The Taliban apologists —Farrukh Khan Pitafi

There are those who want you to believe that the Taliban are either doing the right thing or have the right idea about things. No gainsaying that this class is under pressure and gradually losing its appeal, but such elements are still out there

Obituaries are not quite my cup of tea. And frankly I have no emotional strength left to write one either. But what do you do when every day a violent incident claims several precious lives and you find yourself absolutely helpless? I have even tried to take refuge in humour and literature.
Death, undoubtedly, has a dark humour about it. The way we mortals just die despite our cosmic claims of centrality, the rituals of our departure and our burial to reprocess what remains of us all must appear funny to a neutral species, perhaps of an alien kind. No other species, after all, claims to attach so much importance to an individual life and yet contributes so enormously to its untimely demise. I even tried to write my own humorous obituary. But dear readers, the sheer frustration and helplessness keeps mounting every minute, nay every second.


Every other day someone calls to remind me who just died in another terror attack — an old friend, a distant relative, friend of a friend or a relative. The pace at which people are dying makes me wonder, will this country still be populated after a few years? And I have no answers. I have known some of the brightest souls die in the recent terror assaults. As a consequence I have been losing faith in religion, political governments, democracy and perhaps finally humanity.


My recent and perhaps the most critical loss of faith is caused by the insensitivity of those who want to rationalise our sufferings. Every day someone comes on television to either claim that the Taliban are good, or else this all would not have happened had we managed to stop the drone attacks. Likewise, some Platos go back to the very inception of the war on terror and question our decision to join it. “This is not our war and has never been,” they declaim with foam flying out of their mouths. Then there is the lot that concedes that it might have become our war and yet wants to spend almost the entire precious time dwelling upon the mistakes of the past.


As a viewer, a reader and as a citizen I have absolutely no tolerance left for the Taliban or their apologists. I do not care what the term actually means. All I know is that it is now being used by a host of politically-driven terror outfits and they all are bad in my humble opinion. And here for the first and perhaps the last time dear readers, I want to warn you of the techniques of their apologists and how they wreak havoc with your lives, since it is your precious lives that the terrorists are after.


Firstly and most importantly there are those who want you to believe that the Taliban are either doing the right thing or have the right idea about things. No gainsaying that this class is under pressure and gradually losing its appeal, but such elements are still out there. Otherwise what would you say to a print journalist who shows the gall of coming on television and citing the Quran unceasingly with the footage of a girl being lashed in Swat by the Taliban? Identifying this lot is critical because they often take refuge with you and me in the lawyers’ movement, the criticism of the NRO, and umpteen other such things, but in their heart of hearts, they want every secular government replaced by a horde of Taliban sympathisers. Such folks also try to remind you that there was no violence in the country before Pakistan sent its forces into its own tribal territories. What they do not want you to know is that cancer of all sorts stays dormant till the time you identify it and start attacking it with the right medication.


But fortunately for us, this tactic might be losing scope thanks to the callousness of the Taliban and other fanatics. Its place has been taken by the ones who want you to remain perpetually confused. This class wants you to believe in the most difficult and flimsy conspiracy theories ever conceived. Such people might have tried in the past to claim that the Taliban want to kill everyone in revenge, but today they see Blackwater, Xe or even the CIA in every suicide attack perpetrated in this country. This tale is crafted to keep you in a perpetual state of denial and to benefit from your ignorance by pressuring the government to call off the campaigns against the terrorists in the tribal areas. I cannot deny for a moment that Blackwater or Xe and even the CIA might be present in the country for security reasons. Our western peers of course consider it a war-affected area and countless foreigners have died here, so is it not natural for them to bring their security along? But even if there is any shoddy activity going on I have never seen one confession from such groups, whereas the Taliban had the cheek to call the Parade Lane Mosque, Masjid-e-Zarrar, after claiming responsibility for the outrage. You can stay in denial and by doing so help the terrorists to corner you like beasts of prey or you can shun such obfuscation and identify the real culprits.


Some readers and viewers have even mailed me some snapshots of the alleged terrorists’ dead bodies, which they claim were uncircumcised. By sending these pictures they imply that the Indians are working as the Taliban. Folks, if anything, I lack the temperament to study the graphic pictures of the dead terrorists and divine the nature of their circumcision from such gory scenes. And even if I could, it would hardly pass as prima facie evidence for this is not how you can tell anyone’s nationality. If India or other such groups are supporting the Taliban they must have left a money trail behind. With any luck evidence will be seized and a case built. However, thus far I have seen no such proof. Also the proponents of this school of thought can at least not deny that the Taliban are up to something.


But somehow Punjabi nationalism has also crept into the entire debate. We citizens of Punjab have proven more gullible in the past in buying the jihadi set of rationalisations. Since Osama and the Taliban were known to have shown more tolerance toward the Muslim Leagues based in Punjab, and make no mistake the province is inundated with the supporters of the Leagues, we find so many people resorting to generalisations like “no Muslim can attack a mosque” or “war can solve nothing” or “a Muslim army should not be fighting Muslims”. But guess what? This brand of Muslims not only attacks mosques but also takes pleasure in acknowledging it.


Let us face it. Our country is under attack from people who believe in the perversion of our faith. This gang of thugs is so reductionist in its worldview that it now considers the citizens of this country as its enemies. Our forces are fighting these enemies of civilisation, sacrificing their lives in the process, and seem to have struck some raw nerve of the terrorists recently. That is why the terror attacks are getting more desperate. That is also why the erstwhile critics of Pakistan in the western media are now reporting that al Qaeda is fleeing from the region. That way lies the solution of cleansing the country of such rogue elements. We must not waver and should stand with our forces as they reclaim our country from the terrorists. And for perhaps the first time dear readers, I implore you to boycott the apologists of the terrorists when they appear in the media, when they walk in your streets, or come to meet you. This we should do in the love of our dear ones who have so untimely departed.

The writer is an independent columnist and a talk show host. He can be reached at farrukh.khan@pitafi.com

Daily Times
December 10, 2009