Killing at Will
By Dr Mahjabeen Islam
Toledo, Ohio
The
Pakistan Army is not defending its people
these days; it is killing them on government
orders. Eighty students in a madrassa
were killed by an air strike by the
Pakistan Army on the pretext that it
housed terrorists. The Pakistan parliament
was not taken into confidence. Army
spokesman Shaukat Sultan claims no women
and children were killed, but the Washington
Post quotes families claiming their
dead, ages 7 and 10.
Bajaur is a blighted place indeed. In
January 2006 an air strike by the United
States on sovereign Pakistani territory
in the village of Damadola in Bajaur
claimed the lives of 18 Pakistani civilians.
The Americans had information that Aiman
Al-Zawahiri was to dine there that night.
The guest who was coming to dinner was
a no-show, but 18 innocent people, women
and children included, were killed in
his stead.
To underscore the air strike on the
madrassa by the Pakistan Army at 5 a.m.
Monday October 30, 2006, one must consider
the statements made after the January
attack. The Associated Press quoted
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz as saying
the totally unconscionable: “People
were angry about the air strike”,
Aziz acknowledged, "but then they
also realize the US is a big power and
we need to work together to build for
peace and build for development."
The strike was on the eve of Aziz’s
visit to the United States and when
there was a call for him to cancel his
visit in protest, he said, “The
air strikes are regrettable, but Pakistan
needs investment."
Shaukat Aziz did go to the United States
soon thereafter; after all, he was to
be the first Pakistani to ring the bell
that opens the New York Stock Exchange.
True to the Pakistani spirit of “what’s
in it for me” while principle
lies bleeding by the wayside. In an
amusing twist, though, he looked like
the man with the reverse Midas touch,
for the stock market took a nosedive,
the worst one-day fall in years, hitting
only the headlines as it plummeted.
There was no summons to the American
ambassador to Islamabad, no demand for
even a token apology for flagrant violation
of international law, giving credence
to the feeling that Pakistan is truly
an instrument of American hegemony.
The Associated Press reported that Prime
Minister Shaukat Aziz condemned America's
January 13 air strike in Bajaur Agency,
saying such attacks should be cleared
with Islamabad first. Should one take
that to mean that American air strikes
on Pakistani civilians are fine, provided
Islamabad approves?
After the January air strikes, there
was a storm of protest in Pakistan,
minimal in the United States, but perhaps
enough that the Pakistan government
pleaded with the Americans to allow
the Pakistanis to do their dirty work.
Monday was the first day that the students
in the madrassa had returned after the
Eid-ul-Fitr holiday. The strike was
at the break of dawn; it is heartrending
to see television footage of line after
line of bodies draped in bloodied sheets.
Men appear to be carrying what seem
to be children.
There is craziness and then there is
brazen insanity. Several weeks before
the murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti, Musharraf
had made the claim that the Baluch would
not know what hit them.
It is vital not to clothe Pakistan as
having a parliament and some democratic
leanings. It is the rule of one man,
who thinks that the one thing that previous
military rule did not give to Pakistan,
in the form of freedom of the press,
gives him free reign. Pardon the cliché
but the stakes are steadily rising.
Musharraf’s modus operandi seems
to be to kill first and explain later.
Altaf Hussain of the MQM has requested
an independent inquiry into the madrassa
killings. Akbar Bugti will not return,
nor will the students of Madrassa Zia-ul-Uloom.
Musharraf will count on the inquiry
being swallowed by the monster called
bureaucracy and the slime of smooth
talk.
Army spokesman Shaukat Sultan stated
that the madrassa was given notice to
close and did not heed it. Western media
report that a few days earlier the madrassa
students and their leader Maulana Liaquat
Ali participated in a 3000 strong rally
in support of Osama bin Laden and Mullah
Mohammad Umar.
MMA leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad veers
off quite frequently. But this time
his claim that American helicopters
killed the madrassa students requires
examination. The American eye-in-the-sky
watches Pakistan almost microscopically.
If the benefit of the doubt is to be
given and there was terrorist training
at the madrassa, who is the primary
beneficiary of its decimation? There
has been quite a chorus in the United
States that Musharraf was not doing
enough to reign in the terrorists. The
world is a cruel survival-of-the-fittest
story. This madrassa murder thrown at
the American lion should suffice for
a few months. Perhaps the Americans
were explicit in their choice: it is
either the madrassas or Musharraf.
The “kill first and explain later”
modus has placed the entire 170 million
population of Pakistan at extreme risk.
Any activity or supposed activity that
kindles the ire of General Musharraf,
can be dealt with the alacrity he has
promised in “they won’t
know what hit them” promise.
Neighboring India is the world’s
largest democracy and even Bangladesh
is holding on to democracy, and power
has not been usurped by the Army. Like
Bajaur, Pakistan seems blighted, and
forever betrothed to dictators.
Qazi Hussain Ahmed wagged his finger
and called this madrassa air strike
“tantamount to a war on Pakistan
”. The chilling concept is that
the people of sovereign Pakistan are
not being killed by American missiles
alone; the government of Pakistan is
a willing instrument of killing the
civilians it is sworn to protect. Without
due process, and, at will.
(Mahjabeen Islam is a physician and
freelance columnist residing in Toledo
Ohio. Her email is mahjabeenislam@hotmail.com)
