Contradictory narratives on the Taliban

EDITORIAL:Daily Times

Addressing gatherings of his supporters in Karachi and elsewhere, Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain assured the Pakistan army his party’s full support for a military operation against the Taliban. The announcement carried a reminder to the army that if it keeps musing over the options to wipe out the scourge of terrorism, the people of Pakistan would reach out to other forces to get rid of the terrorists. The gatherings were held to express solidarity with Malala Yousufzai. Altaf Hussain asked the people to take a clear stand on the Taliban and other Islamic extremist groups. Addressing the political parties, Altaf urged them to get united to save the country from terrorism. He questioned why the attack on Malala is being linked to drones or Laal Masjid. On the other hand, in a simultaneous rally by the Jamiat-e-Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) head Maulana Fazlur Rehman in Sukkur, the narrative against terrorism and the attack on Malala Yousufzai differed sharply from that of Altaf’s. He painted Malala’s attack as a ruse to gain support for a military operation in North Waziristan, which the Maulana said would not be allowed under any circumstances and surely not because the US or its western allies want it. Referring to people dying in drone attacks and in other incidents due to the poor law and order situation, the Maulana asked for condemnation of these in a similar manner as accorded to the attack on Malala. Coming down hard on Altaf Hussain, the chief of the JUI said that the MQM had no business asking for or compiling information on seminaries. Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s viewpoint hardly comes as a surprise. After all, it is his party that is considered the mother of the Taliban. How then could he fail to come to the aid and succour of his ‘offspring’, currently the target of across the board condemnation and criticism for the attempt to assassinate Malala. Ignoring the facts of the ground situation in North Waziristan, the hub of terrorism, fed by students from the womb of the seminaries spread across the country, Maulana’s attempted diversion of focus to the red herring of drone attacks or other violence failed to convince. He also failed to explain how an operation in North Waziristan would prove detrimental to the security of the country, when that is already imperilled by the terrorists. What the Maulana and all those who speak vociferously against drones, like for instance Imran Khan, fail to understand is that drone attacks are a response to terrorism and not the original cause of the terrorism that has us in its grip. Linking those who die in drone attacks with Malala’s incident will not dilute the intensity of the national consensus that is now building on flushing out the terrorists hiding in North Waziristan. By now, the truth of some seminaries producing death squads and suicide bombers is hardly a secret. Jihadi ideology can no longer, if it ever could, be used to justify the brutality of the Taliban. Either such seminaries producing actual or potential terrorists should be shut down or, if possible, reformed to impart productive knowledge. Since the attack on Malala has proved beyond any shadow of doubt that the Taliban are prepared to go to any lengths in enforcing their misconceived and bigoted notions of what the faith enjoins, perhaps the time has come to build a broad resistance against their benighted activities so as not only to nip this evil in the bud, but ensure this menace is buried once and for all.