We will not defeat the Taliban until we confront their ideology and prove it wrong.
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: September 19 proved to be yet another bloody day with the Taliban targeting the home of CID senior police officer Chaudhry Aslam. At the very least, the attack shows that Karachi is no longer safe from the activities of the extremists, who seem to be able to strike with impunity.
Lest others start talking and claiming that the attackers “couldn’t be Muslim”, let me assure them that these are neither foreigners nor non-Muslims. The brainwashed zombies who carry out such attacks are products of Pakistan, mostly recruited from the religious seminaries and then taken to the tribal areas for training. Once, indoctrinated, they are sent on missions all across the country to kill and maim civilians, security forces, destroy properties or simply cause chaos.
On one hand, we call the ongoing war on terror as our war and on the other hand we are fighting it without any planning and strategy. For its part, the government needs to make the National Counter Terrorism Authority functional so that there can be a unified command for planning and striking back at the militants. Furthermore, what action has this government taken on the seminaries front? Pervez Musharraf tried to regulate them and failed, and this government hasn’t even tried to do anything on the matter.
Why is all of this happening? Why do we see suicide attacks every day? The answer is simple. They happen because we are not ready to confront the philosophy and deviant ideas the Taliban and their cronies have been preaching for some time. We will not defeat the Taliban until we confront their ideology and prove it wrong. Where are our intellectuals, religious scholars, jurists, academics, media pundits, etc? If they don’t rise to face this ideological crisis, no house, school, religious place, hospital or market will ever be safe in the country.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, September 21st, 2011.
