Blood on the ballot

Taliban seems determined to carry on with their games of death right into the polling day itself.

The ballot papers dropped into boxes on May 11 will bear not only stamp marks ahead of the names and symbols of candidates, but also more sinister stains of the blood that continues to spill. The latest attack came in Hangu, targeting the election campaign of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) and killed around 11 people, while around 35 were injured. Following the blast, a curfew was imposed in the area. This came just a day after a deadly blast in the Kurram Agency, which was the first to target a JUI-F rally. Twenty-three persons were killed and at least 47 injured as the party’s candidate for NA-38, Munir Orakzai, addressed party activists outside a mosque. Though Mr Orakzai himself, who was not injured in the blast, appeared bewildered by the attack and stated he had no enmity with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the banned organisation disagreed.



In a statement, TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan stressed the explosion was directed against Mr Orakzai himself, rather than the party, as the candidate had in the past “worked with the ANP, PPP and MQM” to hand over Arab “mujahideen” to the US. The three parties named by Ehsan have, of course, been most frequently targeted; the JUI-F, in contrast, is seen as being ideologically close to the militant force, necessitating the TTP clarification as to why it was carried out.

The thinking and complex politics of militant forces can be hard to understand. But what we can see is that the Taliban have emerged as major players in the electoral battle. They also seem determined to carry on with their games of death right into the polling day itself. The explosions occur virtually each day, and go to demonstrate just how helpless we are as a state before these forces. This is a terrifying reality. We are now confronting it head on and seeing a situation in which the militants have come to dictate more and more aspects of life, including how our democracy operates. This is not a good omen. We can only hope that all parties will move closer to recognising this and accept that the challenge of stopping the militants will be crucial to our future. They have already demonstrated just how capable they are of wrecking it and leaving behind only mayhem.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2013.