Share this article
Print this page
Email a friend
- RSS
- Today's Paper
- Subscribe
- beta 2.0
High: 33°C
Low: 27°C
Alerts
Nothing is safe anymore
All credits eventually run out, and the one the state of Pakistan won for beating back local Taliban from the Malakand.
The writer is executive director news and current affairs at Aaj TV (syed.talat@tribune.com.pk).
All credits eventually run out, and the one the state of Pakistan won for beating back local Taliban from the Malakand and the tribal belt is no exception to this rule. As it is the situation in the tribal agencies is precarious and there is no end in sight of the ongoing military operations, but the real challenge is now in the urban areas where the blow-back is being felt with devastating consequences.
The Data Darbar attack is the cutting edge of this new dimension of the war against terror that we joined willingly and are now finding it exceedingly hard to wind up. This is not the first time a revered place, housing the remains of a holy man, has been hit. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, almost 50 such incidents have occurred. The militants brandishing the swords of an exclusivist, puritanical Islam destroyed graves with impunity and bombed tombs. From the small neighbourhoods in Orakzai agency to the attack on the tomb of Rahman Baba, in Hazarkhwani, in Peshawar, the Taliban have desecrated every symbol displaying faith they are in dead disagreement with.
But Data Darbar is a different case. Its centrality to the life of faithful spreads across the sub-continent and even beyond. For this to be under the fire of hateful suicide attackers is an affront far more serious than any other the nation has witnessed so far. By that token the inability of the government, and state institutions, to prevent such an attack from happening has to be categorised as a failure far egregious than anything we have witnessed before. The symbolism of the attack is not that a particular brand of Islam is unacceptable to the terrorists. The message is that nothing is safe from their reach and that the law enforcement agencies are completely in the dark about those who are visiting death upon the innocent citizens.
Seen in the broader context of the terrorists’ reach, now it seems to encompass the entire north and northwest of Pakistan, clouding two capital cities, Peshawar and Lahore, and penetrating the entire landscape of two provinces. Of course, this is mere symbolism. It is not as if Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are about to fall to the terrorists. In fact, a visit to the Data Darbar the day after the attacks was a soul-lifting experience. People were thronging the place like never before. They had lived through a terrible experience in a little under 18 hours.
Yet spectacular attacks like these drum up the international (and now increasingly domestic) hype about a country falling, failing or flailing in a sea of problems, the grimmest of which happens to be a crippled state machinery and an audacious network of terrorism sponsors and their foot-soldiers. It is this hype that has become the bane of Pakistan. It is nibbling away achievements that the country has to its credit in fighting down organised militancy in the northwest.
Regrettably, internal incompetence and lack of coherent planning to deal with urban terrorism has only reinforced this image of Pakistan adrift, of a country slipping badly. Feuding politicians in the Punjab and an endless turf war between the governor and the chief minister has only accentuated the problem of not focusing attention on counter-terror efforts. The federal government’s lead political man, the prime minister, is hopelessly out of sync with needs of the times, and like his president, seems so far away from meeting the challenge of strategising against spreading terrorism.
This gives Pakistan’s detractors like India, cagey powers like the US, keen observers like the EU and even interested states like China a lot of reason to think that Pakistan, in spite of its many merits, is living dangerously. And we are living dangerously — from one terror attack to another, spending the days falling in between on political trivia. The Data Darbar incident is a tactical success for the terrorists, whether from outside or home-grown. The manner in which the nation has responded to this attack is a victory for the people and a tribute to their spirit. Those in government need to seriously think, is there anything that they have done with regard to this attack that can be called praiseworthy?
Published in The Express Tribune, July 5th, 2010.
Reader Comments (21)
Latest News
Environmental protection: EPA proposes ‘green force’ and environmental magistrates
13 changes suggested to draft Punjab Environment Protection Bill 2012.
Drug trafficking: Sleeping driver alerts police to drugs
Police searched the container and recovered 6,000kg of charas worth Rs90.5 million and 15kg of heroin.
Punjab university: Acting VC named while Mujahid away
Punjab University Vice Chancellor Prof Mujahid Kamran has departed for the United Kingdom for two weeks.
Children’s hospital: ‘Special package’ to fill vacancies, says YDA
YDA says the government’s inability to fill the posts illustrated its lack of commitment towards child health.
Robbery: ‘Killed by accomplice’s bullet’
Witnesses said the robbers had started firing on receiving resistance from the people.
