Adil Najam
This montage of headlines from Dawn need little explanation. It represents seven headlines; one each from each of the last seven days (Nov. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14, 2009). All except one were headlines on Dawn, and one (Nov. 13, 2009) was on the back page. The fact that the killing of 17 Pakistani soldiers will not make it to the front page of a Pakistani newspaper is itself a stern reminder of the craziness that defines our polity today!
There is little ‘news value’ in this montage. But, maybe it deserves just a moment’s silence from all of us. Maybe a moment of reflection on that which is truly important.
We post this merely as a reminder to ourselves that Pakistan remains at war. Pakistanis remain under attack. Our territory remains occupied by the enemy. The relentness of the violence can nudge the routine daily ugliness into the background and the seductiveness of tiltilating conspiracies and scandals can provide ready relief even to those whose job it is to keep reminding us of that which is truly existential for all our futures.
And so, we post this as a reminder to ourselves. Pakistan remains at war. Pakistanis continue to die. Pakistan continues to cry. Lest we forget.
Significant differences in the organizations, objectives, strategies and tactics are beginning to emerge between the Afghan and the Pakistani Taliban with the intensification of violence on both sides of the border. The Afghan insurgents generally have shown greater concern about avoiding civilian casualties, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Unlike the Pakistani Taliban who deliberately target to maximize civilian deaths, the main targets of the Afghan Taliban have been the foreigners who they see as occupiers, not the ordinary Afghan civilians.
The long-running insurgencies on both sides of the border usually operate independently. Pakistani and Afghan Taliban leaders occasionally cooperate, but the differences in their objectives, strategies, tactics and targets point to the possibility of different sources of support and funding for the two organizations.
http://www.riazhaq.com/2009/10/taliban-or-raw-liba n.html
History is repeating itself. Muslims killed each other, Muslim leaders became stooges of others and fought each other. That ended the Muslim empires.
Good post. It really should be the foremost concern for all of us. The media, especially electronic, needs to do a much better job of uniting the people against the real terrorists instead of diverting attention to Blackwater and this and that, which doesn’t make any sense.
Ask the people of Swat what they witnessed first hand at the hands of these people. This is a monster that was created by our state and is no longer in its control and thus it needs to be annihilated or else it will annihilate us.
To all the people who claim that Muslims cannot kill other Muslims, I have a simple question: who killed Hazrat Omar? Who killed Hazrat Usman? Who killed Hazrat Ali and his son? Let’s get real. There are good and bad people in every religion. Let’s identify our enemy correctly without getting all emotional about it. It is tough but we need to do it!
Some comments from the ATP Facebook Page:
– “Tragic…..”
– “:(”
– “What a powerful collection of headlines. Let us never forget the sacrifice of those who are dying so that we can all be safe from our enemies.”
– “Why there is no peace and unity among Muslims of Pakistan. I think all over world Muslims are becoming too smart and they forget the foundation of Islam. But However, I must not forget to say that Americans (Jews) understand the week point of Muslims and they take the revenge.
I simply say.. “Wake Up Pakistanis” and see the way of life from Quran””
– “Which Muslims…. Anyone who thinks that these murderers and criminal Taliban and their mullah supporters are Muslims are themselves enemies of Islam. Don’t divert attention from our REAL enemies. the enemy of Paksitan is not Jews or anyone else. It is these mullahs and Taliban who never wanted Pakistan and are now fulfilling their dream by destroying Pakistan and killing Pakistanis.”
– “So sad”
– “its not only mullas n talibans its CIOA MI6 MOSAD RAW sponsoring them did anyone hear garzeen mari on aaj tv???dodnt u think he should be hanged”
– “Also I wanted to comment against SUNNI and SHIA Muslims? whats wrong with you both parties?????? Y are you killing each others…. What religion you are?????? Its very shame on u both.
Both of you must Understand that you are a Human before thinking of Religion. First think who you are and try to obey Quran and Hadees. Now whats really happening is… you are acting a like wild animals and talk about Quran and Hadees…. How stupid fellows you are?
Respect to Human beings and Protect Islam from other religion.”
– “i think that we should never forget our real enemies which are RAW (the indians) they make their getup like talibaans, but actually they are not true talibaans, many peoples have even found proves of that. A famous European said that ” if we cut of NWFP and pakhtoons from pakistan so we can easily hold upon pakistan” Talibaaans are actually defence against real enemies, but the pakistanies didn’t understand that. besides that we are interested in long terms friendship with indians, on the other side indians have jointly made an (III) which is against the nuclear plant of pakistan. Allah has also told in Quran that kafir can never be your friend but we are trying to do so… WAKE UP NOW PAKISTANIES”
– “What nonsense… how is the ‘real’ emeny RAw when the ones killing Paistanis every day are these mullahs and Taliban!!!!!!!
