The anatomy of extremism

Alarming aspect of JIT report of five terrorist to be hanged is how ordinary, how unexceptional these killers were

Five ‘hardcore terrorists’ are to be hanged for their involvement in the Safoora Goth massacre and the murder of human rights activist Sabeen Mehmood in Karachi last year. The five are all said to be active members of al Qaeda. Whilst we continue to have deep reservations over the death penalty, we also have a serious concern about the path these individuals took that ends at a death sentence, and the implications for society as a whole.

The report of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) reveals that at least one of the killers was highly educated, a graduate of the Institute of Business Administration and not a man, according to his friends and associates, likely to be the cold-blooded killer that by his own admission he is. All of those convicted were affiliated however tangentially with al Qaeda and were sympathisers with and inspired by the Islamic State. This did not happen overnight nor in isolation. These men had common purpose, they worked and planned together, reconnoitered their targets and killed casually, without remorse, believing their crimes not to be crimes at all but the will of a higher power.

A picture emerges of educated, articulate men being drawn to radicalism and then extremism, who had no difficulty in getting training, who blended with the background and hid in plain sight. They selected targets on a sectarian basis or simply because, in the case of Sabeen Mahmud, did not like what she said and what she represented as a secular liberal. The truly alarming aspect of the JIT report is how commonplace, how ordinary, how unexceptional these killers were. How easily they had access to weapons and how well they were trained. They came from educated middle class backgrounds and had been to the best schools. They worked in — indeed were recruited from within — multinational companies that thousands of aspiring young people would seek to work for. It cannot — must not — be assumed that these five men are unique because they are not; more they are symptomatic of the profound malaise that afflicts the nation, a malaise for which no cure is currently being sought.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2016.

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