The purpose of terror

It is instructive to reflect on the origins of the words ‘terror’ and ‘terrorism’. The first recorded use of the word in English was in 1798 in reference to the Irish Rebellion of the same year. Down the years, it has altered little in its meaning but much in context. The purpose of inflicting terror is to frighten enemy non-combatants, to scare the civilian population to the point at which they are acquiescent or at least neutral to the demands of those inflicting terror upon them. The attack in the early hours of February 3 in the Gulshan-i-Iqbal area of Karachi conforms exactly to the terror template — nobody was killed or injured, there was little damage to property and a segment of the population, including children who are pupils at schools in the area, were frightened. The terrorists left behind leaflets in good English and Urdu that warned the government to cease the executions of their comrades and the civil society to stop promoting a Western agenda, otherwise, “the flames of this war will intensify and engulf your homes”. There can be no clearer message than that.

The attack happened before there were any children in school and the area was quiet. The police and Rangers’ posts in the vicinity are only manned during school hours, and access to the area was easy for those who brought the message of terror. Thousands of lives will have been touched by this single calculated act. The owners of schools will have to consider if they will open or not (most stayed closed for the day) and teachers will have to decide if the risk of attending their duties was worth the salaries they are paid. Parents will have to consider whether they will put their children in harm’s way just by sending them to school. The terrorists used defenceless schools to make their point about the hanging of two convicted terrorists, and the state appears either absent or impotent when it comes to giving a contrary message to the terrorists beyond political platitudes. For the terrorists, it was a cheap and effective win; a loss for the rest of us.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th,  2015.

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