Guided missile to misguide people

The issue of drones which fly silently over our territory is creating more and more confusion under the shadows that fall as the aircraft hover over villages, searching out their targets. The action by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to block Nato supply routes as a protest against the drones, of course, highlights the matter of the violation of sovereignty and the civilian deaths that the strikes cause. These deaths, of course, need to be condemned in the strongest possible terms and indeed, the drone strikes may constitute a violation of international law as some agencies have suggested.

But let us keep things in some perspective. The drones go after individuals and groups perceived by the US as its enemies. Washington has made it quite clear that it will not stop these attacks and will continue to hunt down strategic targets. It must also be said that over the past years, there has been remarkable success in taking out key figures, including Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan leaders, through the drones and the missiles fired down from them. Had this not taken place, Baitullah Mehsud and Hakimullah Mehsud may still have been amongst us today. While Imran Khan says the strike in the settled district of Hangu constitutes an act of war as it is the first such action beyond the tribal areas, why should we not ask whether this ‘war’ had indeed begun in 2011 when US forces raided Abbottabad located only a short distance away from the federal capital to ‘take out’ Osama bin Laden. The raid on a madrassa in Hangu changes nothing.

The real fact is that a war has been raging in our country for years. It is fueled by the fact that networks such as that run by the Haqqanis continue to function from North Waziristan. We need to ask ourselves why this is the case and why, when groups within our country put up strong stands against drones, they do not also do so against outfits that operate from our soil and work against the state’s interests. Clearing up this matter must be our prime priority and the sooner we gain clarity, the better it would be for all of us.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2013.

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