Things revealed in assembly makes one shudder

A suicide bomber wanted to hit an Imambargah but luckily, the guards deputed there were extra vigilant.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan seldom speaks his heart out, even in the company of old friends. Although a decent recluse, he rather looks arrogantly standoffish to people not in real time contact with him. Speaking in the national assembly, however, he never sounds hiding the truth and sincerely attempts to share maximum of information furnished for him by sleuths and law enforcers.

His tell-all conduct does generate the feel of dream-come-true for a reporter. But, I am a timid and law-abiding citizen of this country as well and the things Nisar revealed in the national assembly Wednesday have made me shudder.

A suicide bomber had audaciously sneaked into a street in the suburbs of Islamabad some days ago when the whole country was busy with Eid celebrations. With an explosive jacket, he wanted to hit an Imambargah, but luckily, the guards deputed there were extra vigilant. The bomber did succeed in entering the mosque with desperate firing in all directions, but one of the guards target-killed him with perfect timing to prevent a potentially mass scale act of terrorism.

As per the information available to the media so far, the terrorist appeared to have acted like a lone wolf with no history of links with known outfits of sect-driven extremists. He hailed from the ancient town of Chiniot. Although associated with born entrepreneurs and highly acclaimed artisans of woodwork, this city is now plagued with rabid ideas that originated in the neighbouring district of Jhang. His father and brothers have embraced these ideas as well, although without any history of indulging in terrorist activity. All this affirmed the lone-wolf theory about the suicide bomber but Nisar has now discarded it with provision of new facts.

The suicide-bomber, we found out, was actually connected with a small group of around seven persons. Although born in South Waziristan, not one member of this group ever had any association with known terrorist groups operating from the North or the South Waziristan. This do-it-yourself looking group evolved on its own. Instead of going to any madrassa or joining the Jihadists’ camps for training, its members had gone to regular schools and for higher education reached some prestigious institution. While studying there, they befriended a local girl to use her house as their hideout and operational base. The members of this group seldom communicated with each other via the cell phones and exclusively relied on most modern gadgets of digital communication to select their targets and map out possible moves against them.

Originally, the group had planned to hit a bigger crowd assembled to offer Eid prayers, but after failing to sneak in there on time, the suicide bomber they had already launched opted to blow himself off in an Imambargha around Islamabad. Five of his handlers from the said group are now in police custody, while two are still beyond the reach of law enforcers while staying put but wandering in North and South Waziristan.

The story told by Nisar clearly suggested the frightening possibility that many of our youth are now trying to gang up in spontaneously assembled smaller groups. Motivated by the sectarian zeal, these youth elude attention for apparently living the normal life of college-going middle class boys of the towns. They learn bomb making and other means to mount terrorist attacks by surfing the net and finally spot, cultivate and groom a desperado to deliver like a lethal tool for them. Only God knows how many of such groups have mushroomed over the years and when they plan to act in which town.

The mushrooming of cyber-inspired “jihadists” has been confined to Europe and some American cities so far. The surfacing of a desperado in the suburbs of Islamabad on the Eid day clearly suggests that the trend has also reached Pakistan.

One strongly feels that even after engaging the known extremist groups operating under definite structures of command and control, in negotiations for peace, the government can prevent the proliferation of do-it-yourself type groups of cyber-driven loonies.

General Zia and his cronies remained recklessly busy in waging “Jihad for the liberation of Afghanistan” throughout the 1980s. Since then the rhetoric of rabid and hypocritical religiosity has monopolized the whole discourse in our mainstream media. It prepared hordes of impressionable minds to seek ‘more’ by diligently surfing the net and our state, its politicians, the so-called intellectuals and multiple outfits of national security have failed, both miserably and collectively, to find a counter-narrative and pursue it with some zeal and commitment. Even if our clueless-looking government is finally able to article some strategy in the name of national security policy, we seem set to endure the implosion of do-it-yourself group of loonies for many years to come.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22^nd, 2013.