After all the efforts of government of Pakistan to hold fruitful talks with militants and Taliban ended without any result, the ground had nicely been made for a full-scale military operation in the Northern areas of the country. After all the patience of government and armed forces and increasing resilience and brutal attacks of militants, everyone had started believing that these militants will never listen to the government and only way to solve this problem was to eliminate them altogether. Now that a week has passed of these operations, the results are satisfactory that hundreds of militants have been killed, their hideouts destroyed and their arm supplies destroyed or captured. On the other hand, the humanitarian sufferings caused by such military operations is also saddening as hundreds and thousands of people have left their houses and moved to the safer parts of the country. The scorching heat, fear of road-side bombs, lack of transport, strict curfew routines and inadequate government support for these IDPs is adding to their miseries and they are passing through the worst disaster of their age. It is also a fact that some civilians have also become the target of these military operations and their victims are already very enraged from the government and the military. At the same time, some of these IDPs have crossed the border to Afghanistan and keeping the centuries old tradition of hospitality, they have been warmly received by Afghans on this side of border and they are doing all their best to share the sufferings of their brothers from across the border. However, it also remains a fact that some militants might flee to cross the border into Afghanistan for which our security forces need to be more vigilant.

The people fleeing from Waziristan to different parts of the country and into Afghanistan have differing views about militants, military operations, religious sentimentalism and extremism, and other issues. Majority of them are happy that these militants will be eliminated from their areas forever and they support the operation and Pakistani armed forces. Some have reservations about the real objective of these operations while there are also present those who think that ‘real servants of God’ have been targeted and the nation will face the curse of this sinful act. There were also present those who had very interesting and quite reasonable stories to tell. Some of them I would like to share with our readers.

A man was telling as how these militants came and gained public acceptance. These were his words, ‘Our area was ruled by two kind of people; our tribal elders called ‘Malak Sahib’ and a strong, bullying and rich smuggler or criminal. Both of them coexisted together, safeguarding the status-quo. Majority of these ‘Malaks’ were neither liked nor disliked by people as they were not cruel but they did all their best to keep the people under their control. On the other hand, people badly hated and were fed-up with the smugglers and criminals as they were cruel and carried out all the criminal and cruel acts against the people. In such suffocating circumstances, Taliban entered the scenario. They were very good people in the beginning, mostly limited to the religious activities and calling the people for efforts to promote goodness. People accepted them from their heart and saw in them a hope for a change in better.  

But the condition was not acceptable either for the Malak or the criminal as Taliban were going to change the scenario. Taliban soon acquired much strength in form of money and arms and they were supported by some invisible hands which would not be much rational to mention here. Soon they grew too strong that both the Malak and the criminal started fearing them. At some places, they attacked and destroyed the setup of criminals of the area which won the hearts of the people. They had at last got any savior to relieve them of their old miseries. But the increasing power became a problem to them as well. They were initially brought up and supported for some hidden purposes of the government and other international powers playing a world game of power in the region. Now, they had enough power to demand for ruling the area with a traditional slogan of an ‘Islamic State’ to serve their needs. A state they would make on the name of Islam but would best serve their needs. But they were never in position to establish or run such a state. They were mostly illiterate, undisciplined and understood the language of fighting and guns. The condition was not tolerable for government who could have never tolerated a state within state but they were also losing support in the general public. They did whatever pleased them and badly violated the rights of people. Their words were the rules and their wrong act was taken as right. People started feeling that they came out of one prison and entered the other. But the common public was not in position to d anything except to tolerate them and wait for someone to bring an end to their cruel rule. When they turned against the government, they spread in different parts of the country and threatened the government by their suicide bomb attacks, militant attacks on important strategic targets of the country, and targeting the top military and police officials. The government realized its mistake of bringing up this menace and allowing it to grow right under its nose. But then they were so strong that the government had to consider the option of negotiations with them but nothing worked and in the end, government had to resort for a military operation which we hope would bring an end to this problem.’

In this regard, a joke was also famous among the people. A person belonging to Waziristan worked in one of the gulf countries and sent home the money he earned. Once, he brought a beautiful set of gold for his wife which really pleased her. Then the husband returned back to his job. Once, Taliban asked for charity and help from people on the name of ‘safeguarding Islam’. People were very enthusiastic and they gave away whatever they had. The wife of this man also gave her beautiful and expensive gold set in this charity. This time, when the man came, Taliban had started fighting with the government and their village was also under shelling and bombs from both the sides. One night, when the couple was in the house and hearing to the frightening sounds of bombs and rockets, a rocket came and exploded in their street as well. The sound of it was so frightening that she shouted with fear. For this, the husband gave a smile and said, ‘It is not the sound of rocket rather it is the sound of your gold set that you gave them to fight. You must enjoy this sound’.

Anyhow, when we come out of this joke, we face two harsh realities. One, militancy can never grow without the support of government of that area. We can never think that thousands of people should have weapons, millions of dollars, grand vehicles and all other resources without any state support. State also supports indirectly when it ignores the menace of militants and allows them to grow and get strong. Secondly, until and unless we don’t stop getting sentimental and emotional about religion, we would always be fooled and misused on the name of religion. Tomorrow, there would be another group, by different name, who would use the sentiments of public on the name of religion for their heinous objectives and bring disaster to them. Until and unless we don’t start thinking rationally, keeping aside the religious sentiments, we would keep suffering and for this we must not complain of other for our miseries.

The militancy and religious sentimentalism is also a problem of our society. Government and influential members of society should think and take steps so that same fire should not get into our homes.