SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS MUST COOPERATE TO ACHIEVE FINAL VICTORY IN THE BATTLE AGAINST VIOLENT EXTREMISM
By Pervaiz Asghar, REAR ADMIRAL (RET.), PAKISTAN NAVY
Beyond its shores, Pakistan’s fair name has unfortunately become synonymous with terrorism of the Islamic variety. Though most of us remain in defiant denial, the unpalatable fact is that the rising tide of radicalism and religious exclusivity that has continued to envelop us in its embrace since the early 1980s has forced its way unhindered into the national consciousness.
This wasn’t always so; the few hiccups encountered earlier — like the anti-Ahmadi riots of 1953 — were born more out of political expediency and inadequacy rather than an inherent sense of intolerance.
The wars in Afghanistan are among the biggest reasons for the current state of affairs. After the Soviet Union left, the situation in Afghanistan became even more chaotic as the disparate terrorist groups started jockeying for power. The ensuing instability gave rise to the Taliban movement, which mostly included in its ranks the Afghan war orphans groomed in radical madrassas that had mushroomed along Pakistan’s western borders.
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As the Taliban kept notching up one victory after another and their ranks swelled with fresh recruits, their ambitions became loftier. So after consolidating themselves in the south, including the capital, Kabul, they turned their sights with a vengeance northward toward the Uzbek, Tajik, Turkmen and Hazara majority regions, thereby lending the civil conflict an ethnic flavor.
By the time the horrifying events of 9/11 unfolded, the Taliban had overrun most of Afghanistan and were knocking on the doors of the Panjsher valley, the last bastion of resistance. Though the 9/11 bombers were non-Afghans, the coalition homed in on what it determined to be the source of the planning, namely al-Qaida in Afghanistan. Remnants of al-Qaida and the Taliban that survived the air and land blitz retreated into mountainous hideouts along the Pakistan-Afghan border and ultimately found their way to Pakistan’s tribal areas through a porous border that has never been much of a hindrance for the Pashtun tribes living on either side.
Shielded from the public eye and free from any governmental interference, the next few years enabled al-Qaida to become fully entrenched in the Waziristan tribal belt and ingratiate itself with the locals through a lavish display of money, which enabled it to cast its net of violent ideology both near and far. The capture of a large number of high-ranking al-Qaida leaders (who had gone underground in the major cities of Pakistan) and selected operations against the foreign fighters in South Waziristan led to two back-to-back attacks against then-President Pervez Musharraf in late 2003. The large-scale clampdown that followed the assassination attempts forced the terrorist groups, which had coalesced under the guidance of al-Qaida, to lash out in all directions.
The Pakistan Army’s abortive attempts to assert control over the Wana subdivision of South Waziristan, where many foreign extremists had been dug in, led to the signing of the infamous Shakai peace agreement of April 2004, which helped shore up the image of a terrorist named Nek Muhammad, who emerged from the distasteful episode as something of a hero. Al-Qaida’s policy of propping up independent-minded ambitious youngsters in leadership roles was apparently paying off; generous doses of SUVs, arms and money to selected individuals loyal to al-Qaida ultimately led to the elimination of the traditional roles exercised by the tribal elders for preserving the peace.
From 2004 onward, mayhem ruled. It was as if Pakistan had given in to the forces of darkness, for whom no target was off limits, with indoctrinated suicide bombers being the weapon of choice. Apart from targeting senior military officers, including a corps commander, the terrorists also assassinated a former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. Shia, for whom the criminals of the Wahhabi-Salafi-Deobandi orientation shared a major dislike, were hit the hardest, with the Hazara community of Quetta being so brutalized that members were forced to either flee or remain virtually ghettoized. The type of targets chosen were unimaginably diverse: Sunni Sufis, moderate Islamic scholars, liberal intellectuals, mosques, churches, minorities, graveyards, shrines, schools, marketplaces, courts of law, buses, military, law enforcement agencies and intelligence installations.
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And just when the world was fooled into thinking that al-Qaida and the Taliban had become irrelevant, it received a rude shock in the form of a summer offensive in 2006. Stung by allegations of complicity, the Pakistan Army’s first serious effort to restore the writ of the state in its tribal areas the next year (Operation Rah-e-Haq) was blunted by the clerics of the Red Mosque (Lal Masjid) in the center of Islamabad, who continued to embarrass the state by issuing fatwas (religious opinions) against the Armed Forces and carrying out vigilante-style antics. After having exhausted all means to talk sense into the clerics, who enjoyed a sizable following in terrorist circles and substantial support within the levers of power, the government was forced to storm the large mosque-madrassas-hostel complex in July 2007, killing all those who had refused to vacate the premises.
Al-Qaida, whose presence in Waziristan had radicalized the tribesmen, used the Lal Masjid episode to galvanize the extremists into forming a broad-based coalition under the banner of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to coordinate attacks against the state. Apart from undertaking terrorist attacks within Pakistan, the group, faced with the practical necessity of generating funds to sustain itself, indulged in drug trafficking, gun running, extortion, ransoms and even bank robberies.
The TTP upped the ante by taking violence to a whole new level. The threat that it now posed to Kabul from the northeast compelled NATO and Pakistani forces to launch a joint operation code-named Lionheart, also known as Sherdil, from opposite sides of the Pak-Afghan border. Al-Qaida even managed to infiltrate the Khyber Agency, traditionally a stronghold of the followers of the more tolerant Sufi Barelvi school of Islam.
