The other outcome is that the Taliban actually achieve their aims and objectives. This will of course entail an end to what we know of as Pakistan today, and this was well demonstrated by the brief interlude when the Taliban were allowed to hold sway over Swat and before that during the time they ruled Afghanistan.

Obviously there is no such thing as the ‘good’ Taliban, at least from a Pakistani perspective. The reason being that the Taliban are ‘maximalists’ and will accept nothing less than a complete acquiescence to their way of thinking. And their primary aim is to establish an extreme theocratic Muslim state in Pakistan similar to the one they had in Afghanistan.

Things are bad but might not be quite as bad as they seem. After all, the young republic went through a spasm of religious extremism a little less than 60 years ago that led to the complete collapse of law and order in the Punjab, forcing the army to step in. The extremists at that time were much less well organised or well armed but they had much wider support than the Taliban have today.

The popularity of the Taliban in parts of Pakistan over the last few years was directly associated with their fight against the ‘occupying’ US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. However, their participation in domestic terrorism has made them much less popular than they have been in the past. If the US-led campaign against the Taliban achieves some of its goals in Afghanistan while the Pakistan Army action against them in the tribal areas is also successful, then the US will leave Afghanistan to its own devices in a couple of years.

Once the US leaves this area, in Pakistan at least, the Taliban will become marginalised since the support for their religious objectives is restricted to a very narrow segment of Muslim society within Pakistan. This is not a fight between ‘moderate’ Muslims and extremists but rather between two competing visions of Islam, with a vast majority of Pakistani Muslims arrayed against the Taliban from a religious perspective.

Therefore, it seems to me that the best way for Pakistan to contain internal terrorism is to facilitate the US and NATO departure from Afghanistan. And the US will only leave Afghanistan when two conditions have been met. First, that the Taliban do not pose a significant threat to the present Afghan government, at least in the short term. Second that Pakistan or Afghanistan no longer provide safe haven to those that plan terror attacks against the US and its interests.

To help achieve these two goals, Pakistan needs to contain the Taliban so that they are no longer in control of any parts of the tribal areas where they can provide safe haven to al Qaeda remnants. The Pakistan Army is doing an admirable job from a military point of view, but the political leadership in Pakistan has to do its share. The Taliban are making this easier by indulging in widespread murder and mayhem, thereby alienating the ordinary people of Pakistan.

Politics, but not now —Dr Syed Mansoor Hussain
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=20103\15\story_15-3-2010_pg3_3

The people, however, deserve more from their state, which is gallantly fighting the war against militancy but is still lacking in many areas. One of the biggest failures appears to be an inability, or perhaps unwillingness, on the part of the Pakistan Army and the government to clearly define the gamut of threats to state security and the public’s safety.

By now every Pakistani knows about the TTP, or at least something about its key leaders, its agenda and its range of operations. The state has done well to take on this pre-eminent threat in Fata and Swat/ Malakand.

But there is a veritable alphabet soup of militant groups about which little is known. Here are just a few names: the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, Jaish-i-Mohammad, Fidayeen-i-Islam, Harkatul Jihad al-Islami, Ghazi Force, Abdullah Azam Brigade, the ‘al Almi’ suffix attached to several groups, Sipah-i-Sahaba. What has the Pakistan Army or the government told the public about these threats? Who are the leaders of these groups? How large are their cadres, in the dozens, the hundreds, the thousands? Where do they operate? What is their agenda? The public knows next to nothing about the answers to each of these questions — and that information black hole is a serious worry. Here’s why. Pakistanis have not been drawn to the militants’ ideology generally, and even where they have, arguably such as in Malakand division, they have been repulsed by violent means. But what the public cannot do is turn against what it does not know about. The failure of the state to come clean about the hydra-headed militancy threat means that many groups have been able to live, perhaps even thrive, alongside the population. It is striking that the average Pakistani with access to the news media or the Internet knows, or thinks he knows, more about Blackwater and RAW’s activities inside Pakistan than, for example, who leads Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and what its foot soldiers are up to.

