For the last year and a half, the fast-escalating crisis in Swat has gripped the attention of the entire nation of Pakistan. We have all been reading, mostly in awe, about the on-going insurgency in Swat, bombings of girls’ schools, high-handedness of Pakistan Army and FC personnel, in dealing with such militant elements and about hints of Indian involvement in creating and sustaining this fiasco.
It is going to be a two-part post. In the first, I’ll make an attempt at describing the history of TNSM (Tehreek e Nifaz e Shareeat e Muhammadi) and their political and religious motives behind this war. In my second post, I’ll divulge in to details of Pakistan Army’s current operation(s) against this militant outfit, reasons why such operations have proved to be inadequate and what can still be done in order to bring this situation under control.
My motive behind this post is to try and present a rather detailed picture of the ongoing situation in Swat, in order to enable you ‘the reader’ to make up your own mind about this war. Once you have done that, I’d like to read about it in the comments section, so please, do comment.
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It’s a two episode series and a must watch for those who would like to educate themselves. By those, I refer to people who think that Pakistan is not doing enough in the war against terror and those who think that militants are godsend warriors and that PA shouldn’t be fighting them.
As the fallout from November’s bloody siege in Mumbai focuses the world’s attention on Pakistan’s ability to control enemy fighters within its own borders, Al Jazeera investigates Pakistan’s role in the so-called war on terror.
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“A Muslim can never conduct a suicide attack against his fellow Muslims; it has to be a Zionist cum American cum Indian conspiracyâ€.
How many times have you heard your friends say that, in a gathering whenever you get to discuss the terrible phenomenon i.e. Terrorism? Yet, they fail to cite a single such example of an Indian, American or Israeli who actually strapped bombs on his body, and blew himself on the streets of our beloved homeland.
So what really is the problem here?
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A few days back, I sent an email to Imran Khan, asking him a few questions through a certain friend of mine, regarding his stance against ‘War on Terror’. And that is because, while I usually agree to what Imran Khan says, I’ve always remained skeptical of his party’s stance. More so because, I am not really sold on the idea of suicide bombings being triggered by motives such as ‘revenge’ and not ideology.
So it is today, that I received a reply, though not written by him but by the Secretary General of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf (equally good for me, since I was interested in questioning their party policy to start with). Do keep in mind that while I am not completely satisfied by his answers, one of the points raised by him did in fact resonate with me i.e. Sri Lanka losing out in the long run, due to a prolonged counter-insurgency war.
Also, while questions raised by me were more of, what you might regard as tactical in nature, his reply to them is keeping in view the strategic reality of Pakistan. Read it in the same light and you’ll see what I’m getting at. What I’d like to know is what do you folks have to say about my questions and their answers.
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