November
15, 2007
Surge of Violence 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. Dozens of suicide
blasts have occurred one on almost the heels of
another.
Thanks to the alertness of the security forces,
several 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 Bazaar of
Peshawar killing 13 people including six police
officers. Earlier, a car bomber killed two soldiers
in the remote town of Tank.
An 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 above-cited 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 gun-ships
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 gun-ships 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 to eradicate 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 perhaps
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 check
post 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.
The Musharraf-Benazir deal incorporated into the
National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) of October
5, 2007 has roiled further the security environment.
Brokered by the US with the help of the UK, the
NRO has enabled Benazir to enter the scenario and
indulge in an anti-Musharraf campaign instead of,
as visualized by the US, initiating a cooperative
move to eradicate the Taliban and Al Qaeda from
the frontier region. The bomb blast on October 18
at her cavalcade in Karachi claimed 140 lives with
almost 500 injured. Benazir excels in opposition
and turns out to be a disaster when in government.
Musharraf seems unable to call it a day. The two
make the oddest couple.
The “embarrassingly immoral” NRO has
unleashed forces that might cause a lot more death
and destruction. Let us hope that all-round saner
councils would prevail and the transition to democracy
would be as peaceful as foreseen by the external
friends of Pakistan. arifhussaini@hotmail.com
