Dawn.com invites readers to debate current affairs in this forum.
The recently released khateeb of Islamabad’s Lal Masjid Maulana Abdul Aziz has said that the situation that has emerged in the troubled areas of Swat, Buner and Dir is a reaction to the military operation conducted against the mosque in 2007. He claimed that most of the students of Lal Masjid who suffered due to the operation hailed from Malakand division of the Frontier province and were now taking their revenge. ‘I had warned the then government not to go for the military operation on the mosque otherwise the situation would get out of control and I will not be responsible for the reaction,’ said Maulana Aziz in an interview with Dawn.
In light of Maulana Aziz’s comments, do you think military operations in Buner and Dir are inadvisable? Will initiatives by security forces simply create a new army of revenge seekers? How can army operations be conducted so as not to have a negative fallout in the future? Or what other options should the Pakistan government consider in the northern and tribal areas?
Very sad !
Mr Know Pakistan too well says:
May 5th, 2009 at 12:50 am
Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry should be tried for high treason for releasing the lal masjid terrorist.
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Tariq Mian, Canada Says:
Let me say the following:
please make only resposible suggestions.
Mr. Justice Iftikhar Choudry is an asset for Pakistan. He has recieved so many awards from The USA. Plus all citizens of Pakistan love him so much.
He only delivers justice based on MERITS.
Thank You and don’t be offended.
Current military operations must continue so talibans can not reorganized again. Just wipe off all talibans from those areas.
Do people realize that if Taliban had not taken Buner now but just consolidated, they could have come back in 2 years with no problem ?
Unless we solve social inequalities and provide education that teaches tolerance, open mindedness and accepts dissent, we are just postponing the problem.
This is our real problem. Fix Pakistan.
Move the borders to replace disputes with friendship and grow the country. We will get help from and be in a position to provide help to Iran, India, China and Afghanistan.
It is conceivable if we just wake up.
Hello!
Zafar! I do respect your opinion, but again, nobody is above the Law of the land.
And, if anybody is interested to bring a change in socio-economic as well as political system, there are certain acceptable avenues to take to—-in order to achieve this beautiful goal.
We are a parliamentary democracy now, therfore, there remains no room for deadly confrontation.
Taliban in Swat are creating trouble only and nothing else which means they are not sincere with Pakistan; they should not be tolerated at all, if they continue disobeying the law of the land and the constitution of Pakistan. Being citizens of Pakistan they must abide by all the rules and regulations of the STATE.
The International community should extend full cooperation to remedy the dangerous situation.
The independent judiciary in Pakistan is slowly but surely returning to normalcy giving a ray of hope for a good future. Once justice to a common man starts emerging, the things would certainly start happening in a balance.
On the other hand, the balance is altogether non-existent at the international level towards Pakistan. Therefore a lot of smart work still remains to be done in that regard.
The Kashmir issue, the rivers’ conversion issue, the FATA issue, the foreign unwanted interference issue, the foreign media bias, and the list goes on and on; all must be addressed by the international justice system in order to provide Pakistan with a JUST BALANCE.
Let’s pray for the best for Pakistan and the whole region.
Accept the fact that the majority of Pakistan’s population sympathize with the Taliban. This is mainly due to their socio-economic dispossesion of basic civic rights. And who is responsible for this? The so called elite that writes in these blogs.
Just blaming this maulvi, or that or the Taliban will not help.First have a deep look inside ourselves and see what contributions we have made and continue to do so with blame, to bring this otherwise great land to the brink of disaster.
Moulanas and Ulemas like Abdul Aziz are spoiling and destroing the youth in the name of Islam to further their selfish goals. These elements are grave threat to Nation and humanity. Hence people like Abdul Aziz should be kept in jails for their entire life term.
It is the time for the govenment to wipe out the Fanatic Talibans from Pakistani soil to save it become anoher Afghanistan and to save the dignity and liberty and right to live of every Pakistani.
The military operation and elimination of Talibans is the only option for the goverment. It must take place without anymore delay.
This theory that military action on Lal masjid or present operation in Buner and Dir will result in more violence is not logical. In fact Talibans are determined in any way to enforce their cruel brand of Islam by setting up parallel goverment. So, in this scenario army operation is the only option to save Pakistan and Islam from illetrate & cruel talibans.
Some people say that as comrade of these talibans have been killed thats why they have become suicide bombers and killers of innocent people. With the same logic if I ask them that how many relatives & friends of innocent people whom Talibans have killed in their suicide attacks and bombing have become the killers? In fact no one. This theory is totally rubbish to misguide simple people of Pakistan.
As a matter of fact, it needs a lot of funds, weapons, a killer mentality and mis-guided fatwas to become a suicide bomber or a so called jihadi.
Lets eliminate taliban and their supporters as early as possible to save Pakistan.
There must be some solution for present crises in Sawat and other areas,using force and millitary operation, killing each others, who are muslims and our own pakistani brothers, is not a long term solution.How long you would use force and millitary operation,showering bombs and firing on them.? Ali
Yes Pakistan is a region where every type of human being lives. But it doesn’t mean that every person has permission to apply their own measures of law. Pakistan is the land of Pak people. The one who takes revenge is not more respectable from those who forgive.
If khateeb sahib thinks that the fire and bullets in Swat and Buner are the result of military operation in Lal masjid, it’s totally unfair these types of terrorism are very often took place in past. But the term Taliban is apparently new in this region because they are not us and why people not understand that the term Taliban is use in Afghanistan’s militant people. The refugees from Afghanistan want to become the rulers of our dearest region.
