I have always wondered who violates our sovereignty more: CIA or our own people who line up passengers and shoot them.
MUSCAT: This is with reference to Sami Shah’s article of September 29 titled “What sovereignty are we talking about?”. I have always wondered who violates our sovereignty more: those sitting in the CIA’s headquarters pressing the button to launch drone attacks inside Pakistan or our own countrymen who line up innocent passengers and shoot them point-blank.
At least the CIA analyst who carries out the drone attack should be given the benefit of the doubt because he is — even if one doesn’t agree with this view — targeting a terrorist. However, those who kill Pakistanis can hardly use any justification for their actions, since they clearly are not taking out hardened terrorists.
In Pakistan, we have countrywide demonstrations against drone attacks but I have yet to recall a single one taken out by people protesting sectarian killings on the atrocities on innocent women, children and men by the militants. Why don’t we instead demand that our military and our government hunt down and eliminate these ruthless killers of innocent Pakistanis?
I remember that when Swat was being ruled by the Taliban, its spokesman Muslim Khan, would often claim responsibility for the most gruesome of attacks and killings on the local population. And yet, one would be hard-pressed to find even a single word of condemnation from a politician or even ordinary Pakistani against such misdeeds.
Hasan Mehmood
Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2011.