Recent Slideshows
More in Opinion
Not a failed state
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, redistributed or derived from.
Unless otherwise stated, all content is copyrighted © 2012 The Express Tribune News Network.
Technical feedback? webmaster@tribune.com.pk
Well weaved article but there must have been some suggestions to tackle this menace because it is very easy to criticize the government and its machinery but difficult to come up with some plausible solutions of the problems.Recommend
If Pakistan’s detractors are getting ammunition it is because we are in a state of denial and we are failing ourselves. That Pakistan is living dangerously is an understatement and nothing new. For years many countries have questioned for how long we will allow our fellow citizens to be killed before we are attacked. And the answer is that our government and military seems to have infinite patience to allow the continuing blood bath across the country. May it be politicians who are using the recent wave of attacks in Lahore to score points, or the Army that is more than happy to represent and defend the Haqqani’s rather than the citizens of the country who they are allegedly supposed to defend, the citizenry in this country are treated with utter contempt and disdain by the powers to be.
This article could have been published today, the year before, or the year before that. And we will continue to find more and more articles in the future touching on the same subject. For we seem to have an unbelievable ability to deny our own responsibility, put our head in the sand or deflect our problems on “foreign elements”.Recommend
@AAMIR It’s not Talats job to come up with solutions. He is a journalist. The government is supposed to come up with solutions. They have the money and the resources to do so. Just not the interest.Recommend
I thought Mr Hussain had better sense than Ayesha Siddiqa and Naveen Naqvi but he seems just as clueless as the two ladies (see my comments at the end of their articles). Mr Hussain, take a good long look at what has already happened in Iraq and Afghanistan. Do you discern a pattern? No? Oh dear, then open up your ears to an echo from the past, Karl Rove’s haunting words:
“We’re an empire now, and when we act we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors …. and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
Remember that Americans are roaming all over Pakistan, among them Urdu and Pashto speaking “contractors” and CIA agents. In a desperately poor country like Pakistan where whole families commit suicide as a matter of course, finding suicide bombers is no big deal. Lofty religious and spiritual ideas are meaningless to people reduced to living a meaningless existence where they and their families routinely suffer starvation and dishonour. No wonder the foreign presence in our country finds it so easy to recruit these unfortunate souls for their evil designs.Recommend
Talat Sahab congratulations on your corageous participation in taking aid for Gazans. I am happy to see you unharmed. This blog, however, does not take into account the role of Pak army and ISI in failing to curb militancy. Politicians role is discussed and criticized but Pak army and ISI is neither discussed for creating the monsters and nor for failing to curb them.
Politicians are no angels but they are not as powerful as Pakistani army and ISI. Hence, the responsibility for peace lies more on Army and ISI than on the politicians.
@Syed Nadir El-Edroos
Sir your comments are spot on.Recommend
i would exception at the following:
it reeks of the politician’s subterranean blame game…when will we look squarely in the mirror and say the terrorists are from within us?Recommend
The Punjab Govt gave away 80 million to a JuD/LeT, a banned organization from the provincial budget. It reflects the priorities of the sitting Govt.Recommend
Talat sahab I did not learn anything new from your article. In fact I am a little peeved because I was expecting something more concrete in terms of ideas or new information that others might have overlooked. All I got was what I already know; terror attacks in urban areas, political leadership incapable to solving this, India/US/China blah blah blah …..
Here are my very humble suggestions:
Triple the police force. Get the Army to train a small part of the force in anti terror ops. Install plain clothes police all over the city who are in constant communications with the head office. Start eavesdropping on mobile telephone conversations. Encourage citizens participation in patrolling neighbourhoods. Actively communicate with the MI/ISI/IB and the counterparts in NWFP. Find a few terrorists and prosecute them, successfully!
I just thought of these on the fly…I am sure if I sit down with a team I can come up with many more.Recommend
Indian Muslims must be thanking the heavens for ending up in India.Recommend
This person who wrote the article is one of the people responsible for Pakistan’s state of affairs.
Thank You Talat for all your help to get us here. Now that democracy is here we feel so good, no security, no jobs, no food & no hope.
Thank you for bringing back BB, AZ & Co with ofcourse the Sharifov’s & their mindless bunch.
Thank you for the Judiciary (Independent & biased). You people (Media) got rid of a man who honestly cared about this nation & worked for it with an honest heart.
