Why the Peshawar Tragedy Occurred?

                                                          Prof Dr Shahida Wizarat

Although there have been several terrorist attacks in Pakistan like the Mariott bombing, the GHQ attack, the Parade Mosque attack, the Mehran base attack, etc, but it was the Army Public School Peshawar attack which can be termed as Pakistan’s 9/11, since there are many similarities between the two. For example, prior to 9/11 the Japanese were expressing serious reservations about the Gulf war in 1991. The relationship between the USA and Europe was getting frosty as a result of the refusal of the former to sign the Kyoto Pact. But 9/11 changed all this and the U.S.A managed to get everybody on board in the ‘war against terror’. China, which under normal circumstances would have reasons to be uneasy to have American troops so close to its border, was quite tolerant, while Russia was openly encouraging. The reason was that ‘terrorism’ was being used as a trump card, which striked a common cord with these countries. Similarly, the Peshawar tragedy has tried to break us down by breaking our hearts. And while we are heart broken, cool and calculating global strategists are trying to use this incident to dig us deeper into the quagmire. They are trying to emotionally black mail us into getting out of this war themselves and leaving us to do their dirty work in Afghanistan.

We have to do some introspection on why the Peshawar and the several tragedies before that took place? Major flaw with our policy against terrorism is that we let sponsors and masterminds of terror do their work. Infact, our institutions have been very supportive towards masterminds of terror, but very serious about clamping down on foot soldiers. I remember when Raymond Davis was arrested and his laptop revealed his contacts with 119 terrorists, our state institutions and civil society helped Raymond Davis get out of the country very respectably, but we killed all the 119 militants with whom he was in contact. The moment he was arrested the PPP Information minister at that came on television and pleaded for his release on the ground that he was on diplomatic passport, although everyone knew that he was a CIA operative. The deal to get him released was stated to have been hammered out by the then Chief of Army Staff and General Petraeus in some Middle Eastern country. The dismissal of the case by a higher court as it was not considered important enough, the roles played by our courts, agencies, police and the civil society in getting him freed respectably and paying Rs 20 billion as diyat money by a Pakistani businessman show how far our state institutions go to help masterminds of terrorism.

Similarly, James Alexander McLintock was first arrested in Pakistan in 2001 and handed over to the British government, but he returned to Pakistan in 2004. The more recent example of an FBI agent who was arrested with explosives at the Quaid-e-Azam International airport, Karachi, but was whisked out of the country very efficiently and quickly under the present PPP provincial and PML-N federal government. The previous PPP government on the directive of Hussain Haqqani then Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US gave Pakistani visa to 5000 US personnel without our intelligence agencies vetting them. Thus Blackwater, XE and CIA and other private contractors got into Pakistan and are now playing havoc with our lives. It is these actions by our state institutions and civil society that has endangered the lives of our children and civilians in addition to our soldiers, policeman and is posing an existentialist threat to the country.

The above examples clearly show that our state institutions aid and abet terrorists if they happen to be citizens of rich and powerful countries. But come down hard on Central Asian, Middle Eastern, Pakistani, etc citizens engaged in terrorist activities in Pakistan. This is a very hypocritical and racist strategy. The roles played by our state institutions in aiding and abetting terrorist master minds shows we are on the side of those unleashing terror in Pakistan. But the air bombardments, army operations and the recent hangings show that we are waging a war against terrorism. These contradictions leave one rather bemused. We don’t know whether we are “with them or against them.” I am not aware of any other example where state institutions help those who are unleashing terror in their countries.

If we are serious about eradicating terrorism from Pakistan we should not facilitate the perpetuators of terror from rich countries. Nobody should be above the law. And we should not try to bring peace through tackling the effects that come about as a result of the activities of the rich countries. We need to formulate a policy that will stop the spread of terror at source, instead of dealing with the after effects. This policy entails collecting evidence on the involvement of rich countries agencies and personnel in terrorist activities and sharing the same with these countries and with the international community. It will be a more effective policy instead of facilitating terror and then dealing with the after effects.

Then in order to cover their conduct in aiding masterminds of terrorism in Pakistan these very same people are giving emotional statements and are trying to enlarge the war theatre. The ISAF has offered joint military operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan to fight terrorism. Will the ISAF use this opportunity to plant more Raymond Davis, MacLintocks and FBI agents the likes of which were caught in Pakistan. Wont the ISAF use it to penetrate more CIA, MI6 and private war contractors to join the ranks of the 5000 that penetrated early through the courtesy of Hussain Haqqani?

There are other reservations also with Pak-Afghan-ISAF joint military operations. One, if Afghan and ISAF forces conduct military operations against TTP, they will expect us do do likewise against the Afghan Taleban. What are our reservations with doing that? One, Afghan Taleban are not a threat to Pakistan. Given our present situation do we stand to gain or loose by expanding the war theatre? Can we handle increasing our enemies in our present predicament? Second, Afghan Taleban are fighting against the occupation of their country by western countries under the garb of the fight against terrorism. But in reality behind the smokescreen of the fight against terror, Afghanistan’s natural resources like lithium are being looted, similar to the looting of oil from Iraq, Libya, etc. Our joint military operations will result in the loot and plunder of a brother neighbouring country with all the ethical and moral questions that such a joint military exercise will entail. Third, it will present the Pak Army as a mercenary force, which it should not be. One can understand the Pak army to go after people who are killing our people, but what about getting entangled with people who do not pose a threat to us and who have condemned the killing of our children in Peshawar?

Our leaderships looks very naive in dealing with US military and civilian leaderships. We keep harping about “Pakistan First”, but in real life we put Pakistan’s interests last. US interests come first because tied to that are our ‘personal’ interests. From the way we are conducting the war against terror, it appears that our leadership is both aiding terror and fighting against terror once it is unleashed. It is like hunting with the hound and running with the hare. Why are we doing this? Does it mean that our leadership is dumb and unfit to meet the enormous challenges that have been thrust on this country? Or does it mean that our leadership is perpetuating and aiding terrorism in order to be able to fight terror once it spread its tentacles in the country? How can one explain such a contradiction? Are we so desperate to earn a few bucks and get a certificate of loyalty from powers whose designs in this part of the world are not secrets any more. I leave it to the readers to arrive at their own conclusions.

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