Mayhem in Pakistan and its consequences

Whenever poor and innocent people die, one feels bad and questions the humanity of the perpetrators. Pakistan has had three major suicide bombings:

Tuesday (19 Aug) in Dera Ismail Khan: In this incident the bomber blew himself up in a hospital – killing 78 people. The bombing happened as Shi’ite Muslims gathered to protest over the death of a man in a suspected sectarian attack. Apparently, the Shi’ites were the main targets.

Thursday (21 Aug) Twin Blasts in Wah Cantonment: Roughly another 78 died in this bombing at the end. Workers were streaming through two gates of the sprawling factory complex in Wah, 20 miles west of Islamabad, during a shift change about 2 p.m. when the bombers attacked outside the walls. The force of the explosions knocked many people to the ground and sprayed others with shrapnel.

Saturday (23 Aug) Swat Valley: In yet another bombing, around 20 people were killed and several others injured on Saturday when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a police station in Pakistan’s restive northwestern Swat valley. Muslim Khan, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman in Swat, claimed responsibility for the attack.

All these have happened post Musharraf resignation. Now, if Musharraf was indeed an American stooge as a lot of these religious groups alleged, then WHY do these bombings now?? Is it that the new Government is more eager to carry out the “American agenda” of fighting them?

Well, whatever the reasons and the calculations by these organizations and extremists, one thing is sure that the very fabric of Pakistani society is under tremendous stress and the agents who are causing that stress are organic – means from within. They may be supported from outside, as many in that country are wont to say, but the actual carrying out agents are in-house. And even the motivations are in-bred – like the specific targeting of Shi’ites in a hospital!

As an Indian, I can only pray that this may end soon for Pakistanis but more importantly, it may trigger a round of introspection – as to what is the future they want and what is basically and more inherently wrong with this situation? How did it actually come to pass? This introspection is not easy. It will mean questioning one’s own self thoroughly and debating age old constructs and creating new ones.

For India, this is significant, because the move to complete anarchy in Pakistan has started. The aim of the perpetrators is to make Pakistan another Afghanistan of the Taliban era – nothing less. So that from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan and beyond they can claim that “real Islam” has set in. What that society will look like and offer is quite another matter. But it will have serious and unprecendented consequences for us Indians, which we will have to fight against, if our survival and growth is to be ensured. And fight will not always be by gun, but also with emotions, with empathy, with friendship and with love.