The writer is an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC and president of Vizier Consulting, LLC. He tweets at @arifcrafiq.
Meanwhile, the cashier had his eyes on me. A short conversation ensued. And it, too, took me back to Pakistan. But the flavour was bitter sorrow.
With formal introductions out of the way, the cashier and I began to talk of Pakistan’s present troubles. It was a melancholy conversation I’ve had many times before with others here in the US — a conversation that will be familiar to many expatriate Pakistanis and persons of Pakistani origin.
The sequence begins with expressions of horror at what Pakistan has become. Next come explanations of how it came to be this way, followed by lamenting the loss of what was or what might have been. And finally, there are indelicate attempts to punctuate the conversation with optimism or a supplication. The exchange is a formulaic, rapid fire form of collective therapy, probably common to many diaspora members from conflict-struck countries. It is a way to cope with disaster from a distance.
The cashier — an exceedingly polite, clean-shaven man with salt and pepper hair — said to me: “They cannot be Muslims. The people who are doing all this, they cannot be Muslims. Does anyone in your family do things like this? Blowing up masjids? No. And neither does anyone in mine.”
I stood there — keema in one hand, paan in the other — as he presented to me a narrative that has become an indelible part of the Pakistani intellectual diet. This is the narrative of the hidden hand — the third force that is supposedly pitting Muslim against Muslim in Pakistan.
I spoke with the man, but I do not know him personally. I do not know why he, as an individual, has subscribed to this myth. I will not pretend that I know why. But I did pretend to agree with him. He was both a stranger and an elder. I came into his store. And I came as a customer, not as a professional who analyses militancy in South Asia. It wasn’t my place to rebut him and I couldn’t change his mind in the few minutes I had.
Ultimately, it is only honesty from Pakistan’s leadership that can weaken the hold of this narrative of the hidden hand. Truth-telling must start at the top. It must come from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
On terrorism, Sharif has been an enigma. In the past five years, he has been refreshingly honest about Pakistan-based militants who target Afghanistan and India. Yet, he has avoided direct condemnation of militant groups behind the murder of thousands of Pakistanis.
The establishment, too, has had a binary approach towards militant groups. The army is quite focused on targeting al Qaeda and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), while it has had a weaker approach toward other groups — for obvious reasons. Still, the establishment rarely mentions al Qaeda and the TTP specifically when speaking to the Pakistani public.
The citizens of Pakistan deserve the honest truth from their leadership. They should be told that most of the violence that takes place in Pakistan is not done by hands that are hidden. The hands are, in fact, visible, soaked in Pakistani blood and waving with pride. The TTP have claimed responsibility for the murder of thousands of Pakistanis. They do so by phone, email and videos published on the internet.
Denial, it could be said, is a river that runs through Pakistan. But it has not yet overflowed. The least Sharif could do is call these killers by their names. When the hidden hand myth meets its death — when more Pakistanis realise that the terrorists are fellow Pakistanis aiming to take over the state and impose their ideology on 180 million people — then we might see sustained public support for a national security policy that results in more Pakistanis living.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 13th, 2013.
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COMMENTS (12)
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The only "hidden" hand that is relevant for Pakistan's neighbors is not really that hidden. I think the author should have spent some time discussing the the known hidden hand that uses terrorism as an asset in Pakistan's foreign policy formulations. This "hidden" hand's policies of good and bad terrorists have had the blow-back effect on Pakistan itself.
@Lala Gee
Ohh.. Where are you? People here are giving clean chit to CIA/MOSAAD/RAW and there is nobody to debunk them. There is nobody to tell the truth. Too bad for us.
@TheMonk: But wait, you commented that "as you ‘pretended’ to agree with a totally false assessment of who causes murder and mayhem in Pakistan"! But then your keyboard ran out of ink, because YOU failed to tell us THE TRUTH about WHO actually "Causes murder and mayhem in Pakistan"!!!
It's never 'us', it's always 'them' - and that 'them' changes with the situation.
When educated Pakistanis, presumably with the ability to think and rationalize on their own; start subscribing to conspiracy theories, what hope does one have for the uneducated masses?
The “hidden hand” theory does not hold up when people like Ehsanullah Ehsan in Northern Pakistan and Zabihullah Mujahid in Afghanistan issue blatant statements accepting responsibilities of acts of violence on both sides of the border. There are real people who we have seen them on videos and their photographs are all over the internet. The ‘hidden hand’ myth has been debunked now and majority of people have realized who the real enemy is. Even in recent polls; the people of Pakistan overwhelmingly identified terrorism as the biggest threat to the nation. The mindset of a handful few, who are vocal with their fundamentalist ideologies, need to be aligned with that of the silent majority. Realizing that conspiracy theories have no place in today’s Pakistan is the first step. And soon we will see that these home grown enemies of the nation will have no support and nowhere to run.
Abdul Quddus DET-United States Central Command
How can you advocate for honesty in the Pakistani government, when you were unwilling to be honest with yourself, as you 'pretended' to agree with a totally false assessment of who causes murder and mayhem in Pakistan?
Practice what you preach, my friend.
"When more Pakistanis realise that the terrorists are fellow Pakistanis aiming to take over the state and impose their ideology on 180 million people".Well-said.
I think the people of South Asia need to know the identity of the hidden hand and the evidence that supports the accusation. Otherwise, it is left up to the imagination and prejudices of the individual person to choose the enemy. Above all, it is the most irresponsible way to illuminate the public mind.
The truth telling is not going to happen when NS and the PML-N, as well as the army, still have alliances with religious extremist groups too. Its the dishonest mindset and culture that's been accepted and practised.
We make deranged denials, twist reality and propagate xenophobic conspiracy fantasies rather than acknowledge the many local Wahhabi/Salafi/Deoband/Sunni extremist militant monsters we created and teamed up with globally, due to our own societal prejudices, geo-political interests and condoning of ideological violence.
The author should have told his compatriot that it could only be Muslim who could do this.
A well directed and factual Op Ed by the writer thanks ET for bringing it to us. It is the right of the voters to expect truth and nothing but the truth from the elected PM, NS. It is a shame that in more than a decade our establishment could not identify Pakistan’s real enemies who have killed more Pakistanis than all the other wars combined. These killers kill by thousands and then add insult to injury by proudly claiming the credit! How long could we continue to hide the truth and take it on the chin by these extremist murderers?