by B. R. GOWANI
Coffins are lined up near the church as relatives flock to the scene to mourn their dead PHOTO/Daily Mail
Imran Khan is a former Pakistani cricket player, celebrity and the current Chair of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (“Movement for Justice”) political party he formed in 1996. His party came to power in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (formerly North-West Frontier Province or NWFP) last year. He is a current Member of Parliament. This article is about his ideology, which if implemented, could prove very dangerous.
He constantly complains about all the US drone attacks on Pakistan but is not that vigilant about the attacks by the Pakistani Taliban and other Islamic militants; both attacks are deadly, destructive; and, must be condemned and stopped.
On 22 September 2013, 85 people were killed and 140 injured when two suicide bombers of Jundullah group detonated explosives in an attack inside the 1883 built All Saints Church in Peshawar. This incident did not receive due attention from the federal or provincial government.
Mano Rumalshah, the bishop emeritus of Peshawar, affirmed his helplessness:
“It’s not safe for Christians in this country.”
“Everyone is ignoring the growing danger to Christians in Muslim-majority countries. The European countries don’t give a damn about us.”
Neither do the United States, Canada, New Zealand, or Australia unless some political mileage can be obtained from the tragedy.
The day after the tragedy, one of the victims, a school teacher named Fauzia, wrote a letter to Khan:
“… To a politician, the fact that I am Pakistani should be most the [sic] important, yet in a country ravaged by militancy, where religious extremists have usurped the limited secular space, my faith perhaps carries more weight and authenticity.
“… On that fateful day … a loud explosion flung me a few feet away.
“As I recovered consciousness and looked around, I saw pieces of human flesh scattered on the ground. A few steps away, I found yellow slippers of a young girl, but if you can bear to read it, her severed foot was still encased in the blood-coated slipper. Was it the slipper of the little girl- dressed in a flowery frock, her face touched by innocence- who was earlier going round in circles outside the church?”
Khan condemned the attack but quickly countered it by saying:
“Isn’t it strange that whenever peace talks [between the government and the Islamic militants] are pursued, these attacks take place, and I want to point out that there was also a [United States] drone strike today.”
He further said:
“A conspiracy is being hatched to drag the country back to the 10-year-old morass.”
Then on the 26th Khan suggested the illogical peace-talk with the militants:
“The use of force is not a solution to this problem [of militancy]… this issue can only be resolved through peace talks.”
The next day Umer Khalid Khurasan, the commander of Taliban fighters near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, humiliated him by saying:
“We will never move one inch back of our demand for enforcement of sharia [law], and if any Taliban commander compromises on this demand, we will not support him.”
Khurasan also clearly spelled out their intentions:
“[The Pakistan] army wants us talking within the constitution, but our plan is to replace the existing constitution.”
Within the same week of the church attack, Peshawar witnessed two other attacks. On the 27th, at least 18 people died and dozens were injured when a bomb exploded in a bus carrying local government workers. Two days later, 41 people died and many more were injured when the famous centuries-old Qissa Khawani Bazaar was targeted by a bomb blast.
On 2nd October, Imran Khan again suggested talking with the TTP or Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, and other militant groups linked or not linked with the TTP, in an article titled “Dialogue: the best of difficult options” in the Pakistani newspaper: The News.
Khan’s faulty logic
In the 1,300 plus words, he did not mention any bombings by Islamists; but continued to remind his readers of the US drone attacks. Khan’s reason for opposing armed action against the Islamists is:
“The debacle of East Pakistan, which led to the breakup of our country [East Pakistan became Bangladesh and West Pakistan simply became Pakistan], left me with a strong conviction that military operations are never a solution to any problem, least of all one involving one’s own people.
“I stood firmly with those who opposed Musharraf’s Balochistan operation and earlier the sending of the military into Waziristan.”
To strengthen his argument he provides examples:
“Most countries have eventually had to dialogue with their people who have taken up arms and conducted acts of terror against the state and innocent civilians – be it the UK with the IRA, the Sri Lankan government with the LTTE, The Philippines with the Moros, India’s Andra Pradesh Government with the Naxalites, to name just a few cases. Even the US had to hold talks with the Viet Cong and now with the Taliban.”
