Mon ami, the time for heart warming words and optimistic scenarios is well past. A few RIPs, rallies, walks and candle littings amongst dozens of other shows of sympathy, solidarity, remembrance, humanity e.t.c. aren't going to cut it. Why? Because despite it being the most heinous attack in the history of this country, its not the first nor I believe (though I hope) will be the last. More people have died than this one, there's not a city of Pakistan which has been spared and the result is always the same. Its back to normal after a few weeks. Second, not until you understand the cause and origins of extremism and the resultant terrorism, how do you expect to fight it? As long, you do not realize that there's a whole group of nutjobs which support/facilitate these bastards in the country, how do you expect to come out as a winner in this conflict? As long, as you keep looking outside while the enemy's in the house, how do you expect to see all of this to the very end? People do condemn this act of savagery en masse, I am not denying it or trying to belittle that, not for an instant, but its equally important that they understand and see the radicalization and extremism for what it is, a real enemy that has plagued the progress and development of this country for decades and not being just another problem solvable with "all the time in the world". Its important that people start looking for answers and asking critical questions regarding the role of religious seminaries on the greater issue, not just getting defensive about religion and country and defending the same Mullahs (directly or indirectly) that perpetuate this type of attacks on them. This venting out of anger and making the whole sense of it by saying "India/America/Israel/Martians" and "Islam doesn't allow killing of innocents" isn't going to do the trick as it hasn't before, this goes out beyond the usual conspiracy theories. And so far, that isn't happening. I will keep faith and harbor hope, but if nothing is going to come out from this terror act too and no progress/improvement is seen, then take my assurance that these people wont learn ever and things would continue, as they have until now, in this country. Zarb-e-Azb isn't the whole equation, its just one part of it, for as long as the Madarsas producing and supplying a constant supply of foot soldiers to the terrorists organization aren't dealt with, terrorism wont end. As long as radicalization isn't kept in check, a bastard or two will rise every year or twice a decade trying to impose the real Islam on us and the cycle will continue. Treating the symptom is never enough, lets target the disease. P.S. I dont believe that those people are insignificant in number, for if they were, you wouldn't have had fighting them till now, for if they were, not a large crowd would be out cheering for Mumtaz Qadri and OBL. The extent is far worse than you see and imagine But lets leave that for now.
The People ?
The common man is far too bogged down with worries of his existence that he doesn't say or care about anything except putting food on the table. The middle and upper class on the other hand does have this realization that something is indeed wrong and it ought to be rectified; their confusion has less to do with tolerating the evil of terrorism and more to do with the way things have panned out in this country over the past 3 decades.
People are still coming to grips with the fact that when the Americans, us and the rest of the so-called Free World was slugging it out with the Soviets these people were koshur and now when the Soviet Union has traded places with the United States of America....it ain't so anymore. Added to that the manner in which we responded to the proxy war that was being waged against Pakistan through Afghanistan in the '90s added to the confusion and later on how we entered the War on Terror compounded the problem further. Naturally people are confused because we've confused them and because no one comes out and tells the truth these conspiracy theories pop up.
The people can hardly be blamed for thinking 'what the hell is happening ?'
However this does not imply, as many of us make it out to be, that whatever steps we took over the past 3 decades were utterly selfish knee-jerk reactions as if some General woke up in the morning and said to himself 'Jee...what should I do today ? Hmmmn....how about creating the Taliban' !
Things are not and never were that simple; this is a sh*t storm and its as complicated as it gets.
Furthermore the 'people' who actually do matter are trying to get their sh*t together in fact the Army has had its for a while now and had the previous government thought of something other than gulping tax payer's money till they got a stomach ache....we probably would've had movement on this a lot sooner. The fact that intelligence based operations are happening within the country, that Zarb-e-Azb has taken place, that counter-terrorism in its other forms is being pursued on a war-footing all are indicative of the fact that the lethargy of bad governance that had crippled our ability to deal with this problem seem to be going away.
Additionally I don't think that this incident will be forgotten because this isn't '09 or some such earlier year when there was still so much confusion in the air as to whether the people fighting us are our misguided brethren or our mortal enemies....that carefully constructed narrative of TTP sympathizers and other right-wing nuts is slowly ebbing away and has ebbed away to a large extent.
Is it gone ? No....hell no; but it sure as hell isn't as profoundly present and is confusing the hell out of people as it was in '09 when the Parade Lane Mosque was targeted. And this is precisely why I don't think that the anger of 16th December will be forgotten unlike previous horrific incidents.
I truly believe that this terrible....terrible incident will serve as a watershed moment because I've seen it with my own eyes how people who used to, on being asked whether we're fighting the right fight, would reply "God knows whos right and who isn't....this is all so confusing" are categorically condemning this and literally baying for blood. Yesterday I heard 'Taliban Murdabad' as one of the more frequent slogans being uttered.
So things have changed.....in fact the change is palpable; my only concern is whether the momentum gained from this change will translate into governance changes that need to be enacted to deal with this menace. Right now the Government is in the prime position to tighten the screws because they know that the people, the army and the international community are all on the same page which makes this opportunity 'ours to loose' !
However even if the momentum is lost I believe that the momentum picked up by the Army is not waning; 3000+ intelligence based operations (if I recall DG ISPR's words correctly from the press conference) are testament to the fact that is an all encompassing operation because it recognizes the pervasiveness of the terrorists. But the fact that these intelligence based operations are happening in the cities of Pakistan and not only the tribal areas or so the DG stated (unless I misheard) the terrorist network is being uprooted as we speak.
Will this be a quick fix ? No....it took 30 years for us to reach this point and it'll take another 30 years (perhaps less if we capitalize on the momentum) to rid ourselves of this but I believe that the first 30 years are over and the second 30 have begun for a while now so we're moving forward even if it appears that we're moving at a snail's pace. And the second stage is probably a few years into it not just beginning because we've taken back our territories, we've stifled their launching areas, we've targeted everyone across the board, we've attempted and arguably succeeded more than we ever had with Karzai in taking Afghanistan on board, we've implemented our version of the Patriot Act and we've started intelligence based operations in our cities.
The next logical steps would soon follow; have some faith.
LOLOLOL haha
