Terrorism — a family business

When it comes to whether or not the Islamic State (IS) has a presence or not in Pakistan, the Interior Ministry and sundry other offices of state appear to be working with a .22 calibre mind in a .45 calibre world. As has been obvious to any number of commentators, analysts and observers for a year or more, the IS has slid in under the radar and established itself under the noses of a government for which the default mode is denial. For an organisation like IS to be able to spread itself, it needs a support structure, and given that it does not have the oil and taxation income streams that it has elsewhere in the borderless caliphate, a means of income generation must be secured.

The role of women within the IS is mistakenly taken to be insignificant, but in the last week in Pakistan, is revealed to be pivotal. The women’s wing of IS in Karachi has been a significant fund-raiser and assorted police and security agencies have been aware of this for an indeterminate period of time. Women who are either the wives or close relatives of at least some of those currently in custody for their alleged role in the Safoora bus massacre built a financing network.

This was revealed with the arrest of three women on December 19, one of them the wife of a key suspect in the Safoora killings. The women used their contacts among middle class and wealthy women to solicit funds, which were then passed to their male relatives to finance terrorist activity. If it can be done in Karachi, it can be done anywhere else in the country and it must not be assumed that this is an isolated instance.

Seemingly, the police held back on arrests “because they were women” — which is poppycock. Terrorism is terrorism whether committed by a man or woman, and the police and security agencies cannot tip-toe around the gender issue. The sooner the .22 calibre mind gets an upgrade, the better, preferably to something better able to counter the firepower of the Islamic State.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2015.

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