PNS Mehran attack: United we stand?

The fact that a non-state actor seems to be stronger than the state itself is worrying.

Does the maxim ‘United we stand, divided we fall’ hold true for us, only as a nation? It’s very evidently true for us, if we are part of the military forces. Just how can the intruders jump into the naval base and create havoc of such great magnitude. Unthinkable and unimaginable.

Karachi, my city was under attack, and one feels extremely out of focus, when our armed forces, our jawans, who spend their entire life guarding our lives and our borders, evidently get attacked by people we know as Taliban. This is in reference to the recent attacks on them.

But several questions must be raised about security lapse, about attacking the army, what boggles one’s mind are the two facts that require military minds to analyse.

Firstly, is our army really that divided, that within its ranks these hidden faces of Taliban can sell off my true jawans, so ruthlessly and so randomly. Secondly, come to think of it (as one co-worker rightly pointed out at lunch time), that after attacking and getting away with hitting our military personnel,  attacking the common man on the street, will be no mean feat for the Taliban. The Taliban are truly an evil genius in our midst.

Sadly, that is true, but more than that the fact is that not only our nation’s sovereignty has been ambushed gravely but the constant war against the non-state actor ie Taliban is a war that hopefully will continue unabated for a longer time period than one can think of.

OBL is gone, but his followers and trainers are still around. Fighting this scourge of terrorism is a virtue, but losing our jawans in these battles is the graver consequence.

The fact that a non-state actor seems to be stronger than the state itself, in influencing our day-to-day life, by mercilessly targeting whoever they like and wherever they like, is worrying. And it solidifies the fact that we are living on a razor’s edge, on the precipice, so to speak. Sadly, today we all live in very troubled times. Troubled times, indeed.