All above cases (except US and Vietcong, where United States attacked an independent Vietnam, located thousands of miles away from its borders in an effort to expand its imperial power), involved ethnic and/or religious minorities and were asking for either more rights, autonomy, or outright independence. In the case of the break-up of Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh (East Pakistan), the major issue was that West Pakistan comprised of 46% of the total population of Pakistan, but its Province of Punjab with 27% people had the most political, social, and economic control over the entire country.
Khan should be very well versed in these matters yet he compares these circumstances with TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) and its various factions. This is the height of hypocrisy. The Taliban are not fighting for their rights for they have the rights to practice their religion in Pakistan without any hindrance. They are the problem. It is they who want to impose their version of strict Islam where women have to cover themselves from head to toe and spend their lives behind the four walls of their houses; where men have to grow beards; where movies, TV, and other entertainment is banned; where females can not get an education; where flogging, cutting of hands and limbs, and stoning to death is part of the law of the land; Muslim minorities like Shias and Ahmadis, and other religious minorities as Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, etc. will not be allowed to remain in Pakistan.
On January 27, 2014, Khan used his forked approach again in the National Assembly as he appeared to support the Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar’s speech on countering terrorism, but used perpetual delaying techniques in insisting that all parties should agree.
One wonders why is Khan so opposed to military action against a barbaric group that is hell bent on transporting Pakistan to the medieval times.
Is it his ethnic affinity with the TTP?
Khan is a Pashtun and the majority of TTP are also Pashtun.
Does he fear an attack on his life?
This fear is obviously very real. If he opposes the TTP or any of its offshoots, he could be disposed off as others before him. He admitted this in his October 2011 interview with NDTV’s Burkha Dutt:
“This is not the time to be very brave and stand out, because you are up against fanatics.“
This week, talking to Bloomberg News, Khan said the TTP chose him as their negotiator because they trust him. Khan refused the offer, as he is not optimistic of the outcome:
“The most likely result is that the negotiations will start, there will be about three or four big explosions and terrorist attacks and the negotiations will be called off.” “There will be people baying for blood and the operation will start.”
Where Khan’s sympathies lie is clear when he implies the Pakistan military will be baying for blood. Pakistan’s military, like most militaries around the world, is ruthless, that is true. However, it is the government’s cowardliness and sympathetic elements in the military that have allowed the TTP and other militants to get bolder in their violence.
Last month, 20 soldiers were killed and more than two dozen were injured in an attack by the TTP.
For the negotiations to become “really meaningful” Khan wants the halt of all US drone attacks during the talks. On February 12, one of the TTP negotiators Maulana Abdul Aziz warned:
“You should know that at the moment they [TTP] have at least 400 to 500 female suicide bombers in Waziristan and other tribal areas.” “The government should realise the situation and their demands.”
“They (Taliban) are fighting for the implementation of Sharia.” “It’s the law of nature that when people don’t get their rights, they pick up arms.”
(Aziz was arrested in 2007 in a burqa while escaping the Pervez Musharaf government’s siege of Lal Masjid or mosque.)
On the same day, AFP reported the Pakistani Taliban have threatened people of Kalash tribe and the Ismaili Muslims living in Chitral Valley. A narrator in the video warned the Kalash people:
(Kalash are considered a “unique tribe among the Indo-Aryan peoples of Pakistan“.)
He also criticized the foundation managed by the leader of Ismailis, the Aga Khan:
“The Aga Khan Foundation is running 16 schools and 16 colleges and hostels where young men and women are given free education and brainwashed to keep them away from Islam.”
Bloodshed keeps on continuing with more deaths in Taliban attack reported on 13 February.
Khan should wake up to the fact that talks are not going to produce any positive result for Pakistan. He should come to his senses and use logic to see TTP and other religious extremists are indulged in terrorism to turn Pakistan into Sharia-stan.
Each day of delay in action continues to be deadly for law enforcement, soldiers, and civilians, alike. Just yesterday, the TTP targeted a police bus in Karachi, Pakistan’s main city, killing 13 and injuring 47 people, including civilians. Author and defense analyst Ayesha Siddiqa is correct in her judgement:
“If the talks succeed, we may actually see a metamorphosis of the state from a hybrid-theocracy, which it is at the moment, to a complete theocracy. The Taliban and their allies, including both good and bad militants, want implementation of sharia in Pakistan. Even if there is an agreement on limited implementation in parts of the country, it will eventually trickle down to the rest.”
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com