And who is this mysterious “famous European” without a name.,.. is he so famous that he has no name… or is this another Taliban supporter’s tactic of spreading lies to defeend and hide those who are killing Pakistanis????
Anyone who supports the Taliban in any way, including by trying to divert the nation’s attention from those who are killing Pakistanis has to be an enemy of Pakistan.
PAKISTAN ZINDABAD. ALL TALIBAN SUPPORTERS MURDABAD!”
– “i fully agreed with Siddiui Sistrz comment, but there are also other factorsi-e Mosat, Israiel Intelligence plus Black Water.
They are the real enemies, n the terrorists activites they carried on are supported by Indian,Israiel USA trika.
they want Balochistan n NWFP to b seperated from Pakistan…but InshAllah it will never Happen as Allah is with Us.”
– “nice”
– “.do u think that these people can b MUSLIMS???
ofcourse nt…they jz take there names like that of Muslims. there motto is to destroy muslims by remaining between them and causing fights…
dnt blame any Pure SUNNI or SHIA…”
– “Amazing how many people here are Taliban supporters. How can you live with yourself while supporting people who are killing Pakistanis every day. Do you have no feelings for Pakistanis who are being killed each and every day as these headlines show or are you so brainwashed by conspiracy theorists and enemies of Pakistan that you would rather live in your world of denial than recognize your real enemies… THE ONES THAT ARE KILLING PAKISTANIS.
DENIAL is the refuge of cowards.”
– “agreeed….but they are nt muslims….they are agents of that Trika….there mission is to destablize Pakistan n remove its Atomic power….
they are nt Talibans….
and if they are, we strongly condemn their activites, n will fight against them in every corner of Pakistan.”
– “”they are nt Talibans….”
Alas!! we are hitting the same lines”
– ” I agreed but what is the reality in this war? earlier Taliban leader was Bin Laden… its very famous that he always say ALLAHU AKBAR.. and start the war. Everyone knows Taliban is Muslim Terrorist living in Pakistan and Afghanistan. We might say those who not obey Islamic rules he is not Muslim… but thinks that.”
– “As I am Sri Lankan… I am very proud of My President who end the LTTE war. he is straight forward person and he did not listen to US or UK comments.
I really appreciated Pakistan cooperation also who helped us to win the war. I think Pakistan must think independently and finish the war with full arm force.”
– “A moment of silence???? Isn’t this EXACTLY wat we hav been doing till now???
Observing silence moments? … I think this demands action now… And by God… our nation is angry…. We have had our wits’ end… and its about time dat a spark ignites a massive revolution…!!!”
– “u read such news everyday that 19 people, 50 people etc have died in bomb blast at peshawar, lahore etc. But why don’t u read news like, four americans made up themselves like talibans, drawing the sketch of important buildings of islamabad were arrested by police of islamabad and have been set free due to the involvement of rehman malik, america has withdrawn its forces from the borders of waziristan, loads of weapons have been transferred to pakistan by america, indian involvement has been menifested in waziristan: pak army, drone attacks have killed 52 innocent people while only 9 extremists, india is involved in balochistan: pak government? Open ur eyes, talibans are the agents of america, isreal and india and they are destablising pakistan”
– ” Dirty Politicians must pay at the day of judgment for innocent lives. Dirty Politicians son and daughters will not get harm by this… they are entirely safe.”
– “Hope 4 the Best…..v should b determined in the fight against Terrorism…
every terorist is our enemy, whether he is muslim or anyone else…”
– “We are all against all terroists”
– “I do read all the news… if they are agents even then should we not speak against these mullahs and terrorists who are killing my people. It is just SHAMEFUL that people will defend the killers of Pakistanis and just not have the moral courage to say that TALIBAN ARE TERRORISTS… ALL TALIBAN ARE ENEMIES OF PAKISTAN. EVen if they are agents, they are still enemies. Until we can say this out loud we are just denying the truth and actually helping Pakistan’s enemies. PAKISTAN ZINDABAD. PAKISTAN FOR PAKISTANIS ONLY. KICK OUT ALL FOREIGN MULLAHS AND TALIBAN.”
I don ‘t know if the Taliban ‘won’ or if America ‘lost’, but the fact of the matter is that most Pakistan, including educated ones hate America more than they hate Taliban. That does not make them Taliban supporters but it does mean that the Taliban will become stronger even as they kill Paksitanis.