By Syed Arif Hussaini

February 16, 2007

Surge in Suicide Blasts in Pakistan

Being a frontline state in the war on terror, Pakistan has been a victim of terrorist attacks since 9/11. But, they were sporadic and did not attract much concern with the exception of those that targeted Gen. Pervez Musharraf. He has given a graphic account of these in his book: In The Line Of Fire.
Since the last week of January 07, however, there has been an unusual surge in the frequency and magnitude of suicide blasts in the country. Half a dozen suicide blast have occurred one on almost the heels of another.
Thanks to the alertness of the security forces, the attacks were intercepted and virtually aborted and the loss of life was much less than it could have been had they reached their intended targets.
A bomber blew himself up at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on January 26, killing the security guard who checked and stopped him from entering the hotel through a side entrance. The hotel is the venue for meetings of the elite of the capital and foreign dignitaries. Had the bomber managed to sneak in, he might have harmed several of them.
The very next day of the Islamabad incident, another suicide attacker blew himself up near the entrance of a mosque in the crowded Qissa Khawni Bazar of Peshawar killing 13 people, including six police officers. Earlier, a car bomber killed two soldiers in the remote town of Tank.
The latest evil attempt was made on February 6 by a terrorist at the Islamabad Airport who tried to enter the VIP lounge but was intercepted by the security guards and was killed in the ensuing firefight.
All the incidents, it may be mentioned, took place in the Frontier Province and the Federal capital. And, the army appears to have become the chief target of the militants.
These developments may be traced back to the aerial attacks on a Madrassa (religious school) in the tribal area of Bajur on October 30, 2006 that was suspected to have been the clandestine training center of militants. Eighty residents of the place were killed in the operation. Local residents suspected the US drones, the pilot less aircrafts, to have made the attacks and the Pakistani helicopter gunships to have subsequently accepted the responsibility for the attack. In all probability, the army received information about the exact location of the center through US intelligence and its gunships carried out the attacks. But, an incorrect perception developed about the subservience of Pakistan army to US dictates that generated strong emotions of retaliation against the army.
The suicide bombing at the Pakistan Army training center at Damola Agency in the same region was the first act of revenge. It killed 42 soldiers. The militants accuse Pakistani leadership of kowtowing to American dictates. The militants’ commander, Baitullah Mahsud, is reported to have said: “Musharraf is bombing and killing his own people at the behest of the US.”
Ironically enough, the Afghan leadership and the US and NATO commanders in Afghanistan maintain that Gen. Musharraf is not doing enough to clamp down on the suspected sanctuaries of Taliban in the tribal belt. A resolution already passed by the US House of Reps makes military aid to Pakistan subject to a certification by the President that the state was fulfilling its obligation for eradicating terrorism from its soil.
The US and Afghanistan opposed Musharraf’s peace agreements with the elders of North and South Waziristan since they viewed these agreements as providing sanctuaries to the Taliban. Violations of the agreements have rendered them ineffective even before they could take roots and sprout.
The crucial point to be considered is whether in the 21st century a nation can be subjugated and kept under the heel through the 19th century gunboat diplomacy. The answer has already been provided by the situation in Iraq. The guns silenced Zarqawi, but the insurgency has gathered momentum. It turned into a sectarian conflict with scores of bodies turning up every day in the streets of Baghdad and elsewhere. Yet, peace is but a dream and American soldiers continue getting killed every day. It is a battle for the minds of the people in both Iraq and Afghanistan and it can hardly be won through the barrel of the gun.
Seen from this viewpoint, the peace accords with militants in North Waziristan in September 2005 and a similar deal with the militants and elders of South Waziristan in February 2006 were laudable steps in the right direction. Peace had returned to the volatile region. The two Waziristans, which lie at the southern end of Pakistan’s tribal belt, pose the greatest security threat among Pakistan’s seven Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
The sabotage of the agreements started with a rare suicide car bomb attack in North Waziristan in which four soldiers and a woman passer-by were killed on January 22, 2007. A white Pajero jeep, carrying explosives, rammed an army convoy at Khajori checkpost near the town of Mir Ali.
While Musharraf was trying to cope with this situation, several fanatic Mullahs of the country came out with religious edicts upholding suicide bombings as permissible in a situation where there was no alternative. Actually they drew inspiration from an edict (fatwa) of the prominent Arab jurist, Yusuf Qardawi, who now lives in Qatar, that suicide was permissible in a situation of extreme injustice. But, the Qur’an unequivocally bans suicide. And, a few years back a conference of Muslim jurists in Amman, Jordan, had come out with a declaration emphatically excoriating terrorism and suicide bombings in all circumstances.
Pakistan’s religious political parties, components of the MMA, are unfortunately openly anti-American; so are the Imams and religious scholars. Their views are perhaps conditioned by the US role in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That has rendered the task of Musharraf regime unenviable. Pakistan just cannot afford to alienate the people of the tribal belt. Nor, can it afford to alienate the US.
President Musharraf has shown his skills in handling delicate situations. One hopes that he would be able to find a balance between the two pulls.
- arifhussaini@hotmail.com

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