Unless we free ourselves from philosophies of bloodthirsty hatred on both sides of the border, nothing will change.
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: Some people in India were rejoicing at the hanging of Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist caught alive during the Mumbai attacks, but I wonder why his execution was followed by such a sense of jubilation. Ajmal was just a foot soldier — an illiterate young boy brainwashed into jihad who came to Mumbai to cause as much death as possible and then die. As long as his fellow ideologists, financiers and handlers remain out of reach of law, mere hanging of a lone terrorist will not achieve anything.
This is equally applicable on both sides of the border; Pakistan lost 45,000 civilians and military personnel during the last decade, while locally groomed terrorists are still roaming the streets of Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and elsewhere with impunity as we have been unable to catch and implicate the real culprits behind these crimes. What about the Samjhauta Express bombers and those responsible for the demolition of the Babri Mosque, the Mumbai riots of 1992-93, the Gujarat riots of 2002? The list goes on.
Unless we free ourselves from the philosophies of bloodthirsty hatred on both sides of the border — which are used to indoctrinate a sense of achievement and afterlife reward — nothing will change. Statements, vows, speeches will not work anymore unless we open our eyes and see the real enemy who wants to push both countries into Stone Age.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, November 23rd, 2012.
