Pakistan: Terrorism breeds terrorism | Punjab Govt.’s by-poll alliance with terrorists

Terrorists and those inspired by their twisted logic have drunk deep at the fountain of sectarian divide in our country and they are hell-bent on killing any semblance of normalcy that we may be able to sprinkle our lives with. As if we were not horrified and aggrieved enough at what was happening in DI Khan and Faisalabad, in Karak a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a police station, killing five.

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Punjab Govt.’s by-poll alliance with terrorists unacceptable

To ... utter shame, Eid Milad-un-Nabi, the most auspicious of days on the Muslim calendar, saw the start of violence, as Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba (Wahabi and Deobandi), who consider Eid Milad-un-Nabi ceremonies as shirk (polytheism) their militants attacked Brailvis’ religious rallies at Faisalabad and D.I. Khan, letting loose unfortunate death and destruction. Apart from the question of terrorism that thrives on the ability of man to inflict pain on man, sectarian differences and tensions have many a time shattered our dream of unity in diversity.

These ancient wounds have never completely healed and politicians, both religious and otherwise, have a lot to answer for on this count. We note and regard as significant that the Punjab law minister, Rana Sanaullah, and the Punjab home secretary, Nadeem Hassan Asif, were present in Faisalabad during the worst of the violence — and that neither of them attended the meeting convened by the agencies of law and order to discuss how best to deal with it. What are a law minister and a home secretary supposed to do if they are not to support the civil power at times of greatest need? And does this add to the list of questions that need to be answered by some of our politicians’ alleged affiliation to ban or terrorist outfits? With our politicians behaving in this manner, what hope can we have of healing not just historical rifts, but the recent wounds that we have suffered at the hands of terrorists?

Terrorists and those inspired by their twisted logic have drunk deep at the fountain of sectarian divide in our country and they are hell-bent on killing any semblance of normalcy that we may be able to sprinkle our lives with. As if we were not horrified and aggrieved enough at what was happening in DI Khan and Faisalabad, in Karak a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a police station, killing five. Elsewhere there are continued attacks on schools. People are desperately attempting to resume normal life in Swat, Dir and other conflict-hit zones. Hotel owners make efforts to persuade tourists to return and music shop owners tentatively restock stores. The aftermath of violence though swirls all around, with the relatives of militants targeted for revenge according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and with the Taliban acting to punish those they accuse of theft or other crime. How is this Hydra-headed monster of violence to be killed? Challenging the hold of obscurantism, tackling development issues and granting people access to opportunity are measures that must be taken.

People, on their own, are attempting to find the calm rhythm needed in life and the militants are keeping up their efforts to prevent them from succeeding. The state can play a part in determining the outcome. It must not look on as a spectator. Unity must be promoted at all levels and solutions sought to the troubles that afflict us rather than rubbing salt into wounds old and new. We expect our lawmakers to be unifiers; this is an expectation that Messrs Sanaullah and Asif should pay heed.


The following is one of the many comments posted to the above entry.

When a religion of more than 2 billion people is still striving to make a visible positive contribution to the world in way of progress, science, humanities, medicine or the arts (we should not be relying on the greatness of our forefathers for their contributions and sacrifices because every generation must make its own contribution to lasting properity) one has to wonder why. We cannot be forever quoting, the greatness of our ancestors and be smug that their achievement was ours, it was not and us forever trying to reap the benefits, while making no contributions only enhances the tragedy of our predicament...what happened.....two things i guess.. made a massive contribution to the decline one is intolerance or lack of understanding of another's beliefs, and the other is raising violence and ignorance to the level of virtue. Not to mention the immeasurable lust for power and material things and to top it all everything is then projected in a shroud of hypocrisy or sanctimonius rhetoric. The present situation is tragic indeed that we are not content with the shia and sunni divide have to hit our relgion with more blows more stabs from within, it has to be wahabi and brahlevi divide, there is no stopping this as we will continue to divide it into smaller venemous pieces so that some petty men will feel good being the leaders of these small portions and they of course will be backed by religious rhetoric.....what a sham and what a shame! It seems the greatest threat our religion has is from within not without. (mehmoona javad  [dublin])

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