More morality

There is nothing more tiresome than attempts to impose morality. However, the continuing efforts in Lahore to drive home the message through explosions takes the drive into the realm of the truly frightening, rather than the merely annoying. The latest bombings at two internet cafes located in separate parts of town indicate again a carefully planned campaign. The small-scale blasts, which injured six persons, took place simultaneously. Both before and afterwards messages were texted to journalists by a group that identifies itself as the Tehrik-e-Tahaffuz-e-Pakistan, insisting it had done the right thing and that the activities at the cafes should be examined. As in the past, the café owners had been warned. The series of attacks across Lahore since 2008 have all followed a distinct script. It is astonishing that authorities have failed to address the attacks with the urgency that they deserve. The Punjab government has made no comment; police and security agencies have been unable to track down the group. There seems to be a failure to realise that even if loss of life has, mercifully, been limited, the ‘morality attacks’ represent a terrible threat. They set out to determine what is right and what is wrong. No one should be permitted to do that, least of all by using bombs or crackers as their weapons.

A far more committed effort is needed to track down these morality squads. They have obviously gained courage from the fact that they have so far evaded arrest. The different threads in the terrorist rope in one way or the other link together and give it strength. It may be no coincidence that the morality bombers promote the same message as the Taliban. All the strands making up the terrorist menace must be tracked down so that the suffocating net they are throwing around society can be cast away.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20^th, 2010.