Adil Najam
Pakistan is in tears today. Yet again.
70+ people are dead in Wah today, as yet another cursed suicide bomber targets Pakistan and Pakistanis. The Tehrik-i-Taliban has taken responsibility for them. Only two days ago, 32 people were killed in a suicide attack on a hospital in the northern town of Dera Ismail Khan. Meanwhile incursions and attacks into Pakistani territory by American forces continue and fighting between militants and Pakistani forces rages in Bajur and other areas, killing even more.
In what continues to be war on and in Pakistan, Pakistanis continue to die. Pakistan continues to cry.
Some will call it the largest legacy of the Musharraf years. Some will read unstated messages within this murder and mayhem by these killers. Others will see it as the price in dead bodies that Pakistan pays in the War on Terror. Yet others will remind us that this is reaping what Gen. Zia-ul-haq sowed. There will be, I am sure, plenty more pontifications too – ranging from the absurd to the absurdly profound.
All I know is that today, yet again, Pakistanis die. Pakistan continues to cry.
Why must this murder and mayhem continue? I ask. When will it end? These, of course, are absurd questions themselves. Because we all know the answers. It will continue for as long as we let the killers kill and support their murders with our silence. Silence, of course, also kills. And some are condemned to cry silently.
When I was in medical school a few outsiders would put on Physician garb for their own nefarious activities. They duped patients. They preyed on innocent and often ailing girls. They bullied sundry at will. Well these bearded hoodlums who call themselves Talibans are really pure murderers in disguise. They kill for hire at the beck and call of anyone who will pay their cheap price. If there ever were any real Talibans they have been eliminated by these bestial beings. For the innocent and unprotected to live without fear these sub-humans need be caged and disposed urgently.
Solution for Pakistan’s problem:
Be honest and show moral courage.
CALL SPADE A SPADE.
Identify the root cause of current problem.
I know the cause and i have solution to it.
If moderators allow me, i can post it.
Some of the comments here seem to suggest that the Taliban have been provoked into their murderous rampage in Pakistan. These comments also suggest moral equivalence between the actions of Pak military and the actions of the Taliban. Let me say the following to all such commentators:
Let’s not be blind to the wave of deadly suicide bombings in Pakistan and the rest of the world unleashed by your jihadist friends who have killed large numbers of innocent, nameless, faceless people, mainly Muslims, and innocent civilians of other faiths.
Let us not be blind to the threats issued by your Lal Masjid friends to Najam Sethi recently and many more in the past. A bold attempt to muzzle the media by a non-state entity.
Let us not be blind to the broadcast threats of your radical Lal Masjid friends who threatened to throw acid in the un-veiled faces of Muslim women in Islamabad during their reign of terror.
Let us not be blind to the desecration of masjids in Pakistan by your friends who turned them into arms depots and launch pads for attacks against fellow Muslims who disagreed with their extreme interpretation of Sharia.
Let us not be blind to those who are trying to impose their violent version of Shariah by the force of arms.
Let us not be blind to the atrocities Taliban and Al-Qaeda and their sympathizers have committed against the poor Aghans during their short rule and later, particularly against the weak including women and girls whose schools have been shut down or burned down. or the barber shops which have been shut or burned down for shaving men’s facial hair.
Let us not be blind to the fact that any one, including Musharaf ( and I admit he is no angel) , who challenged your extremist friends engaged in violence against fellow Muslims, has become the object of hate by you.
Let us not be blind to the to the fact that your radical “Islamic” friends have done more to damage the name and perception of Islam and Muslims than any one else in the history of the world.
Dear Ibrahim,
Your comment seems disingenuous… faulting the Taliban for their tactics, yet agreeing with their ultimate cause, the implementation of a shariah system in Pakistan (and perhaps to do away with the artificial geopolitical boundaries of nations and form a united khilafat).
The problem is, which version of shariah will they impose? What about those of us who consider ourselves muslims but do not believe that the version of Islam that the Taleban preach is Islam at all? I am glad that you think that killing innocent people is wrong. What about burning schools for women? What about threatening people who shave their beards? In your eyes, what level of coercion and force is acceptable?
You do not speak for me, and if you truly believe in the cause of the Taleban then your version of Islam is not my version of Islam. Please do not preach to me about who is the enemy of Islam and who isn’t. I can make up my own mind.
Pakistani army plus Pakistani army supported Taliban are showing their true colors.
Both of them are murderers of the highest order.
And those who condemn one without condemning the other are party to the murders and genocides carried out by both parties.
Junaid