Do not nurture snakes in your backyard
There cannot be a more terrible reminder to the present and past rulers of Pakistan than the massacre of 132 children in a Peshawar Army school on Tuesday, that their patronage to terror elements can result in unspeakable tragedies. These innocent children paid with their lives for the stupidities that Pakistan's political establishment has been indulging in over the years, by being soft on terror groups. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which has proudly claimed responsibility for the gruesome killings, may now be under attack from the Army in its stronghold in Waziristan and elsewhere, but let’s not forget that Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had only recently wanted to engage in a dialogue with the terror group even as it was engaged in killing and general mayhem.
He was certainly not in favour of the military offensive against them, but could do nothing because of the Army's insistence to go ahead. Similarly, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan too had been a strong votary of reconciliation with the Pakistani Taliban. In fact, both Mr Sharif and Mr Khan had steered clear of taking strong positions against any militant group during their election campaigns, realising that they may have to do business with these characters.
The Pakistan Army, which is now spewing venom against the Taliban, has done nothing to break the synergy between the latter and those such as the Haqqani network and the lashkar-e-Tayyeba. This is because elements in the Army, and more importantly, the Inter-Services Intelligence, have patronised and promoted the Haqqani network and the leT, and have used them to target Indian interests here and abroad, primarily in Afghanistan. The Taliban in Pakistan are not working in isolation but in collaboration with these and other terror organisations. Pakistan's fight against the Taliban cannot be complete without a crackdown on the others. But then, both Islamabad and Rawalpindi are not prepared to accept the reality because they do not want to lose their ‘strategic depth' — which these outfits represent — against India.
Pakistani rulers and commentators have been saying for long that their nation has been a victim of terror for years; the Tuesday incident has given them more material to demonstrate that claim. They have also been arguing that the Pakistani state has been valiantly countering terror groups. Mr Sharif has now vowed to finish off the Taliban. But the fact is that the civilian rulers and the military there have been spending enormous and disproportionate amounts of money to bolster their country's defence against largely imaginary threats from India, at the cost of fighting home-bred terror.
They have not realised that the real enemy is within them and not across the border. Unfortunately, foreign Governments friendly to Islamabad too have gone along, piling Pakistan with more military hardware and larger funds that were eventually diverted to enhance combat capabilities against India rather than be used to strengthen Pakistan's anti-terror drive. Pakistan needs to face the truth that the fastest growth of terror and religious fanatic groups has happened when the country was most obsessed with ‘containing' India. From General Zia ul-Haq's time and later even during Benazir Bhutto's tenure as well the earlier prime ministership of Mr Sharif and the Pakistan Peoples Party’s reign, the trend has been for political rulers to humour the militants in a bid to secure and sustain their positions in public life.
Militant groups in Pakistan understand well that they are in great demand, regardless of the public posturing of the politicians. Mr Sharif tried to be accommodative towards them in his battle for supremacy against the Army and the likes of Mr Imran Khan; the PTI chief on his part had been openly soft towards the Taliban to counter Mr Sharif and gain credence with the Army and the ISI, and has been only now compelled by the recent massacre to denounce them; and the Army, for all its tough talk after it felt that the Taliban had begun to snipe at its very patrons, had played a critical role in ensuring the flourishing of the terror group — how else can one explain that the Taliban could over the years entrench themselves in the tribal regions of Pakistan without much oppositionIJ
The other reason why the Taliban in Pakistan were allowed to flourish is because of their linkage with the Afghan Taliban which has targeted Indian and Western assets. This is where Pakistan's policy of differentiating between ‘good terrorists' and ‘bad terrorists' comes to play. The leT and the Haqqani network, and their leaders make valuable contributions to the campaigns of the Pakistan Army and the ISI against India, and they have, therefore, been given a free hand. Pakistan must realise that a day can come when these ‘strategic' players turn against the Pakistani state itself — like the Taliban have. The US Secretary of State had warned Pakistan years ago that if it nurtured snakes (terrorists) in its backyard, it must not expect those snakes to bite only Pakistan's neighbours (India and Afghanistan). Tuesday's incident shows how right she was.
It is difficult or even inhuman to seek anything positive out of the mindless massacre. Still, it is to be expected that the collective anger of the ordinary Pakistanis against not just the Talibani terrorists but also state agencies that have sheltered them, will force these agencies to mend their ways. One must also hope that the Pakistani people will demand answers from their rulers, from the Army and from the ISI, on why they have been favouring these fanatic elements for decades and building them up to a level where they now blatantly conduct attacks in Pakistan and neighbouring regions.
It would indeed be something if the grieving Pakistani political leadership acknowledges the dangers that the likes of Mumbai 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed pose to civil society. Meanwhile, while everyone wishes that the Pakistan Army succeeds in its task of neutralising the Taliban, it may well turn out in the medium-to-long term that the offensive was selective and half-hearted — like it had been when the US had breathed down Pakistan's and demanded that it crack down on the militants in the Waziristan region. As for the political class, leaders like Mr Imran Khan should realise that forever trying to undermine an elected regime through disruptive street agitations, and demanding its ouster, offers just the perfect occasion for militants to regroup and enhance their leverage with the ambitious mainstream players.