Once again, Islamic militants in Pakistan have struck an academic institution, this time a university near Peshawar, killing 20 people. This violent incident follows a ghastly and more brutal attack by the same elements about a year back also in the same area that took the lives of 141 innocent students.
Ownership of both acts was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, the group that has terrorised the north-west of Pakistan for over a decade now, and has succeeded in petrifying the law enforcement agencies of Pakistan. One wonders if these barbarous acts continue to happen because the militants have become really invincible, or they are gaining strength through complicity of political forces now in play in Pakistan.
Either way, the attacks on these educational institutions point at the message the militants want to convey to the authorities and the rest of the Pakistani population -- they will continue to harm these institutions and the people who attend them because they are not Islamic.
Only a few years ago, the current leader of Pakistani Taliban Maulana Fazlullah (the person who had ordered the assassination of Malala Yousafzai) had seized control of Swat valley in the north-west of Pakistan (his homeland) and established a so-called Islamic form of government there. Fazlullah had been best known as the fiery and charismatic “Mullah Radio” for the pirate radio station he operated in Pakistan’s Swat Valley from 2004.
Initially, the Pakistan government had ignored the rise of Fazlullah, but he took the government’s indifference as encouragement, and turned his religious mission into a military campaign. In December 2008, his followers seized control of the Swat valley and began imposing their own brand of “Islamic justice.” He punished barbers who had trimmed beards along with shop-keepers who sold music cassettes and medical workers who offered polio vaccinations.
Schools that taught girls were attacked, and policemen and opponents were murdered. This is why he ordered the assassination of Malala, who had protested the shutting down of girls’ schools.
Maulana Fazlullah was tolerated by the Pakistan Army because he had not yet joined Tehrik-e-Taliban of Pakistan, a force that the Pakistan Army was fighting. It had hoped (with backing from the US), that Fazlullah could be used against the Pakistani Taliban. But the tables were turned when Fazlullah became the new leader of the Pakistani Taliban after the death of Hekmatullah Meshud, the leader who had succeeded the ferocious Baitullah Meshud.
In 2009, the Pakistan Army finally launched a massive strike against Fazlullah and regained control over Swat, but not before significant losses on both sides. Fazlullah and his men were believed to have escaped to inaccessible areas along the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. He would launch his militant attacks, covert and overt, from various places without getting caught. (It was wrongly reported that he was killed in a drone attack in March 2015).
The story of exploitation and control of religious elements in Pakistan date as far back as General Ayub Khan, but this was perfected by General Ziaul Huq, who is believed to be the facilitator of extremist politics in Pakistan.
He was the prime mover in founding and funding the Mujahids of Afghanistan, a motley force of religious radicals drawn from various parts of Pakistan, Central Asia, and Middle East (albeit with US and Saudi resources).
He generously channeled funds to create thousands of religious schools across the Afghanistan border to create hordes of radicals who fought the Russians. These radical products, who the madrasas continued to churn even after the departure of the Russians, formed the core Taliban that Pakistan intelligence created to topple the later Afghan government.
It is no surprise that the Pakistan Army would later use a similar ruse to patronise one militant brand to contain another militant brand. The original Taliban was the handiwork of Pakistan intelligence, and its later division into Afghanistan Taliban and Pakistan Taliban is also their brainchild.
Lost in this game of power and control are the lives of thousands of innocent people, and the future of a country that has not been able to get rid of the tentacles of a powerful army that has virtually ruled the country for much of its existence.
Today, militancy in the name of Islam is a global phenomenon. Unfortunately, the victims of this militancy are not only non-Muslims, but also Muslims. In fact, Muslims far outnumber the non-Muslims. For every one non-Muslim target, there are ten Muslims. When an Islamic militant strikes, he does not distinguish between non-Muslims and Muslims, he strikes because he is against anyone and everyone who is in his way.
To these militants, all secular establishments are an anathema, all Western education is forbidden, and modern science and education are taboo because they reek of Western origin. Sadly, in Pakistan, despite the presence of many progressive elements and the achievement of many of their scholars in Western science and education, the overwhelming mixture of politics and religion, and patronage of religious dogmatism from the top, have led to the rise of religious radicalism and extremism in the country.
The voice of the progressive and moderate elements (as in some other Muslim countries) is suppressed because the country’s governance is not in their hands. The bloodbaths in the academic institutions of Pakistan and loss of innocent lives will continue to happen unless politics is redirected in the country through a change in actual control, from the unelected power to real representatives of people.
