the nation.com: Terrorism in Pakistan cannot be brought to an abrupt end through violent means. Most explanations about the strains and motivations of militancy though true are not universally applicable. Just like politics makes strange bedfellows, umbrella militant organisation will ally with any group or country prepared to challenge their enemy. This includes nation states, romantic revolutionaries, donor organisations, criminals, sectarian killers, ethno nationalists and extortionists. They will remain in concord as long as their interests converge. Any divergence of immediate interests is unlikely. A full military action will forge stronger bonds. A single pronged military strategy will worsen the issue by catapulting to other regions.
An efficient terrorist organisation like TTP also needs an economy with logistic chain management. These lines are both interior and exterior. In most cases, the remittance lines converge on Pakistan’s so called friends and allies. They either have vested interests or are suspicious of Pakistan’s double play. Drying up logistics needs a concerted domestic and international effort; possible but improbable.
Few realise that the mainstay of TTP is an ideology based on a divine reward. The brain washing of its foot sloggers is effective. They consider themselves as Fedayeen who brave risks and suicides to attain the next level of heavenly perfection. Brainwashing as a counter strategy will need considerable time, effort and a complementary narrative that does not exist. This narrative revolves around the deconstruction of the deconstruct narrative followed by reconstruction of Jinnah’s Pakistan. The looming danger to personal safety is so real and credible that politicians are hesitant to explain this dream. Where is the ideology that will defeat the militant ideology?
Deconstruction of the Idea of Pakistan began much before 1947. The religious right after the 1857 Mutiny opposed the movement of progressive Muslims that later became All India Muslim League. The right with Mohan Das Gandhi as its leader led the Khilafat movement while the League opposed it. League was seen as a product of modernity and an agent of the British Raj. Jinnah was projected as a pork eating drunkard, a stigma attached to every progressive Pakistani even today. The battle lines of what afflicts Pakistan were drawn over 150 years ago. Some elements of religious orthodoxy always considered Islamist modernists as infidels.Realities have not changed.
Categories: Asia, Pakistan, Pakistan Inter-Faith