, where I find a lot of similar nonsense from every quarter. Everyone tends to be an expert on something and all this expertise means nothing. It has zero impact on the people who breach security checkpoints to cause havoc and embark on their suicidal path. There are countless people, perhaps in that state of mind, ready to go to the other side, perhaps just waiting for the green light to act.

The poor premier of this baffled and enraged nation has to read the script like a novice actor trying to audition for lines that are just not meant for him. The poor guy reads the script, hoping that it will be accepted without the ruthless declaration of “cut” from the executive director. Again, the script is very predictable and stale; it promises a future that no one has seen and contains the magical “will” and “shall” that perhaps have lost their meaning.

The executive director is a no nonsense director with no patience for retakes. He has too much to his credit, a whole theatre of offense and on crucial fronts. With all this prowess and experience under his belt, he seems a bit puzzled too. The year has begun with too much action and too many strikes of ferociousness. All of this is perhaps a blowback of the much-talked-about Operation Decisive Strike.

The virulent enemies who were pushed towards the other side by the much-touted operation have regrouped and regained energy to make a deadly comeback. Cult followers and the know it all experts on our social media have issued the verdict of how all dots seem to point towards the statements of the National Security Advisor (NSA) of the neighbouring country. You wonder, why I try to stay away from that media too, predominantly because of the dime a dozen patriotic analysts who very dull-wittedly encapsulate current affairs in less than 140 characters.

Tributes to the martyrs of these incidents become the order of the day. I am sorry; I am equally sad about the tragic loss of life but certainly do not subscribe to this martyrdom business. The people who are killing other people mercilessly consider themselves to be martyrs. The people being killed posthumously earn the title of martyrs as well. The jokers holding the microphone in their hands with a rolling camera in the background want the next of kin to share their thoughts on the martyrdom of their loved ones.

I do not know about you but as a parent I can express this much: I certainly do not plan on sending my children to a school or university to become a martyr. I would rather have my children carry me when my time is done here. The tube may find some young lad to do another number paying rich tributes to the new martyrs with some catchy song. The video will be a well-crafted consolation for many broken hearts. At least their loved ones gave their lives for a noble cause. With all due respect to the pundits and experts on and off-screen, would they kindly elaborate what that cause really is? So, please, for heaven’s sake stop passing on these glorious titles for the sake of contrived sorrow. Find ways to understand and feel the pain of an aggrieved family member by offering solutions that prevent such ruthless events from being repeated.

The fact remains that confusion still reigns supreme in many quarters. The narrative just gets more convoluted with these incidents. Undoubtedly, action on the ground is necessary to face the ugly monster but ideologically there is still confusion. Apologists find their way to create and foster that confusion. As a crucial and extremely critical step, until and unless these apologists are handled with a total boycott, opinions will remain muddled. As mentioned a few times in the past, the ruthless foe is cleverer than the chosen representatives of the people. These people know how to manipulate sentiments by using religion as a ploy. Chances are that the suckers will not understand this no matter how much blood is spilt of the helpless and the innocent.

The writer is a Pakistani-US mortgage banker. He can be reached at dasghar@aol.com. He tweets at http://twitter.com/dasghar