According to Merriam Webster, revenge is defined as “to get even for a wrong done”. This morning when the Charsaddah bombing took place and Pakistan Taliban took responsibility of the suicide attacks, they called it “revenge” for the death of Osama Bin Laden. My question to the readers is: What kind of revenge is this? Call me delusional, but killing 80 innocent people who had nothing to do with the American Operation in Abbottabad that killed OBL is no revenge. It’s terrorism. Plain and simple.
Osama Bin Laden was killed in an operation conducted by the American Navy Seals. Everywhere you hear people talking about how the Americans breached “our” security and “our” sovereignty and that it’s a humiliating and embarrassing time for Pakistan because of this. I agree, but only to an extent. The fact that we have these terrorists scum bags living in our country who in the name of Islam are willing to kill themselves or others, is a much more embarrassing humiliating stain on my national pride. When the Americans conducted the operation, they killed one man and got out. They did not kill any bystanders or innocents. The American do not blow themselves up in bazaars and other places filled with people killing women and children.
I also may not sound politically or socially correct here as well, but lets take the drones into consideration for a moment here. Yes, the drones attacks claim the lives of civilians from time to time and I am not defending drone strikes at all, but its because these civilians are in extreme close proximity of terrorist elements sometimes even harboring them. These extremist Jamati organizations (like TTP or Pakistani Taliban) have claimed the lives of non-military personnel on a regular basis. Most of these attacks aren’t even aimed at the military institutions but at innocent bystanders and everyday people like you and me. An everyday Pakistani is not harboring Americans. In fact, the anti American sentiment is probably at an all time high right now. How are these terrorist attacks justified then?
Isn’t it more embarrassing and humiliating for us to give in to these terrorists who have done nothing productive for our country? Basically what these people are doing is telling us that every time something doesn’t go their way, they will lash out at us by killing our own people. If we don’t agree to their demands, they will make us agree to them by terrorizing us and they will use any means necessary. They will blow up people at shrines, mosques, bazaars, neighborhoods or anywhere there are people. They believe in equal opportunity bombing until we give in to their demands.
Ok, now consider this: so we stop being allies with the US. Then what? Next thing they’ll say they want their own administration, their own cabinet. After that they will demand for their own laws to be implemented. We already know what they feel about social issues including education, women etc. What will we do then? This brings to mind the old story about the camel and his master. There are different version of this story out there but let me summarize my version up for you. A camel was once caught in a desert storm with his master. The master was inside the tent and camel out side. When the storm picked up, the camel poked his head in the tent and asked the master if he could just put his head inside. The master said yes. Few minutes later he asked if he could put his neck inside too. Then came the turn for the legs and finally what happens is the tent blows away because the camel cannot fit inside of the tent thus leaving the master un-sheltered out in the open desert.
What I’m trying to say here is that we cannot keep on agreeing to the whole “do this or else” mentality. I’m sure everyone has seen kids at supermarkets asking mommies to buy them stuff and when they don’t, they throw tantrums. Well, the Pakistani Taliban, LEJ , LET, TTP and all of these fundamentalist organizations are not 5 years old anymore.
My point to all this is: let us not accommodate any of these terrorist activities by giving them a voice of reason. The innocent people killed in Charsaddah had nothing to do with Americans or the OBL operation. They were Pakistanis serving their country and they died doing the same. Let us, in their honour, stand up against these rogue elements and make it our first priority to nip this evil in the bud and kick them out.
