After the killing of bin Ladin, in Brussels the then Pakistan army spokesman, Maj. General Athar Abbas admitted openly that the army would not start the war against terrorism in Punjab as well as would not do a crackdown on the sectarian and religious groups who had been involved in the Jihad in Kashmir
It is a very common perception among Pakistani analysts that the Pakistani army would finally turn the table and seize all the religious extremists and sectarian killers who are responsible for such unrecoverable damage to the state.
Some of them have a firm belief that anti-Pakistan and anti-Islam forces are behind all that is happening with the minorities as well as Shias in Pakistan. Those who have the strongest intuition and their hearts “full of belief” can clearly see that those who dare kill Shias even in the Shia townships are either the proxies of “Bharati Hindu” or have got the help of anti-Islam America and Israel. The people with such profound insights are some media related “Pen-Warriors”, patriotic ex army generals and high officials who are unable to understand the fact that there are trained people with confined, sectarian and violent thoughts who are doing this massacre to please Allah and his prophet.
The numbers of people with an urge to maintain equilibrium have also increased who are of the opinion that, “those people who are cutting the throats of other Muslims are in fact advancing the enemy’s agenda, have gone astray and are explaining the religion wrongly”. Apparently such thoughts are pleasant for the common people who are scared of the situation. That’s how the stalking killers keep up with their course and the “Islamic intellectuals” keep up with their preposterous analysis in parallel.
The problem has crossed the limits of illusionary idealism or these ridiculous analyses that the state is about to collapse. It is painful and quite worrying that you can’t find any people left who can stand in front of this violent religious extremism. Where the federal interior minister of Pakistan issues arms licenses to the Jihadi and sectarian extremists as well as supports them by financial means, through his close relative, or the chief minister of the largest province of Pakistan along with the member of his cabinet, the law minister, facilitates and provides millions of rupees to the sectarian killers who openly admit the killings of minorities, can the law enforcement agencies working under direct control of these persons ever apprehend the culprits? Or can the ever-weak and always lacking security, the judiciary can sort them out? In such a situation one can’t help but laugh at the stupid notion that the army can fix all this.
In Pakistan the army can’t do any sort of crackdown on the religious and sectarian killers as the brain of the army, the intelligence agencies, consider them as an “Asset”, and hope that these “Assets” would help them in case of any border dispute or tension with neighboring countries. There is no doubt that these assets have rendered considerable help, but ever since these “Assets” got dominance in Afghanistan or in the tribal belt they have been more busy with reverse attacks on their masters. After the killing of Osama Bin Ladin in Brussels the then Pakistan army spokesman, Maj. General Athar Abbas admitted openly in response to a question by the writer that the army would not start the war against terrorism in Punjab as well as would not do a crackdown on the sectarian and religious groups who had been involved in the Jihad in Kashmir. It shows how over-optimistic or helpless the army is and how they are prioritizing and defining danger.
Its seems there is no end to the sectarian killings in Pakistan as there is an aggregate consensus that such horrible incidents are the conspiracy of some external force in the first place, and secondly there is a considerable silent support . The reason for silent support is that the aggregate thoughts of the majority are contaminated with sectarianism. The majority is not worried at all about the ethnic cleansing of people who have some religious and sectarian differences with them. When they are indoctrinated on a daily basis from the dome of the mosque about the people of specific sects that have gone astray from the Islamic circle on the first hand and secondly have even managed to attack back right in the heart of Islamic beliefs with the support of the ‘infidel’ powers, the hate as well as indifference towards the stamped sects is quite natural. In Pakistan hundreds of such books are easily available which claim and provide references about the paganism of different sects. Lots of orators can be heard shouting openly about the paganism of other sects and prohibiting social contacts with them. How come it can be imagined that any popular movement would evolve to blow the surface tension of such sectarian strength.
There is no doubt that in democracies, the representatives of the people have to play a major role in the popular movements and opinion making of the people. In such a situation where these representatives of the people cannot get themselves elected without the support of these sectarian and religiously extremist groups, how can it can be expected of them to be a part of any popular movement against sectarianism and religious extremism. That’s why I have the right to say that the massacre of minorities in Pakistan is happening with a collective agreement between the majority and the ruling elite. Those people cannot be a part of any movement against these atrocities who are afraid to point to the sectarian killers (who openly and un-hesitantly claim the responsibility).
The people in Pakistan were surprised when the leader of PTI Imran Khan named Lashker-e-Jhangwi openly as responsible for the murder of hundreds of people including women and children in Quetta even when the spokesman of the killers was repeatedly claiming the responsibility for the killings.
The real place is where there this indoctrination is done and that place is the religious “Madrassa” (seminary) where minds are filled with such poisonous sectarian thoughts. But is there any one in the country who can raise a voice to check the syllabus of these seminaries. Can any District Police Officer or Deputy Commissioner arrange to check the curricular activities of these seminaries or at least stop any fire-breathing cleric from delivering speeches against other sects.
And what about the army?
The interior minister apparently supervises the Rangers, but the Rangers are led by an army general who is at deputation to command the Rangers. A serving general would surely act upon the orders of the chief of army staff rather a weak civilian interior minister. Same is the case with the Frontier Constabulary and other such institutions.
Those people who still have hope that the army can stop all these violent sectarian and religious killings in a blink of the eye should keep in mind the destruction of almost all the provincial headquarters of the ISI. Mehran naval base to Kamra air base were attacked. Don’t forget the miserable deaths of General Mushtaq Baig, and General Faisal Alvi. In fact, the Pakistan army has had to beg Hafiz Saeed of Lashker-e-Taoiba, Malik Ishaq of Lashker-e-Jhangawi and Ahmad Ludhianwi of Sipah-e-Sahaba to intervene after the G.H.Q attack for the release of their hostage army fellows. Those who have to beg themselves for their own security to these sectarian killers cannot provide security to the weak and already at stack minorities of Pakistan.
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The writer is an investigative journalist, his recent book Punjabi Taliban has been published by Pentagon publishers India. He can be contacted at |
