Fatherless children
FOR the last four weeks, things have been continuously passing through a rampant but haphazard process of change, specifically with reference to the terrorist activities in Pakistan.
The terrorists seem trying to open a new front against the security forces of Pakistan. The time chosen for this heinous activity seems connected with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to China.
Till now, more than twenty soldiers and officers of Pakistan Army have sacrificed their lives in fighting against the terrorists; more than 45 terrorists have been killed. On 20 January 2022, a bomb blast took life of three innocent citizens and left 20 injured in Lahore.
Reports say that a 1.5 kilogram improvised explosive device was fixed in a motorcycle parked outside a bank in Anarkali area. The bomb exploded when the place was thronged by hundreds of people.
Though someone claiming to be the spokesperson of the Baloch Nationalist Army, claimed responsibility for that cowardly attack but at the same time it was strongly condemned by two other Baloch leaders Mehran Marri and Brahumdagh Bugti.
Moreover, the countries like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iran, Turkey and the United States and also expressed their concerns on the incident but Pakistan’s nearest and closest neighbour India throughout remained deaf and dumb.
The Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said in a recent statement that since 15 August 2021 the terrorist attacks have increased about 35 to 38 per cent. 15 August 2021 was the day when the Taliban came into rule in Afghanistan.
The Interior Minister expressed his apprehensions that it all is the result of merger of some smaller terrorist groups already active in Afghanistan; certainly Indian Intelligence Agencies are behind this rise in terrorist activities in Pakistan.
Before that the nefarious activities of these groups were hindered, hurdled rather obstructed by the US-led foreign forces working in Afghanistan.
After US’ action of saying good-bye to Afghan lands, the Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and other terrorist organizations got a free hand to misuse these groups against Pakistan.
Certainly the situation would soon come under control and things would be normalized but the question of interference from the neighbouring countries like India and Afghanistan would remain a blob of shame and dishonour on the face of these countries.
Pakistan has always been advocating and pleading a single-line agenda that peace and prosperity of the country is directly linked with the political and economic stability of Afghanistan; and that is the basic reason that Pakistan has always tried its best to help out Afghanistan in every time of need.
Presence of millions of Afghan refugees in Pakistan for more than three decades is the most evident proof of Pakistan’s sincerity to Afghanistan.
It is also a fact that most of the past Afghan governments had a very clear-cut inclination towards India and almost all the past rulers there had been trying to blame and by-pass Pakistan in all political matters just to please India but at the same time it is also a fact that the people of Afghanistan always find Pakistan very close to their hearts.
Certainly, the planners sitting in India knew very well that this inclination of Afghan people towards Pakistan was harmful and injurious to their dreams and desires.
That is why they spent a lot of their resources on supporting and patronizing all those groups of miscreants which rank terrorist activities as their profession.
Even after Taliban’s coming into power and taking charge of the government, those groups are still actively striving for their bread and butter.
Though the Taliban government is doing all possible to bring those groups back to the main national-stream but things would take time as Indian support to those groups is causing a lot of hindrance to the desired process.
Media reports have so many times indicated that Indian agents in Afghanistan are not happy with the present Taliban regime as it was totally unexpected for them.
They are still in contact with the handful of miscreants and busy in planning to bring some challenging or threatening ‘disaster’ for the Taliban whom they blame of being ‘Pro-Pakistan’.
On the other hand, the Taliban also have some internal type of issues which do not let them work freely. I remember the response of Nirmala, a reader of my write-ups from Sri Lanka.
Commenting upon my article, she said, ‘Afghanistan-New Match and New Team’, “The present Taliban leaders in Afghanistan are reluctant to absorb the modern life and culture to administer the country because some of their followers will rebel against the present leaders which will be a culture shock.
For an everlasting peace in Afghanistan they will have to be very much harsh on the miscreants involved in terrorist activities but it will take time; may take decades.”
The terrorists attacking Pakistan’s security forces are not ‘fatherless children’, they are not ‘misguided-missiles’; they have their mentors, their facilitators, their patrons, their god-fathers.
For a long lasting peace in Afghanistan and in Pakistan, the international care-takers of peace will have to do something to chain down these ‘god-fathers’. It is also a notable point that the victory of Taliban would never be ‘digestible’ to the countries like India. Such countries would do all their best to distort the dream of peaceful and prosperous face of Afghanistan.
If a check is not put on such countries, situation in Afghanistan may get worsen soon. The hazardous impact of terrorism never remains limited to some specific or particular area. Terrorism is always like a pandemic, always mysteriously boundless and superstitiously fathomless.
With reference to the new wave of terrorism in Pakistan, some analysts are pointing their fingers towards Iran too but that suspicion seems illogical and baseless as Iran and Pakistan have never been involved in any type of conflicting issues.
—The writer is Principal of a Government College and senior columnist, based in Multan.
