Daily Times

Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise; the Peshawar school massacre snapped the Pakistani nation awake from its slumber, jolting it out of the apathy that had been built over the years with regards to the victims of the attacks who were even stopped from being seen as human beings in the minds of the people and were just reduced to mere numbers associated with each incidence.

Five died in Quetta one day, 20 in Peshawar on another, followed by 30 in Lahore. Bomb blasts took place everywhere at regular intervals with impunity and without the fear of any retaliation from the state, which slept with its large, well-trained military and a powerful, ubiquitous spy agency. As ironic as it may sound, the truth was that the only place safe in those days was not Islamabad or Rawalpindi, not even the GHQ, rather it was Miran Shah in the North Waziristan Agency!

People assumed that they could win over the hearts and minds of the extremists through negotiations and that everything would return to normal once the US withdrew from Afghanistan. True, the army under the current leadership (as opposed to the previous one) hit back after every assault with aerial bombings on terror hideouts and had already set foot in North Waziristan after the failure of the federal government’s initiative to resume talks. The nation, however, did not seem to have grasped a clear picture of who its enemy indeed was, whether they were freedom fighters, mujahideen, revolutionists or some rogue criminals, members of violent sectarian outfits or pure psychopaths. The pendulum of opinion swung to both sides, sometimes skewed more towards the former and at other times inching towards the latter.

Religious parties, out of their blatant anti-US stance or because of their past associations with ‘comrades’ called terrorists freedom fighters — as if by killing Pakistanis they were liberating Afghanistan. Some misguided politicians joined them too and blamed the drone attacks — through them the US — as the only reason for the escalating insurgency. To my surprise, the news media, instead of educating the nation and sharing the actual situation with it, just fostered the confusion to grow deeper. The establishment was probably busy smoking cigarettes or maybe using its mighty muscle to get another extension. A fog of mass confusion enveloped the whole country blinding its people from seeing the reality that extremism had gained roots in society and that the evil of religious intolerance was spreading, creeping into the educated middle class.

The Peshawar incident swept every bit of confusion away from people’s minds leaving them with, for the first time, not fear of the mujahideen or the ‘holy warriors’, but anger and rage. It compelled them to stop being cowardly, to stand up against the terrorists — if not for themselves then at least for their children — and initiate a comprehensive operation against the barbarians who, by killing children, had stooped to the lowest levels of humanity, an act of pure savagery.

Calling it a grave tragedy does not suffice what went through people’s minds that day, their faces darkened, hearts wrestling to tear open their rib cages. It felt as though someone had knocked them to the ground, their hands and legs tied, slit their throats, ripped open their chests, yanked out their hearts and sliced them into pieces with a blunt knife, every piece representing a child.

Looking at the people’s response, anyone who has ever assisted or supported a terrorist organization — what to talk about planning or financing — should have faced the law, the army courts, an expedited trial and even capital punishment. If he resists the agencies, execution should take place at the place of arrest, no questions asked. In other words, the people provided the military with full legal authority and political support to arrest or kill anyone, anywhere in the country upon suspicion of terrorist activities. They hoped the administration would rain down on the sectarian outfits like a spewing machine gun. But what people noticed was that the action against them was more or less like a trickle, drop by drop, a leader killed here and the other one arrested there. In no way, that action could be compared to how the military proceeded in Karachi against the MQM.

This has been the concern all along. But no one seems to know the answer. At best, they say they do not want to stretch their forces too thin. Sure, but is that an explanation? In the absence of a good response, gossip has erupted and conspiracy theories have been concocted. People talk about the establishment’s plans of a different nature. They explain the reason these groups still exist with their intact infrastructure is to persuade them to keep the focus of their ‘activities’ once again on neighbouring countries.

I hope these rumours, despite the rise of the Taliban, are not true because irrespective of what goes on in Afghanistan and Indian-held Kashmir, it needs to be made clear to the people in power that the children who died in the Army Public School (APS) technically are still alive, watching us. Any policy that supports religious extremism, one way or another, whether it is to secure a foreign policy objective in the east or to create a friendly Afghanistan to the west, will be a great disservice to them and to their parents. The nation stands behind its institutions to root out radicalism once and forever. They realise the ‘good’ Taliban can turn bad anytime and wreak havoc throughout the country. So, it is the patriotic duty of every officer to provide the nation with what they have promised in return. Any deviation from that is not acceptable and is unpatriotic.

The writer is a US-based freelance columnist. He tweets at @KaamranHashmi and can be reached at skamranhashmi@gmail.com