You presented twisted facts on the behest of your TV channels suppremos as they had their own agenda. Mind you, you people will be judged soon, very soon.Recommend
I wonder why Media is reluctant to expose MQM, the prime source of terror and violence in Pakistan economic’s hub, Karachi. Why, Pakistani media gives hours’long live coverage to Altaf Hussain Speech? I asked the questions from someone in Electronic Media, He replied, “this will be the last day of our channel in Karachi”.Recommend
Great article Well done. I hope People in power also read this and stop playing politics on dead bodies.Recommend
Mr. Talat is right on many counts.We have used every state machinary iclunding our air foce to subdue the insurgency.I suppose enough is enough with the use of military instrument icluding drones ,besides our rehtoric in rooting out terrorism.We need to take stock of the root cause which we advocate for others to address but are blind to it at home front.As long as the occupation of Afghanistan contineus ,the fallout will loom large. They consider us as part of the prblem and shall be doing every thig that we remain committed and allied through the use of stick and carrot technique.
It is a war between two extremists ,one religio and the other enlightened libero and in between the moderate siding with either gets crushed at their own risk and cost.we are in a muddy water, the situation is murky and every in and out sider envy finds it convenient to fish in this troubled waters.The result is that we want to side line the main issue and instead play politics on Data Darbar carnage even by the rligio-politico cutodians by adopting an extremist position and indulging in blame game by both the ruling parties.
THE WAY FOWARD IS TO ADDRESS THE ROOT CAUSE AND DE-ESCALATE,AND TRADE TIME BY FACILITATING THE EXIT OF OCCUPATION FORCES AND OTHER MERCENARIES CONTRACTORS.
Are there two opinions about drone attaks? if not why can,t we take a firm stand?Because we are the stake holrers in the bounties ,so we shall share and bear the loss and cost by imlications.Recommend
@Anoop pls dont start this what indian muslims must be thanking….. i rest my case here….dont need to elaborate….. RSS…gujrat….kashmir…
@Yusuf good suggestions……Recommend
I fail to comprehend why Talat Hussian would term these barbaric acts as “Spectacular attacks” what exactly is so exciting about it? And then the perpetual state of denial in admitting that the enemy lies within our ranks.Recommend
I think it seems after collectivly study of various articles, TV channels or comments, we all (Government, law enforcement agencies, Journlist, Analysist and the most important Awaam) is being living in a different world and our enemy is wining day by day. How cruel is this and shameful for nation and rulers?
In my veiw enemy is one using different strategies and we all are discussing different strategies everytime and make ourself fool but no conculsion.
We as a nation need to decide not to decide in fact engrave on stone that we have to win with this situation.Recommend
One of the Solutions that is missed by Talat Hussain: With likely departure of USA & Allies from USA, Taliban spill-over to Pakistan looks imminent. Before brute & turban-branded form of Islam is imposed on us Pakistanis, the political players should sincerely think of aligning Constitution of Pakistan to the modern Islamic injunctions, already-recommended by the Shariat Council. The package was passed by the National Assembly and is pending with the Senate for more than a decade. For how long will we continue cheating with the preface of the Constitution?Recommend
The issue is our turning a blind eye to ideologies that belittle other people’s belief. It’s not only about poor security or failure of those who rule us.
Even now, people are not able to say that it’s ok for a person to worship God the way he wants to. People keep equating Sufi practices with Hinduism. Hindu religion is considered widely beyond the pale based on half-truths. Now we have muslims declaring other persons non-muslims based on either their non-practice or their non-conformity to one tenet or another. This holier than thou attitude is poison and against Islam’s teachings. Why is noone talking about this? Are we now dead from inside?Recommend
This article could have been published today, the year before, or the year before that. And we will continue to find more and more articles in the future touching on the same subject. For we seem to have an unbelievable ability to deny our own responsibility, put our head in the sand or deflect our problems on “foreign elements”.Recommend
Lack of coherent planning to deal with terrorism may invite a greater devastation for us. The recent meeting which has laid the foundations for the formation of a national authority to control terrorism is indeed a great step forward to build national consensus about many pertinent issues.Recommend
How can we expect our Government to tackle terrorism when they can’t even handle the Attabad delimma. Taliban were created by us and we need to get united to solve this problem. First, we need to be true Muslims then only can we fight our enemies. We need new leaders who are honest and sincere.Recommend