White jihadis
October 11, 2010
The last month has seen a rise of drone strikes in our tribal belt, and linked to that a story of a plot being hatched which would target Britain, France and Germany in a series of strikes. As the details emerged a new term came into currency – ‘White Jihadis’. The drone strikes are said to have been aimed at young, sometimes Western-born, men who were either recruited in the west or gravitated to Pakistan to join the fight against what they perceive as the myriad injustices inflicted upon the Muslim world. The Afghan war has from the outset attracted foreign Muslim fighters, and there are plentiful reports of overheard battlefield communications between people speaking with, for instance, marked British and American accents. White Jihadis are drawn from what is an increasing pool of disaffected young Muslims in a range of primarily (but not exclusively) European countries or America. For extremist recruiters in the West such a plenitude of disaffected youth is much to their advantage. Many of these young people are self-radicalising and need little persuasion to move from supporting the jihad online in the privacy of their own homes, to joining the jihad for real. They can point to a range of negative reinforcers – the French burqa ban, the rise of the anti-Islam political right in the Netherlands – and will find many volunteers willing to train and then lay down their lives.
But this is only a part of the story. The success of the recruiters lies in the failure of the states where these young people were born or which their parents elected for them to live in; a failure to engage with them and to create an alternative narrative that might draw them away from extremism. For a long time, Pakistan has faced much heat from the world for permitting militancy to breed on its soil. Certainly, we must admit it has put down strong roots here. However, Pakistan needs to turn some of the pressure back on other nations. While we need to tackle the mindset that gives rise to militancy – so do other nations. The inclusion of people from other countries in the groups that continue to do war in our north is proof of this. Militancy is a global problem – and it needs to be addressed as one that can be eliminated only through joint efforts in many places.
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Dengue dangers
October 11, 2010
Almost 700 cases of the dengue virus have been confirmed by health authorities in Karachi, with news of new positive tests and admissions to hospitals coming in by the day. At least five deaths have been reported and the virus is now spreading in interior Sindh too – where the chances of victims receiving proper treatment are more remote given the lack of health facilities. Even those in Karachi are said to be strained with demands placed on websites for blood to help victims suffering haemorrhaging and some private centres are said to be turning patients away. While dengue has become an annual menace in our country, the presence of so much standing water this year, as a result of the floods, adds to the threat. We need a sustained fumigation campaign to kill off the disease-causing mosquito.
But at the same time we need to remember that one of the best ways to prevent disease spreading is to educate people. There is immense need for such an awareness campaign not only in Sindh but across the country. Dengue cases have also been reported in Punjab. At present people in some places are reported to be hacking down greenery in the hope that this will keep away the Aedis Egypti, mosquito which carries dengue. Suggestions have come in, some through letters to newspapers, that waterplants at Karachi University be removed to curb the spread of the disease. They need to be informed that an attack on plants will not solve the problem and instead hurt biodiversity, which is already at risk. People need to be assisted with the task of draining away standing water and educated about what they can do to prevent bites. The dengue threat is a huge one and more time must not be lost in putting in place a strategy to combat it.
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Balochistan
October 11, 2010
In Balochistan a wave of violence continues. Often buried within the inner columns of newspapers there are reports of more deaths in places across the vast territory of the province. Some die because they are settlers – having moved to the province to seek work; even those whose families did so decades ago have not been spared. Sectarian motives lie behind other deaths and nationalist groups say their members continue to go missing – presumably ‘picked up’ by security agencies. Teachers too have been killed and continue to die – perhaps to drive them out of the province.
The confusion within the government on Balochistan doesn’t help. The prime minister and the interior minister have, in past weeks, contradicted each other over policy. Mr Gilani has opposed the use of special security forces, and this is wise given the sentiments of people. The issues of Balochistan cannot be looked at as security ones alone. But what is clear is that the continuing turmoil is inflicting a great deal of harm. We need to calm it. The promise that solutions would be found in Balochistan and a consensus evolved has not been met. Many comittments made in the Balochistan package are left unmet. There has in fact been no real attempt to put them into action and this lack of implementation has added to a crisis which could have extremely grave repercussions for our federation.