Whereas the armed forces are extraordinarily delicate about issues regarding nationwide safety irrespective of how insignificant they might seem like, it’s normally the politicians, who purely for functions of political expediency, are those that usually downplay even probably the most severe nationwide threats.
However in Pakistan, simply the alternative appears to be taking place,
On the one hand, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has himself accepted in Nationwide Meeting that public sentiments towards rising presence of proscribed terrorist group Tehreek-e-Taliban [TTP] fighters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [KP] province are working excessive as a result of which the “state of affairs is getting worse throughout KP.”
Nonetheless, Pakistan military’s media wing Inter Providers Public Relations [ISPR] is satisfied that claims relating to “presence of huge numbers of proscribed organisation TTP’s armed members in Swat Valley” are each “grossly exaggerated and deceptive.” Since ISPR has asserted that its evaluation is derived after “affirmation on floor,” logically talking, there needs to be no purpose to doubt the identical.
Nonetheless, if ISPR’s declare is certainly true, then what explains the continued month-long public protests by the folks of North Waziristan demanding peace and safety?
Moreover, by admitting that “presence of small variety of armed males on few mountain tops between Swat and Dir has been noticed, positioned far-off from inhabitants,” isn’t ISPR contradicting itself? Or is it that for Rawalpindi, it’s advantageous with armed males occupying mountaintops inside Pakistan- so long as their numbers are small, and they’re positioned far-off from the inhabitants?
Equally, ISPR’s avowal in the identical press launch asserting that “presence of militants wherever won’t be tolerated, and they are going to be handled full use of pressure, if required,” is equally perplexing on two counts. One, when it has itself acknowledged presence of “armed males” in KP, then why is it tolerating them?
Two, why add the laughable caveat about utilizing pressure, “if required”- in spite of everything, do terrorists perceive another language? Most significantly, if ISPR’s affirmation that “required measures are in place by all LEAs [law enforcement agencies] for the protection and safety of individuals of adjoining areas” is right, then why are folks of KP protesting towards the burgeoning TTP menace?
The actual fact of the matter is that Pakistan military’s hesitation in taking a tricky stand towards TTP is primarily as a result of concern of derailing its ongoing try to dealer a peace cope with this terrorist group accountable for the 2014 Military Public Faculty [APS] Peshawar bloodbath.
The cruel actuality is that regardless of its much-hyped declare of ‘zero tolerance’ for terrorism and the solemn pledge to deliver perpetrators of the APS carnage to ebook, Rawalpindi is so determined to pacify TTP that it has conveniently turned a blind eye to the unconditional launch of TTP fighters jailed in Pakistan for collaborating in assaults by which a number of of its rank and file and harmless civilians have been killed.
Pakistan military’s near-complete submission to TTP has additionally uncovered its brazen lie of this terrorist group being the creation of Indian spy company RAW for “whipping up terrorism” in Pakistan and was totally supported by the Ashraf Ghani authorities.
A couple of 12 months has elapsed because the fall of the so-called ‘pro-New Delhi’ authorities in Kabul and closure of all Indian services in Afghanistan, which in keeping with Rawalpindi was teeming with RAW brokers. However as a substitute of the TTP withering away as a result of abrupt exit of its benefactors from the scene, this alleged ‘Indian proxy’ purportedly being supported by Afghanistan’s earlier regime rebounded with such unprecedented fury that Pakistan’s mighty military has been introduced down on its knees by being compelled to barter.
TTP’s prowess will be gauged from the truth that the November 2021 unilateral ceasefire was each introduced and subsequently called-off by TTP and never the Pakistan military. Moreover, whereas Islamabad has launched TTP terrorists, this terrorist group hasn’t ceased its assaults on safety forces, LEAs and civilians!
Seeing its pathetic plight, one would have appreciated to sympathise with Rawalpindi. Nonetheless, the present sorry state of affairs is the bitter [but expected] harvest of its perverse ‘strategic asset’ coverage that entailed nurturing and offering secure sanctuaries to internationally proscribed terrorist teams like Afghan Taliban and Haqqani community. So, Rawalpindi has nobody however itself!
Rawalpindi was underneath the magnificent delusion that because it was serving to these entities obtain their debased targets, its proteges would repay their benefactor with unconditional gratitude and implicit obedience. Maybe it by no means heard [or realised the profound import] of Warren Buffet’s well-known quote – “You’ll be able to’t make an excellent cope with a nasty particular person”!
In truth, so sturdy was its religion in its proteges that neither Islamabad nor Rawalpindi paid any heed, when method again in 2011, the then US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton cautioned Pakistan in regards to the perils of conserving snakes within the yard, anticipating them to solely chew neighbours, and even warned that such ‘snakes’ would finally chew these rearing them.
Only a decade later, and Ms Clinton’s prognosis got here true.
After seizing energy, the Afghan Taliban not solely outrightly rejected Rawalpindi’s request for custody of TTP fighters jailed by the earlier authorities, however went and unconditionally launched not less than 2,300 TTP terrorists. This included TTP’s former deputy chief Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, who was accountable for masterminding a number of the bloodiest assaults towards Pakistani safety forces.
Some understand this a brazen act of betrayal and ungratefulness on the a part of Taliban, which had for a decade loved Rawalpindi’s refuge and safety. Nonetheless, there are lots of who opine that since Rawalpindi had equally disregarded its ‘warfare on terror’ allyWashington’s repeated requests to behave towards Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani community throughout its ongoing, by [in former US President Donald Trump’s words] offering “secure haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan,” Pakistan military rightly deserved the Taliban’s rebuff.
Pakistan sympathisers additionally preserve that that by refusing to behave towards TTP, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan has gone again on its promise to not enable terrorist teams use of its soil for attacking different international locations or as secure sanctuaries. Nonetheless, by clarifying that “It’s dependent upon Pakistan, and Pakistani ulema, not the Taliban, to determine whether or not or not the TTP’s warfare is respectable, and to formulate a technique in response,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has made it amply clear that similar to Pakistan didn’t contemplate that Afghan Taliban was a terrorist organisation, the current Taliban regime in Kabul doesn’t contemplate TTP to be terrorist group!
Seems like Rawalpindi’s dangerous ‘karma’ has lastly returned to hang-out it!
