FIRST Swat and now Darra Adam Khel have been cleared of Taliban militants substantiating hope this mortal threat to peace and stability of tribal territories and adjoining areas of Frontier Province can be contained by determined action of the nation’s security forces. Use of state forces is unavoidable when religious mountebanks instigate fanatical followers to disrupt efforts for economic and social development, unleash violence and subject peaceful citizens to terrible suffering. These adventurers have defied persuasion to act within bounds of law and reason and continue to make unacceptable demands requiring the government in effect to abandon parts of the country to their autocratic rule. Some of them even declared the establishment of an emirate in South Waziristan and issued edicts for burning schools for girls and torching businesses they dubbed as un-Islamic.
Given the history of the tribal territories, government’s thin presence and lack of access roads in the mountainous terrain the task of subduing well armed rebels is difficult and demanding but it is eminently doable. Too, history offers solace and encouragement because extremist and anarchical movements that rose in the past were successfully contained and crushed. Zealots, a secret fanatical band of Jews that targeted Roman rulers as well as moderate Jews in ancient times were ultimately wiped out as were Assassins – so called because they ate hashish – who spread terror among Christians as well as fellow Muslims. More recently the Red Brigade in the West and Om Shinkario in Japan who embarked on campaigns of indiscriminate terror have also been liquidated.
Not all terrorist movements were motivated necessarily by religious fanaticism or political movements. Oklahoma Bomber Timothy McVeigh who perpetrated one of the bloodiest terrorist incidents before 9/11 did not fit into either of these categories. Nor is religious militancy confined to Muslim states; one of the worst such orgies recently took place in the state of Gujarat in India . Undeniably, however, such militancy has been incubating in some Muslim states. Its proliferation in Pakistan is largely attributable to the permissive environment fostered by not only Pakistan’s but the world’s support of the Afghan Mujahideen. Pakistani Taliban are allies of Afghan Taliban who gained control of large parts Afghanistan in mid-1990s and were subverted by Osama bin Laden to give him a free hand in organizing remnants of ‘Arab Afghans’ for international terrorism. Scion of a rich Saudi family, and a veteran of the Afghan liberation war he first spent a hundred million dollars to purchase lands in Sudan as a base for his brainchild of Al-Qaeda and after he was evicted by the Khartoum government used his wealth and messianic zeal to persuade the Taliban to provide a sanctuary for his organization in the mountainous areas in Eastern Afghanistan.
Giving benefit of doubt to these veterans of the Afghan freedom struggle, the regime in Kandahar and their allies in Pakistan perhaps did not fully know of bin Laden’s grandiose plans. They remained incredulous of allegations against Osama even after UN Security Council adopted resolutions in 1998, 1999 and 2000 condemning Osama for attacks on US embassies in East Africa and a naval ship in Aden harbour. After the 9/11 outrage the United States mounted a war on terror that forced Al-Qaeda to go underground. Unwelcome in their own countries after the end of the Afghan liberation war because they were imbued with insurrectionary ideology aimed at overthrow of existing governments, Al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban remnants then infiltrated into Pakistan. Ungrateful for the support, help and assistance given by Pakistan, they turned back to bite the hand that had fed them during the protracted struggle. The land that gave them shelter has since been the target of their onslaught.
Al-Qaeda and Taliban have since made Pakistan their prime target because they consider it fertile ground for their ideological pretensions especially in tribal areas where literacy is low, process of modernization slow and the government’s hold has been traditionally fragile. Internal political turmoil in Pakistan has provided them another pretext for exploitation. People not only in tribal territory are vulnerable to false and misleading propaganda that the Taliban militants only want Pakistan to end its support of the United States and NATO and once Islamabad changes its policy they would not cause any further harm here. Yet knowledge of their past can leave no doubt they actually seek a base in Pakistan as they previously exploited Taliban acquiescence to use it as a launching pad for their which they to abuse Pakistan territory preparing and implementing plans for international terrorism. Were Pakistan to fall in their trap it could be exposed to the same fate as the Taliban have suffered. The United States and NATO could use forces to eliminate Al-Qaeda base on Pakistan territory. We should therefore be clear that in resisting Al-Qaeda and Taliban encroachments Pakistan is fighting for the survival and realization of its dream of renaissance as a modern, democratic, progressive and moderate Islamic state in step with the rest of the world community.
Fortunately the state can rely on the armed forces to display their professional dedication, expertise and fortitude to successfully cope with the challenge. Fortunately, too, major political parties are all alive to the threat fanaticism and terrorism pose to our future.
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