How can we allow them to rule in our Pakland? And the people who are Pakistani and supporting Taliban are undoubtedly in a big threat and fear. I personally feel that they are forced to do that. In all these circumstances how can we disagree with the military operation in that area? Although we have seen the result of TNSM in that places. There is no benefit at all.
Military operations in Buner and Dir will have consequences. No military operations will have dire consequences.
We find ourselves in our present situation because of lack of military action earlier on. To say that the Pakistan military cannot defeat the terrorists is the Joke of the century. The real question is do they want to?
Imran Khan ,Qazi Hussain ,Ansar abbasi and others ramins quite after every suicide bombing , and did not respond when any terrorist speaks against the government and state
If we see in broad perspective, Pakistan is suffering since more than 500 yrs. If our people faught back when first time Mogul emperors and Islamic Sultans came from west we would have been a better country. Since their invasion and brutal regimes we continue to see till now with Taliban!
One of the good things that Musharraf did in his tenure was to bring the perpetrators of Lal Masjid to book. Which law permits storage of illegal, unlicenced and prohibbeted weapons in mosques.
My Question is that why shouldn’t they be punished for vandalizing mosque, for possession of illegal and dangerous weapons, for attacking and killing people.
Wake up Pakistanies or you too will be doomed like our brothers and sister of NWFP and FATA
Quite frankly, I believe the majority of these “jehadis” will come to their senses if dealt with firmly in a sustained manner. Witness the same Lal Masjid cross-dressing mullah who is still making fierce statements, but not doing anything else.
Revenge is a wild kind of justice- but it is a justice when all attempts of seeking justice fail. At that time the only recourse to justify the end is the revenge. Our psyche has moved from preaching for a negotiated peace to violence. Since creation of Pakistan we have been breading hate, violence, injustice, robberies, corruption etc among ethnic groups. God’s children had no rights while the rich and strong taken away every thing from poor. Doctrine of fairness disappeared from our values. As a result the balloon of hate and revenge grew bigger and bigger and it is bursting now. We have selfish politicians and military who did not miss any opportunities for their personal gains leaving poor at God’s mercy. Military action for killing of Pakistan’s own nationals will breed hate and result in revenge killings and this cycle will continue to no end. So, be wise, respect them and negotiate peace. They are our brothers and citizens of Pakistan.
Some authorities in Pakistan has been enjoying absolute power. They could be a military dictator to a sharia judge. No body ever should have absolute power. Absolute power corrupts authorities absolutely. Think about Talibanism believers calling democracy anti Islam. Do they want absolute power?
To: Khateeb’s son
The maulana, the Taliban are the root cause of the intolerance and backwardness of our country. You are entitled to an opinion but no one is entitled to hold others to that opinion at gun point – which is precisely what is happening. If the “faith” you claim is so obviously great, why is that it requires guns to propagate it? They’re just a bunch of thugs and the gentle people around you aren’t as loud mouthed or as violent as you.
I sincerely hope that the Taliban and those like them lose.
Having a state within state for six decades, the outcome we see today was likely, it is time to take over all of NWFP and FATA and remove all arms from these malitias. If we can’t put our army to engage on this for long term, then it is time to disolve the state of pakistan and be done with the foolish nazaria of two nations that got us into this mess.
to khateeb’son,
It is very sad that you are proud of militancy at Lal Masjid. The maulana should have acted in accordance with the law, instead, the confrontation was chosen by the maulaanas at the time.
They could have gone to the court asking for justice.
They had no right to remain armed till the end causing a huge bloodshed on both sides.
All sides are to blame equally.
Every one is worried that the people from lal masjid and FATA might retaliate once again for the military operations, that we forget about the Muslims (non hypocrits) still alive in the country. I myself do not think that i am a very good muslim but if these people continue to test our patience i personaly might raise arms against them. After watching their atrocities i want to make them taste their own medicine and this is not just me i am speaking for dozens of other people i have met recently. It is not us who should be worried, it is them and the clock is ticking.
Set a standard for what constitutes terrorism. If an action is defined as terrorism in the western front, the same action should be treated as terrorism in the eastern border. Solve issues through bilateral forums and not by creation of freedom fighters who then freely become terrorists.
How things will get better, we cannot envisage at present. Politicians must sit down together and work out the solution, which prevent the extremist militants from acting in barbaric way and at the same time provincial government of NWFP should play a pivotal role,especially ANP, who has been acting as silent assasins, and encouraging split between people .
Lal masjid maulana should not have been released but federal government did in good intentions to deflame the boiling situation among the revengeful islamic extremists, who has brought lot of shame to Islam over last 4-5 years. May be we need some drastic measures, as seen in Turkey many years ago in last century.
All we need the basic neccesaties and try to survive on our own dough rather foreign dosh.
government should not come under any blackmails from these radicals, when it comes to sovereign and make sure, such elements are not given many chances, otherwise it will be real catastrophe in waiting, God forbid.
I fully agree with the comments made by Nadeem Shah the Taliban seem to get support from the neighbour enemies of Pakistan and the need of the time is to flush out the taliban abd the people and agents like baitullah who are playing in the hands of certain agencies working against the existence of Pakistan.
The operation started by the security forces of Pakistan need to be fully suported by the people of Pakistan for a peaceful and prosperous future of the coming generations as well as the peace of the region.
In this regards the International community instead of criticising the civil government of Pakistan should focus on the issues created by the expanding influence of Indian domain in the Afghanistan and the problems it has created for the region and specially for Pakistan. The stance of the internatonal community that Pakistan should focus on the internal situation is not the correct way of dealing with the current situation the International community shouls take into consideration the role of India not only in Afghanistan and the adjoining areas od FATA but the international community should look at the role of Indian government in Kashmir as well.