Operation in NWFP

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Reports that the government is planning a phased operation against militants in NWFP is a welcome and encouraging development. Considering that the situation in the troubled province is getting from bad to worse, with the influence of Talibanization spreading well beyond FATA to several settled districts and particularly Swat, it is high time that the government embarked on such a campaign. The province, especially along the border with Afghanistan, is becoming a safe haven and a base for militants to launch their campaign of terror inside Pakistan. Although, the culprits of Oct 18's bombing of the PPP welcome rally for Benazir Bhutto have yet to be identified for certain, the government is already pointing to links to Taliban and Al Qaeda elements in Waziristan. Keeping this context in mind, it should be clear to the government and to society that if not checked now and taken to task, these extremist elements, because of their penchant for coercing everybody else to conform to their rigid and obscurantist approach towards interpreting faith, pose a real and present danger to Pakistan's existence as a moderate and progressive Muslim state.

It is also reassuring to note that the federal government has assured the provincial authorities that they will have all the backing from Islamabad that they need in such an effort. The government needs to take concrete steps based on a sustainable and well-thought out plan that takes into account the long run rather than sporadic and isolated military action that amounts to nothing and only increases resentment in the population and further fuels the militants' cause. However, one thing is for sure – militancy needs to be rooted out from its foundations and the longer the inaction the stronger will these foundations become. If one looks at the case of Swat as an example, till a few years back, militancy and suicide attacks were unheard of. Now, parts of one tehsil – Matta – are under the virtual control of a certain cleric who has reportedly thousands of fervent supporters. However, it is the inaction of the previous MMA government which has created this menace. Maulana Fazlullah, who happens to be a son-in-law of the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi firebrand Maulana Sufi Mohammad, had rallied his followers to boycott the government's polio vaccination campaign. He relented only after the previous government agreed to let him keep his FM radio station – which is illegal in the first place and should never have been allowed by the government to be brought as a bargaining chip.

The said maulana now has established his own force, ostensibly to maintain law and order in the local area and has also started taking the law into its own hands, flogging some men recently and also using his men to direct the flow of traffic. The government cannot and should not allow this to happen because abdication of its responsibility is precisely what has emboldened such extremists. The usual course is to hide behind the guise of religion, the premise being that since the government is unable to catch criminals and unable to enforce Islamic law, somebody else needs to do that. This pretext of imposing Sharia is clearly a ploy by such elements to increase their power. Of course it would have been best if the previous government had had the guts to check the antics of the maulana, but perhaps it was ideologically too close to him to have taken any substantive action. Since that is no longer the case, one hopes that the caretaker government of Shamsul Mulk will exhibit the requisite will and the guts – backed by the centre of course – to bring those harbouring desires of creating their own state to heel. The people of the province, too cowed down to stand up to the extremists, will be grateful.