Eid day tragedy

Eid day festivities were turned into mourning for the family of Israrullah Gandapur, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa minister for law and parliamentary affairs, who was killed by a suicide bomber as he met constituents at his home in his village near Dera Ismail Khan. Nine other persons were killed along with him; his brother was among the injured.

PTI chief Imran Khan and other members of the party immediately expressed shock over the death of Mr Gandapur, who had survived at least one previous assassination attempt. He becomes the third elected representative of the party to be killed by terrorists. As news of the incident came in, Imran Khan accused the federal government of not moving on with the decision made by the All Parties Conference regarding talks with the Taliban. However, with his own party in governance in K-P, he needs also to think about how to manage the horrific law and order situation in the province and consider why the persons he is so eager to conduct a dialogue with appear bent on murdering members of his own party one by one. This would not seem to be a friendly gesture. The PTI chief and his team need to think about what message is being sent out. The question that arises is whether it is moral, or even possible, to conduct talks with monsters that have already killed at least 40,000 people. Mr Gandapur and the nine who died with him were simply their latest victims. There can be little doubt there will be others and the figure for deaths caused by militants must be compared against those caused by drones, though, of course, these unmanned aerial raids into our country must stop too.

Right now, Imran Khan has to demonstrate that he is capable of leading from the front. Rather than merely talking or pointing fingers at the central government, he must suggest how it will be possible to engage with militants split into many factions and whether it is wise to negotiate with criminals. The unfortunate killing of the law minister brings these matters once more into the limelight. A solution must be found.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2013.

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