Then there are the opaque inter- and intra-sect enmities. The week saw the murder in Karachi of, among others, the leader of Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-i-Nabuwwat — a group many Pakistanis know little about, but the murder of its leader was enough to spark panic in several Karachi localities. ‘Sectarian’ militants have been blamed for the murder but Karachiites are none the wiser. Pakistanis have conclusively demonstrated that they reject terror; it is time the state came clean about the full spectrum of the threat.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/editorial/19-awash-with-terror-430-hh-07

Twin suicide blasts ravaged the RA Bazaar in the Cantonment area of the city, spreading fear, pandemonium and death in this relatively untouched area. Targeting an army convoy patrolling the bazaar’s mosque perimeter during Friday prayers with one bomb, and then further confusing an already distraught public with gunfire and a second bomb immediately after, this attack has bloodied our government’s claim of having everything under control as far as terrorism is concerned. An area ‘heavily secured’ by the military, this assault on the security forces and the citizens has demonstrated the Taliban’s devotion to upping the ante as retribution for their recent losses in FATA. Also, this attack comes as an ‘in your face’ warning that no place is safe, especially those that have, in the past, been deemed impregnable by the security forces.

The glaring inconsistencies of our establishment’s vows to protect its citizens became laughably clear when miscreants detonated a series of cracker bombs in the Allama Iqbal Town and Samanabad areas of Lahore later the same evening, spreading panic and trepidation, but mercifully without adding to the earlier victims’ toll. With the media and police being led on a wild goose chase with one bomb after the other let loose upon residential blocks — behind a police station and the homes of police officers — the resulting chaos and disarray was the terrorists’ cheeky attempt at playing with the psyche of the citizenry. While the Cantonment blast was a raw exhibition of Taliban vengeance, the follow-up attacks preyed upon disabling our psychological well-being. The result? Eroding public confidence in the security agencies and the government.

The public has every right to foam at the mouth; with such lapses in our security arrangements, it is a wonder such a blatant assault has not come sooner. And the powers that be still do not learn. Security check posts are the establishment’s favourite measure in attempts to curb such incidents. In such a climate of unrest, where civilians and the security forces are both fair game, holding up traffic for at times hours on end provides potential suicide bombers a tempting opportunity. It is not possible to check the documents and vehicles of every single citizen; different measures of security enhancement will have to be introduced.

Lahore was a ghost town on Friday night and many late night travellers report no increased screening processes, something disturbing and welcome at the same time. Bringing life to a grinding halt is an aim of the aggressors; not giving in should be our deafening answer.

This is a murky war where suspicions are on higher alert than our security agencies, and civilians are being considered fair collateral. Therefore, it is the public that needs to fight back. Instead of gathering its forces for a ‘beef up’ in security and causing an imminent threat at check posts, the government ought to fully champion a mass media campaign aimed at educating and training the public on counter-terrorism strategies. Pakistan is in a state of war; the community needs to be well rehearsed in how to identify potential threats and suspicious behaviour. The citizens need to be the country’s watchdog because the assigned authorities are proving unequal to the task.

The Punjab government’s recent show of brotherly love with a banned organisation, so as to secure by-election votes, has also indirectly legitimised the violent theology of such outfits. Now with Punjab caught in the crosshairs of a struggle on fundamental grounds, should the provincial government be held responsible for fanning these ideological flames? Until and unless the Punjab government discards its selfish race to increase its vote bank, and unites with the federal government to cast out this scourge of aligned terrorist networks — Afghan/Pakistani Taliban and other outlawed outfits — such episodes could be witnessed time and again.

http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\03\14\story_14-3-2010_pg3_1

In what appears to be a knee-jerk response the commissioner of Lahore has blamed India for the bomb blasts. He must offer up whatever evidence he has. Logic dictates though that, like the spate of terrorism we have suffered for months, the latest attack too was carried out by pro-Taliban forces targeting the military. The enemy is here and has struck again and again – and our only hope of survival lies in driving the monster out before it is too late to do so. Somehow we have to stop this horror. The stains of blood that have coloured countless streets must fade away forever. Until this happens we, as a nation, will know no peace.

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=228738