Since the launch of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan somewhere in 2007 Pakistan has been battered and bruised again and again by religious militants of the TTP. So far over 80000 innocent civilians have lost their lives and over 9000 military personnel have made the supreme sacrifice battling the bloody menace of the TTP. The latest atrocity by the TTP in Bajaur extinguished the lives of 63 citizens and once again confirmed the sad reality that so far we have failed miserably to eradicate the horror of religious militancy and terror from our country.
The creeping menace of the TTP continues to wreak havoc and anarchy throughout the country. The Bajaur atrocity was a brazen and cowardly attack that ripped through the workers convention of the JUI (F) in Bajaur extinguishing lives and leaving countless others severely wounded and disabled. Bajaur has been the scene of such terrorist activities many times during the last twenty years and the people have suffered at the hands of the militants, American drone attacks and counter attacks by the Pakistani security agencies.
Women and children have been targeted and all the armed incursions in the area have added to the grief and woes of the common people. State agencies are still busy probing the latest attack and initial reports point in the direction of the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) in tandem with the TTP. The ISKP in the past has targeted the JUI (F) in many areas of KPK and very recently attacked the Jamaat-i-Islami workers during a political rally in Baluchistan.
The terrorist gang called ISKP is strongly oppose to all Pakistani militant groups and religious parties who are sympathetic to the Afghan Taliban Govt. in Kabul and this is the main reason why they are targeting the JUI (F) who are considered to be pro-Taliban in Afghanistan.
The condemnation of the attack in Bajaur by the TTP, the Afghan Taliban and Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan clearly indicates that these militants are deeply divided along sectarian lines, which could be catastrophic for both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It seems that Pakistan today is a battle ground between the militants of the Islamic State and the Afghan Taliban. In the past individual religious leaders have been targeted by the ISKP in different parts of the country particularly KP and Baluchistan and the Bajaur attack is proof that they are ready to launch more suicide attacks and attract more recruits to their ranks. Recently six of the top TTP leaders including Shahid Ullah Shahid have changed sides to join the ISKP and since Pakistan is host to many sectarian militants we can rest assure that these atrocities will be continued with greater ferocity and cruelty.
The state security agencies and the powerful military establishment have to give up the policy of “Good Taliban and Bad Taliban” all militants are a danger and have to be eliminated from the soil of the country. State patronage of some favorite militant groups must cease immediately. The damaging and harmful state policy being followed since 1979 need a drastic change. The old policy of “strategic depth” and “strategic assets” has to be abandoned. We have to keep our permanent national interests in mind. We have seen the results of the blanket support provided to the US and its allies in Afghanistan and then how they used us as a disposable entity. The policy of supporting training and providing safe havens to religious militants to be launched against India in Kashmir has proved disastrous for the country. Our strategic assets have become terrible strategic mistakes and dangers.
Our policy of support for some religious militants has given us nothing but bloodshed, drugs, and Kalashnikov culture and of course a bad name in the community of nations. After the Soviet invasion of 1979 the seven prominent groups of Afghan Freedom fighters received immense help from all over the world through Pakistan and finally the Soviet forces were forced to leave in 1989.
After the Soviet defeat the Mujahedeen were at each other’s throats and their country was plunged into a deadly civil war resulting in the rise and success of the Afghan Taliban who were supported and Patronized by the Pakistan Govt. of the day. We cannot turn the clock back and rectify the follies of the past. Today our rulers need to wake up to the truth that supporting religious extremists and militants will always result in a severe backlash and damage to the country.
The policy of hunting with the hounds and running with the hares has to end. We simply cannot claim to be champions of democracy in Pakistan and provide support to an obscurantist archaic theocracy in Afghanistan.
We cannot demand immediate and fair elections in Pakistan and continue to support an unelected theocratic dictatorship in Afghanistan. All political parties, individuals, religious leaders and clerics should stop their support and sympathies for the Taliban.
The presence of the Taliban Govt. in Kabul is an encouragement to the extremist religious groups in Pakistan to capture power in the way that the Afghan Taliban did. Pakistan must join the international community in pressuring the Kabul regime into abiding by international norms and universally accepted human rights. Islamabad’s policy shift is a key to peace in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
—The writer is Professor of History, based in Islamabad.
Email: tariq.aqil@headstart.edu.pk
