Re: Govt MUST pursue Religious Fanatics everywhere - DAWN editorial
Next few years r going to be tough for whoever is in govt. Right now Musharraf has support from most English dailies.
Joining the battle against militancy](The News International: Latest News Breaking, World, Entertainment, Royal News)
The killing of at least 15 security personnel in a suicide attackg in North Waziristan is proof that Friday’s dispatch of troops to the NWFP didn’t come a day too soon. The fanning out of thousands of soldiers into different parts of the province itself appears to be a sign that President Musharraf intends to keep the pledge he made in his address to the nation on Thursday, to hunt down religious extremists in “every corner” of the country. The soldiers who died on Saturday when a suicide-killer rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into their convoy near Miran Shah in North Waziristan were clearly taken unawares, despite all the preparation and intelligence that must have gone into their venture into the area.
The unforeseen killing is a foretaste of what lies ahead in the inherently complex battle against religious militancy and terrorism. Since it’s a “jihad” the extremists have launched to avenge the Lal Masjid storming, they have the advantage of suicidal fanaticism besides their training and the modern weaponry and equipment they are known to possess. In addition, the militants, who don’t seem to have been discouraged by the Lal Masjid showdown, have given a deadline for today for the removal of all military checkpoints from North Waziristan. They consider the checkpoints to be in violation of a peace deal the government concluded with the Agency’s tribal elders in 2005. It’s another matter that their unceasing attacks on Army and Frontier Constabulary troops themselves violate the deal.
At this stage, the security forces are focusing on the Swat Valley, where they have sealed the important town of Kanju. Swat is the NWFP’s growing hotspot. On the very day General Musharraf addressed the nation, a suicide car bombing killed three policemen there, ahead of the “day of protest” the extremist elements had announced for Friday. The terrorism is believed to be the first-ever suicide attack in the pristine valley. Swat is an example of another complication the government faces in its struggle against fanaticism. Of the numerous illegal FM radio stations spewing fanatical poison in the province – at least 25 of them – the one being run by Maulana Fazlullah is the most influential and virulent. The young cleric is heading the Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) while the organisation’s “amr,” Maulana Sufi Mohammad, his father-in-law, is in prison. All through the Lal Masjid operation, Fazlullah called upon his followers to prepare for “jihad,” and bear weapons in public as evidence of their dedication. The Maulana had signed a peace deal with the local administration only recently.
President Musharraf’s battle against fanaticism will be half a battle f it is confined to military operations alone. He has pledged yet again to “uproot” religious extremism and militancy from the country. It remains to be seen if he will take the effort to the grassroots, the madrassa where so much of the fanaticism originates, and if he will deal with the innumerable manifestations of fanaticism in society.
EDITORIAL: Bite the bullet](http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\07\15\story_15-7-2007_pg3_1)
Even as President General Pervez Musharraf told a high-level meeting in Islamabad that extremism had to be fought on all fronts, and asked the federal and provincial governments to take tough action against madrassas which are potential Lal Masjids, the clerics and their zealots were out in the streets of all the cities of Pakistan, challenging him to match word with deed. Coupled with this is the fact that 35 people have died at the hands of extremists, many of them soldiers of the Pakistan army and local administration, in the tribal and northern areas of the country since July 3 when the siege of Lal Masjid was ordered and the extremists vowed revenge. Yesterday another eight soldiers were killed when a car loaded with explosives rammed into an army convoy in North Waziristan. Thus, even as troops are being deployed in Swat and the Northern Areas, there is more alarming live coverage on TV channels of bearded zealots shouting defiance.
Clearly, the clergy doesn’t care if its allegations against the government have been refuted by concrete proof to the contrary. For instance, the Wafaq had asserted that there were never any foreigners in Lal Masjid. But this has been falsified by Maulana Ghazi’s recorded conversation. That is why the clergy thinks this is the right time to give the big push to a government and topple it. Unfortunately, in this state of confrontation, the conservative ruling PML leaders are still dreaming of a perfect world where the clerics will live at peace with them and save them from the evil of “liberalism”.
But it is not just the PMLQ that is at fault. There are others in the Opposition too who wittingly or unwittingly tend to prop up the rampant clergy. For instance, there are some small secular parties that have embraced an anarchism of sorts in their campaign to use the clergy as a battering ram against the government. In the same fashion, the PMLN has once again responded to its “IJI” reflexes — when the army had got it together with the clergy to rule Pakistan not so long ago — and found comfort in playing footsie with the zealots in the country. Then there is the whole community of well-meaning lawyers who are fighting for justice but also unwittingly forming a kind of common pool where every anarchist or mullah is welcome to wash his hands. One of their leaders has actually declared that if the Supreme Court doesn’t reinstate the fired chief justice he will burn the Supreme Court down! This is the sort of statement one expects from an anarchist but not from the leader of a pro-justice or pro-democracy movement.
Strangely, the word of caution about the lethality of religious terror has come from a non-incumbent party, the PPP, whose leader Ms Benazir Bhutto is grateful that the historical link between religion, terror and the state has finally been broken at Lal Masjid. She said on Friday, “It is the end of ambiguous policies towards terrorism which in past encouraged the militants”.
In short, it is now clear that the political parties have not yet made up their minds about how they will be able to rule Pakistan with its seminaries full of potential suicide-bombers. Significantly, it is ironic that even President Musharraf is not yet willing to say that he will remove the complex of illegal madrassas in the heart of Islamabad. He is still thinking of giving the area to the Wafaqul Madaris, the same Wafaqul Madaris which is baying for his blood in the streets of the country. Anywhere else, the government would have lost no time in saying that the “liberated” area would be returned to other institutions of community interest.
It is time to bite the bullet. Some strength can be gained from the fact that the entire Islamic world is faced with the same challenge. From Morocco to Indonesia, the governments are deciding in favour of curbing the clerical dominance they had earlier allowed. The policy of filling the political space with religion in order to dull the appeal of the militant religious organisations has borne bitter fruit in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. If Saudi Arabia helped the bigoted clergy through moral policing, Malaysia, often mistakenly considered a liberal state, is playing havoc with the Muslim community through its moral police which is raiding homes at night to see if the residents are keeping alcohol in their cupboards.
The politicians and intellectuals who think of “here and now” and do not meditate over whether democracy under them will work have to give up their nihilism to take a close look at what is happening in the country. They will gain nothing from denying that there is real trouble in Waziristan. A former chief secretary of the NWFP has recently written as follows about South Waziristan: “Taxes are collected from the following assets: houses, cars, buses, trucks, petrol pumps, shops, water mills, dispensaries, etc. Anyone who has a dispute can deposit a fixed sum of money in the Taliban office. Notices are served, adjudicators are appointed as a Jirga; they give decisions, which are stamped by the local Taliban head and enforced. The Taliban have vehicles and paid security personnel to ensure law and order. They check the roads and ensure order”.
The state has to be saved from collapse and reformed; and the political parties have to form a consensus — in addition to the consensus against President Musharraf — against the forces of chaos let loose in Pakistan in the name of religion. That is the only way they can be sure that they will be able to rule well and effectively under democracy. The fact is that Pakistan may be in more trouble because it has been in the eye of the jihadi storm, but it shares the crisis with the rest of the Islamic world. *