PESHAWAR MASSACRE ZARB E AZB
FALLOUT OR PAKISTANS PERPETUAL SECURITY DILEMMA By Adfar Shah
The recent horrible massacre of 132 school children and some staff
members in Peshawar by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) reflects nothing else
but Pakistan’s consistent failure of tackling terror. That said, the larger
question that remains is whether South Asian giants like India, China or
Pakistan are seriously thinking of uprooting terrorism together or just willing
to keep witnessing one horror after another without any idea of working in
cooperation. Such a horrible incident reflects the use of violence in its
absolute form by small numbers (terrorists) against Pakistan’s most powerful
institution — the Army, as the school hit was an Army-run school — and the act
was clearly in retribution to the Army’s role in the Zarb-e-Azb operation that
has killed hundreds of guerrillas in North Waziristan and the ongoing operation
Khyber 1 that is haunting terrorists in he KPK belt.
The fact remains that after the Zarb-e-Azb siege, the Islamist TTP was
in suffering an existential and identity crisis fearing that their
pseudo-identity might vanish fast from the frontiers. Therefore, by committing
such a massacre they were in a way justifying their socio-political space and
reassuming for themselves the role as significant stakeholders in the power
conflict game in the frontier regions. Reasons that can be for why TTP
butchered innocent children is obviously found in their (TTP’s) own statement
that says, “We want them (army and the establishment) to feel the pain” as
Zarb-e-Azb has caused pain to TTP families. Secondly, such attacks are always a
success for terrorists as Pakistan thus remains a country governed by two
dichotomous institutions that is the, government and the army leading to a
perpetual political and policy chaos. The Army and the government have hardly
reached a consensus on the methodology of tackling terror and have failed in
both negotiations and the siege.
Thirdly, now even massacres have turned a sick sort of fashion since
ISIS started slaughtering humans in lined in queues in Iraq, and the killing of
hundreds may have turned into yet another craze among the guerrillas in
Pakistan who are taking inspiration from their Middle East terrorist friends.
The other fact is that Pakistan’s security apparatus is not learning
anything from its violent past where it witnessed the brutal killings of people
like former PM Benazir Bhutto, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, Minister Shahbaz
Bhatti, thousands of Shia Muslims and scores of other innocent human beings at
the hands of terrorists.
Unless and until Pakistan does devise a practicable and massive counter
terrorism apparatus (first by shunning its support in the process of exporting
terror to neighbors) with maximum public support, operations like Zarb-e-Azb or
Khyber 1 will yield bitter experiences such as the recent school massacre
(including threats to the children of politicians). It would not be wrong to
say that there are still some Pakistani sections of society that support
extremist tendencies which is thereby gradually shaping an alarming
geography of terror, radicalism and chaos.
The idea of domestic war on terror in
Pakistan has gradually turned to the domesticpyaar (love) of
terror — and the state, despite being the worst hit, has not stopped its
vicious instrument of supporting terror toward her neighbors. The lessons that
should be learned from such a heavy fallout of Zarb-e-Azb are firstly, that
women and children of even the opposite fighters (militants) must be
safeguarded and not harassed by Army. Also the State should not give up on
talks, and briskly prefer direct attacking on guerrillas for such an ideology
creates an unending atmosphere of revenge — and we should remember that such
people don’t even care about their own lives. The third lesson that should be
learned is that the major intelligence agencies around the world should
cooperate in tackling terror for the sake of humanity.
The need of the hour in Pakistan is to prefer fruitful negotiations over
visionless and abrupt army operations or hasty executions. The time is ripe to
join hands with the other Asian powers to develop a workable policy on tackling
terror in South Asia along with supporting the global war on terror (GWOT), but
not without conditions.
From the Peshawar massacre it is obvious that Pakistan as a state has
also brutally failed in perception management in her vulnerable frontiers and
the issues of social injustice, human rights abuse, state apathy, lack of reach
out to masses, poor delivery in services, poor security apparatus, poor
intelligence, poor social security measures along with poor surveillance, etc,
has escalated the problem thereby improving the terror industry. The continuous
drone attacks resulting in the killings of innocents day in and day out have
proved the last nail in the coffin and the state of Pakistan is responsible for
that constant terror against her own citizens.
Moreover, religious radicalism has not been curbed and religious
scholars have hardly played any role in peace building, rather the
indoctrination and lessons of radicalization have started their deadly
repercussions on the larger society. When Mumtaz Qadri — a bodyguard who
murdered the then Punjab governor Salaman Taseer (killed in 2011 in Islamabad)
in broad daylight — the erring soldier was showered with roses, hailed and
praised by a larger section of the society, and proving nothing but the growth
of religious fanatics. Such drastic thinking has engulfed a lot of minds and
radicalism and extremism has gradually shaped into a full grown faith with
serious impact on the overall stability of Pakistan.
Last Word
Obviously the beginning of seriously tackling terror should start with
Pakistan itself, by uprooting the wider terror base to decrease never
ending socio-political instability. Such attacks prove that Pakistan besides
manufacturing terror is the victim of the same — for it is said that you cannot
contest terror on one side and keep nourishing and harboring the same on the
other.
Pakistan’s flawed policy on tackling
terror is responsible for the massacre of school children and the poor souls
have paid the heavy price of the messes in Zarb-e-Azb and Khyber-1, and yet,
Pakistani’s just know of one type of honour by showering on any victim every
time, i.e. by immediately branding the killed as ‘Shaheed’ (martyrs). The painful question is, how many Shaheeds would they like to see every day instead of uniting against terror
and sincerely eradicating it? Also, will hanging some of the incarcerated
terrorists uproot the TTP or other extremists, or how long will Pakistan resort
to a blame game accusing its neighbors for its internal chaos and would such a
melodrama or comedy of errors make Pakistan secure for its people remains a
question before its army and the government? The killing of 148 innocents
by TTP clearly reflects their ideology, which is that they can go to any limit
to make themselves exist — and this idealogy should be a last wake up call for
the whole of Pakistan.
The Pakistan Army’s routine firing at borders and continuous “killing
game” in the frontiers in revenge of the Peshawar tragedy can never be a
solution, but instead will contribute to a never-ending era of killings. The
Man of the Millennium Mahatma Gandhi rightly said, “I object to violence
because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary, the evil it
does is permanent”.
Adfar Shah
(Adfer Rashid Shah, PhD) is a New Delhi-based Kashmiri Sociologist and
well-known social analyst and columnist at various reputed media groups. Adfar
Shah has written sixty academic publications besides hundreds of conceptual
articles. He has been writing on South Asia's socio-political realities at
Eurasia Review since 2012, where he is Special Correspondent for South Asia
Affairs.
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