Amid all this excitement, Pakistan failed to notice that a young firebrand cleric, whose continual sermons on a mobile FM radio transmitter about the virtues of “Islamic” governance and the pressing need for speedy justice, had touched a raw nerve among the citizens of Swat, part of the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas. However, alarm bells rang when the TTP, facilitated by the popular Mullah Fazlullah, took over the scenic valley and replaced the civil functionaries with those from among its own cadre, letting loose a reign of terror.
The nation went into shock when it was reported that the terrorists were also approaching the capital of Islamabad from another northerly direction. As the Army took action and reversed these gains, Mullah Fazlullah escaped to Afghanistan, where he set up camp for his anti-Pakistan activities.
The new government in Pakistan in mid-2013 tried to initiate a dialogue with the local Taliban rather than taking it head-on, even when it became obvious the Taliban was just stalling. A major terrorist attack on Karachi Airport a year later was for all intents and purposes like any other. But as far as the Army’s reaction was concerned, it wasn’t. It immediately launched a full-scale attack on North Waziristan, where extremists of all shades under the umbrella of al-Qaida were holding sway. The senseless retaliatory attack on an Army-run public school on the outskirts of Peshawar, resulting in the wanton slaughter of 140 students, proved to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back; the government was forced to prepare a National Action Plan to combat terrorism on all fronts. Though it’s premature to gauge the scale of success achieved, statistics reveal a sharp drop of up to 60 percent in the number of terrorist incidents in 2015, compared with the previous year.
A significant number of Pakistanis are now increasingly looking to the future with hope. The military has achieved the unthinkable by establishing the writ of the government in almost the entire tribal belt, including the Shawal Valley, located strategically at the confluence of Afghanistan and North and South Waziristan. The government has now turned its attention to South Punjab, long a hotbed of extremism and sectarianism, which had escaped scrutiny thus far. The riverine areas at the confluence of the provinces of Baluchistan, Sindh and Punjab, which served as the hideout of various criminal and sectarian gangs, have recently been cleansed. The military has now signaled its intent to target the hideouts and sleeper cells of the terrorists throughout the country. Karachi, the most industrialized city in Pakistan, which had been brought to the brink of anarchy through systematic extortion, kidnapping for ransom, bank robberies and target killings conducted by criminal and sectarian gangs, is now regaining a semblance of normality, thanks to the Army’s initiative under the National Action Plan. The province of Baluchistan likewise was increasingly becoming ungovernable but has been stabilized to a large extent. It is no wonder then that Chief of Army Staff Gen. Raheel Sharif has arguably become the most popular figure in the country because of his sense of patriotism and devotion.
Though many countries still look toward Pakistan with unease, within the country a feeling of hope has begun to emerge. An enabling environment has finally been created where civil voices striving for openness and tolerance can be more easily heard, despite some of them still being silenced. After a very long time, issues relating to the rights of minorities are being openly discussed. Surprising as it may seem, women are at the forefront of the movement for change, pushing boundaries as never before: Malala Yousafzai became the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize; Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy won two back-to-back Oscars for documentaries highlighting socially disturbing issues; Muniba Mazari has been made the United Nation’s Goodwill Ambassador Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women; Fiza Farhan has been appointed to the U.N.’s first panel on women empowerment and enjoys the distinction of being included in the Forbes Top 100 list of women entrepreneurs under 30.
Having said that, no country should ever forget that its primary duty is to look after the welfare of its citizens. Pakistan’s budgetary allocations toward health and education are often viewed as inadequate. These vital sectors have been supported by the desperately needed involvement of social workers, philanthropists and nongovernmental organizations. Regardless of how well a country is able to protect its borders, its future is doomed unless it is able to significantly invest in its human resources and reap the benefits. With a burgeoning population and youth bulge, the focus should be on revitalizing our economy to create at least enough jobs every year to keep the current rampant unemployment in check. Nepotism, which is the lifeblood of many elitist systems, needs to be replaced by an open, merit-based system. The menace of corruption, long taken for granted, has to be confronted.
The setting up of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group, under whose aegis Pakistan has promised to do whatever it can to bring the Afghan Taliban leadership to the dialogue table, is a good beginning to create lasting peace. Its efforts, however, were stymied by the massive truck bombing in April 2016 in the heart of Kabul, for which the Haqqani Network and its publicized links with Pakistan were brought under scrutiny. Since the U.S. shares this perception, with NATO’s Resolute Support Mission in Kabul dubbing the Haqqanis the most lethal terrorist group in the area, the onus to allay such suspicions falls on Pakistan. An open discussion on our mutual grievances in the context of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group is necessary.
Stability, not only in Afghanistan but also within Pakistan, is a prerequisite for progress. Over the past decade or so, no other country beyond a declared war zone has been subjected to as many terrorist incidents as Pakistan. The country had reached a point where nothing was safe, not even educational institutions or places of worship. The relief afforded by the launch of Operation Zarb-e-Azb in mid-2014 needs to be augmented by truly combating terrorism “in all its forms and manifestations” as the official phrase goes. Nonmilitary aspects of the National Action Plan — judicial reforms, curbs on hate literature, protection of minorities, development work and administrative reforms in the tribal areas — deserve dedicated focus.
Pakistan needs friends and can ill afford to keep shrugging off the oft-voiced allegations about its flirtations with selected terrorists. Perceptions matter, and the country needs to allay nagging international concerns about its links with terror outfits like the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, the Haqqani Network and the Afghan Taliban’s Quetta Shura before it ends up getting completely isolated. Pakistan’s future well-being rests on the answer to one crucial question: Do we continue defending dated policies or do we become a more responsible member of a broader community that yearns to take us back?