It’s time to come clean and engage in a real clampdown on all such characters who openly defy Pakistan’s sovereignty
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: After helplessly watching the mayhem and destruction Kabul has been facing for the past two days, I wonder whether Afghanistan’s neighbours are really serious about their tall claims of bringing peace and prosperity in this war-torn and unfortunate country. On the one side, the Afghan government banned mourning ceremonies for the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, who reportedly died two years ago, while a few sectarian parties are openly arranging funeral prayers in different cities of Pakistan. We saw no attempt from the Pakistani government to stop such gatherings, which were obviously beaming a different message to the outside world. Perhaps, the Afghan Taliban are still considered the ‘good Taliban’.
I was amazed to see an announcement from Akora Khatak’s Darul Uloom Haqqania that its head, Maulana Samiul Haq, swore allegiance to the newly appointed chief of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor. What’s going on here — how could a Pakistani be allowed to extend his loyalty to a foreign warlord? Earlier, Lal Masjid clerics announced their loyalty to the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. By closing our eyes to these developments, do we think the storm will pass? No, it’s going to haunt us the same way that the ghosts of the American-Soviet war in Afghanistan still do. It’s time to come clean and engage in a real clampdown on all such characters who openly defy Pakistan’s sovereignty and shamelessly disgrace the nation by standing next to terrorists who have taken their countries into the dark ages.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, August 11th, 2015.
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