This article has been published with some changes at
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2016/02/10/comment/understanding-the-militant-narrative/
After every militant attack on Pakistan by the non-state actors,
which kills innocent people and especially our kids, people anxiously look
towards their guardians for the solution to this menace. The ruling elite seem to
be in an urgency of doing “something” that would calm the masses. The COAS
visits Afghanistan, Politicians vowing to fight back, ISPR with its positive
messages that we have almost caught the culprits, media instilling nationalism
and tales of sacrifice, launching new military operations, getting more arrests
and the likes. Upon critical review, it seems that some random actions are
carried out to somehow convince the people to follow through towards a goal
which is nowhere in sight. This “something” clearly lacks a serious thought
process in solving the crises.
The recent attack on Charsadda University with numerous casualties
points out that you cannot defeat an enemy who has a strong ideological
narrative by military operations and brute force. There are many pseudo intellectuals who think
that TTP is a bunch of brainwashed bearded people somewhere in Swat or
Waziristan or Karachi and can be rounded up and killed. Well I think they have
tried and failed miserably for the last 8 years. We are still at the same
position which General Musharraf pushed us into, General Kiyani escalated to
higher levels and now General Raheel is moving zealously to end.
When I say that General Musharraf pushed us into this, I am
referring to the events that led us to the formation of TTP in December, 2007.
One needs to understand that it did not just pop up one morning from amongst
Pakistan tribal regions and vowed to kill Pakistan military personal and
civilians. TTP was built on a reactionary narrative to a brutal reality of
drones and military operations faced by Pashtuns which was coupled with the
ideological aspect of Jihad and aided by the exploiters across the borders.
The pretext can be well understood by the book “Inside Pakistan Army” by
Carey Schofield in which she explains how Americans pushed Pakistan army for
military operations on their own soil. The first operation launched by Pakistan
Army named “Kazha Punga” in June 2002 in South Waziristan was based on CIA
intelligence in which we lost 2 officers and 10 soldiers. Then the second
operation was launched on October, 2003 at Angoor Adda in which 10 million
dollar bounty was paid to Pakistan for killing Al-khadr. Afterwards, 6 major military operations were
launched to stop the attacks from Pakistani soil at the Americans before 2007
along with 4 drone strikes.
Then, a drone attack in 2006 on Bajor
Seminary facilitated by Pakistan army killed over 80 children. It turned out to
be the APS attack for the tribal region. Pakistani citizens were already facing
a reaction to these military operations with 24 suicide attacks from 2002-06
with over 400 fatalities but Bajor attack changed the dynamics of the situation
in Pakistan. In 2007 alone, there were
58 suicide attacks killing over 800 people and the trajectory did not go down
ever since with over 270 suicide attacks from 2008-15 with an average of around
350 fatalities each year.
Pakistan’s initial military strategy
against TTP was to make it unpopular,
isolate it from general public and finish them off with military operations. This
strategy did not work and will never work until the basis on which TTP recruits
its people is sincerely identified and focused. For Instance, the tribal killings by American drones was raised
to unprecedented levels with a total of 385 drones after the formation of TTP
which killed 3392 tribals on Pakistani soil. Military operations like
Rah-e-Haq, Rah-e-Rast, Sheer Dil, Black Thunderstorm and the very recent
Zarb-e-Azab were launched against complete regions where people in hundreds of
thousands were forced to leave their homes. They were forced to live
miserable lives in camps while their whole life belongings were either
destroyed by bombings or stolen.
These killings, military operations and displacements created a
reactionary narrative of injustice against the Pashtuns and they were forced to
retaliate with utmost craze. It needs to be understood that revenge and
standing up against atrocities fuels TTP and motivates its followers
to give the ultimate sacrifice and blow themselves up and punish the forces and
even the general masses. And every
escalation of the military operation inevitably produced blowback in form of
severe terrorist attacks.
The second aspect that TTP gets its support is by coupling this
resistance with Jihad and Islam. This makes the
movement extremely lethal and includes non-pashtuns. This is reinforced by
Quranic verses and Hadiths which explicitly mention that those MUSLIMS who are
allies of the kuffar are amongst them. On such basis, they declared kufr to the
army soldiers and officers and claimed that they are waging jihad against the
pak army. Interestingly, steps taken by the forces consolidated their thinking,
like allowing drone strikes, operation at Lal Masjid in Islamabad, ban on all
jihadi groups, rolling back kashmir jihad, strict surveillance of Masajid,
Ulema and Madaris, arrests of members of non-militant Islamist parties etc.
These steps help spread the movement to all parts of Pakistan and now became
much more than simply a Pashtun resistance. The practical flaw in dealing with
the second point was to consider advocates of non-militant Islamists to be the
basis of militant thought. It is either naivety or a deliberate agenda to
elevate the problem.
The third aspect that aids TTP is foreign agencies like CIA and
RAW. Episodes of Raymond davis and Blackwater and cross border support by
Indian consulates have been the highlight of media several times which denote
some amount of influence by these agencies on TTP. Since it is a loose network
of several small groups, infiltration into them is easy. The more TTP kills
people, the more people favor military operations in tribal areas which America
is continuously demanding. RAW has more historical reasons to create instability
in Pakistan and TTP is the new tool to trigger that.
Incredibly, there is considerable denial about the atrocities
that are being committed against the tribal people and that their narrative is
evil, unislamic and not popular. This denial leads rulers to frame policies
that create more atrocities and injustice in the society and further
strengthening the militant narrative. The
government narrative that “It is our war and the enemy is only Islamist motivated”
is far from truth for tribal regions and especially pashtuns. Some voices of
more militant operations against Lal masjid cleric and the likes means stepping
again on the fault lines. Chaudry Nisar understands well that bajor and Lal
masjid episodes have already turned out to be a mess for Paksitanis and opening
up more venues would mean more terrorist reprisals. The
fact needs to be accepted that military operations and brutal tactics against
our own people have resulted in far more terrorist attacks in Pakistan than
they have reduced and have generally made things worse, not better. The basis
of militant narrative needs to be cured rather than its symptoms.
Therefore, if we want to end this TTP menace in our country which
has claimed more than 60,000 lives and 3,000 soldiers, we need to counter this
narrative head on by practical steps. First, we need to stop military operations
in Waziristan and stop throwing people into camps every year. No more drones or
air strikes or bombings. The people of tribal regions should feel secure that
life is now back to normal and their trust with the government and the military
is restored. Second, end alliance with the Americans on this so called War on
terror and declare independent foreign and domestic policy which suit our
dynamics and does not endanger the lives of Pakistanis. Third, release American
pressure by intelligent international political maneuvers. By taking these
three steps we would neutralize the militant narrative and the reasons of
Pushtun reactionary militant struggle and save us from moving into further chaos
for the years to come.
