Malala and the TTP: A staggering contrast

IT is a year today since Malala Yousafzai was shot, and it is the country’s good fortune that she not just survived but is doubly determined to continue to campaign for education. Given all that she has been through, it would not have been surprising perhaps had she displayed revanchist sentiments against the TTP which launched grievous harm on her person and under whose thrall she earlier spent time in Swat. But Ms Yousafzai is being quoted across the world’s media for the best of reasons, saying that she wants to change Pakistan’s future through political activity and compulsory education. And while some consider unexpected her remarks on Monday about talking to the Taliban, is that really the case? “The best way to solve problems and to fight against war is through dialogue and … through peaceful ways,” she commented. Even in the context of people who almost killed her, there is recognition that hatred can produce no future. All of this throws into even starker relief the ugliness of those who consider her a target. Even as Ms Yousafzai spoke of peace, the TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid denounced her courageousness and said that his group would try to kill her again. The young girl’s steadfastness of purpose and the ambassadorial role that has settled upon her has no doubt irked the TTP, but nothing can be more shameful than the contrast between the victim that wants peace and the perpetrators of violence that desire to peddle death. At the other end of this opprobrious spectrum, Maulana Samiul Haq, chairman of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, accused Ms Yousafzai of having been “hijacked” by Western and anti-Islam powers, even though the logic — given that the West wants the TTP eliminated — is tenuous at best. This is far from the first time the TTP has taken a position that bodes ill for long-term success in the dialogue option. On Oct 5, its spokesperson shocked the nation by saying the TTP approved of the bombing of Peshawar’s All Saints Church since it was in keeping with the Sharia. The Sept 10 resolution of the all parties’ conference that offered talks to the TTP could have paved the way for the group to renounce violence, pledge loyalty to the Constitution and begin to integrate itself in the mainstream by joining the political process. But Shahidullah Shahid’s statement appears to be a reaffirmation of the TTP leadership’s hubris, and peace could be a long time coming.