Ansar Abbasi appears on the front page of The News with a seemingly straightforward headline, ‘Rulers see long anti-terror war’. However, Abbasi’s article is actually a diatribe against the government and showing sympathy to jihadi militants.
According to Ansar Abbasi, a “source” claims that government officials see the war against terrorists lasting for a long time. This is, of course, plausible as the country has been infected with terrorists and is suffering attacks by terrorists almost daily. Actually, the same newspaper reported that police foiled an attempt to assassinate President Zardari which, whether or not you like Zardari, should be cause for alarm that someone would attempt to kill our president. It shows that these groups are directly targeting the state institutions. Or have we already forgotten PNS Mehran? CID office in Peshawar? Those brave Frontier Corps troops killed at Charsadda?
But Ansar Abbasi is not concerned with such inconvienient facts. Rather, he characterises fighting terrorists in terms of anti-Americanism.
Such is the dearth of a thinking process in Islamabad that it is blindly following Washington’s dictate to launch a military operation in North Waziristan against the pro-Pakistan Haqqani network in North Waziristan, ignoring Mike Mullen’s recent call to talk to Sirajuddin Haqqani.
Pakistan during the last ten years has not only sacrificed more than 35,000 lives in the US war on terror but has also lost US$68 billion worth of private and public property, installations, business and investment during the last ten years. What would be the impact of such losses if Pakistan is pushed to pursue the war on terror policy for next thirty-forty years is the question that the present rulers perhaps have not pondered.
While Ansar Abbasi may believe that terrorists would simply disappear if Rehman Malik invited them for tea, the facts perhaps suggest other wise. The government has tried to negotiate peace with militants, and at every turn peace agreements have been broken by the militants who insist on imposing their own ideology on the nation. This is the same poor excuse for terrorists made by Syed Munawar Hasan.
If terrorism can be countered through dialogue only, why have all the previous attempts to negotiate settlements with Taliban militants failed? The SHAKAI Agreement from 2004, Sararogha peace deal, Mirahshah peace deal, Kalosha in 2004…there is a long list of such dialogues that only ended in increased attacks by these same militants. How many ceasefires and truces have to be violated by extremist militants before we recognize that they cannot be trusted?
Next, if “extremist is the result of prolonged injustice and tyranny”, please let this man explain what is the prolonged injustice and tyranny that has been committed byAhmedis in Lahore? What is the prolonged injustice and tyranny that was committed by the Christians in Gojra? What is the prolonged injustice and tyranny that has been committed by Shias who have been the victims of extremist militancy? What is the prolonged injustice and tyranny that has been committed by people who are going toData Darbar, Abdur Rehman Baba, or Baba Farid?
Actually the “prolonged injustice and tyranny” is being committed by TTP, LeT and other militant extremists against the innocent people of Pakistan.
Maybe Ansar Abbasi and Munawar Hasan believe that jihadi militants are angels being unjustly persecuted by Pakistan military. But the innocents who suffer their vicious attacks know the truth.
