The Rangers headquarters has reportedly been attacked in Karachi. This means the snakes that were bred for export have bitten the hand that fed them. It is a rogue breed. Our warnings that breeding terrorism is a dangerous adventure were ignored for three decades. We hope Pakistan discards, once and for all, the use of religion-based violence and terrorism for projection of power beyond its borders.
Despite the public rhetoric that Pakistan has minimized its overt relations with the Afghan Taliban, there are no real signs that either the establishment in Islamabad or Army Headquarters in Rawalpindi truly wants to sever the backup structures which provide psychological, political, and even financial support to the Taliban – if not to their system but to their leaders. Every single Taliban leader — without exception — has business interests and business ties in Pakistan which have not been targeted.
The Army-backed madrasas have not joined the Afghan people in condemning the Taliban as a devious group; instead, they have shied away from countering the devious narrative of the Taliban — a narrative that took shape with direct assistance from the whole of the Pakistani establishment. If Pakistan takes a courageous decision to discard all terrorists, an atmosphere of clarity will emerge and the space for manoeuvre of terrorists will shrink. The policy of selectivity has reached a stalemate. It is time to initiate a new paradigm. We, the Afghans deserve the right to know on what pretext the Quetta Shura was created. We deserve to know why surgical wards in Quetta hospitals were not allowed to ask for ID cards from the Taliban wounded.
We deserve to know why Pakistan gave bomb making material to the Afghan Taliban for two decades until 2021 ? We are curious to know why Mullah Baradar was escorted to a secret facility in Karachi ahead of August 2021 to deliver a speech to suicide cadets and brief them on the Doha deal — all on the record. We deserve to know why Pakistan created a secret anti-Afghanistan Republic alliance in the region to assist the Taliban. After each and every terrorist attack, Pakistan may continue to strike targets here and there to satisfy its ego and demonstrate that it does not sit idle and takes revenge.
That strategy is like fried ice-cubes. It can be an item without existence. In the void of political clarity, terrorism will not go away. It is time for a paradigm shift.
