Pakistanis have been chutzpahed

by B. R. GOWANI

Women mourn their relative, one of the 148 people killed in a TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar. PHOTO/Zohra Bensemra/Reuters/BBC/Google

In one of the scenes in Vishal Bhardwaj’s great film Haider, the hero asks the crowd gathered in a square the meaning of the Yiddish word “chutzpah.” He then explains Kashmir’s tragedy by giving an example of chutzpah. He says a guy enters a bank and points a gun at the teller’s head and threatens to either hand over the money or get killed. He takes the money and goes to the other counter and tells the teller there, excuse me, can I have a form, I want to open an account. The film’s hero then comes to the main point: “We [the people of Kashmir] have been chutpahed [by the governments of India and Pakistan].” (The film has got the pronunciation of chutzpah wrong. The correct pronunciations are here, here and here. Unless it was intentional, which I doubt it very much.)

http://youtu.be/ztgEGaGoX3I

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Since last three days, the Pakistanis must be experiencing the same feeling as Haider; they have been chutpahed.

On December 16, some members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP dressed in army fatigues carried out an attack on an Army Public School in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Altogether 148 people died. Out of those, 132 were children, all between the ages of 13 and 16. The number of injured was 121. Many of the dead and injured children belonged to the army people. It was a barbaric act carried out in an extremely ghastly manner. Many of the students were lined up and were shot to death. The principal who offered herself in place of children was shot and then burned to death.

Here are three examples to get an idea as to how the Pakistanis have been chutzpahed.

Hafiz Saeed, leader of a banned Islamic group Jamat-ud-Dawa and prime suspect in the Mumbai terror attacks. PHOTO/AP/Hindu

Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, a well known terrorist, is believed to be the mastermind behind many terror attacks. He lives in Pakistan under the protection of one or more of the many establishments. Yes, Pakistan has no central authority but there are many power centers such as the military, the Inter Services Intelligence or ISI, the elected government, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, and so on. Saeed has blamed India for the school massacre!

The TTP released several photos of the terrorists who were behind Tuesday’s horrible act. The following two photographs show them in regular clothes and in army clothes.

The photographs show the six heavily armed men wearing both traditional clothing of Taliban fighters and the Pakistan military uniforms they wore to avoid suspicion before storming the school. The white banner they pose in front of is the flag of the Pakistani Taliban and reads: ‘There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is Allah’s Messenger’ PHOTO/Daily Mail

Releasing photos? Now this is called shameless bravado. The reason the TTP spokesman gave for the killing of innocent children and adults was that it was a revenge attack for the army’s killing of their friends and family members. The army is ruthless, no doubt about that. But then can the killing of innocent people be justified? What about the attacks on Shias and Ahmadis? They had done no harm to the Talibans.

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi at a rally in Muzaffarabad, in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, on June 28, 2008. PHOTO/Roshan Mughal / Associated Press/Los Angeles Times

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi was in prison for his suspected role behind the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India. Just two days after the Taliban attack, the court granted him the bail.

It is the atmosphere of fear that these terrorists are either not arrested or if arrested they are then granted bail.

The mother of all chutzpahs will be if those military people who lost their children or relatives on Tuesday decide to wage an all out war against the Taliban. On 16 December 1971, Pakistan lost its eastern wing after a bitter war with its own people. East Pakistan became Bangladesh. But now if the terrorism is rooted out completely, it will be a chutzpah, a good one, of course.

B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com

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