[Dawn] THE death of a man who waged war against the Pak state and was responsible for the slaughtering of thousands of innocent men, women and kiddies should have come as a great relief to this strife-torn nation.Instead, our politicians are mourning the death of Hakeemullah Mehsud in a US drone strike describing the incident as an "attack on peace".
From being public enemy No.1, the chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) has virtually been turned into a hero after his inglorious death. A mass murderer who ordered the beheading of our soldiers and grabbed credit for killing a Pak general just a few months ago, is now being elevated to the status of a martyr.
Instead of seizing this moment of opportunity to dismantle a fragmented terrorist network, a frightened politicianship has shamelessly prostrated itself before the myrmidons. As a result, the gunnies and their allies are now dominating the public narrative despite their crimes against the people of Pakistain. It is an extremely dangerous situation for a country facing the existential threat of spiralling violent extremism. A narrow self-serving leadership is taking the entire country towards a suicidal path.
With few exceptions, all political parties have joined the chorus that the fatal drone strike on Hakeemullah was a conspiracy to scuttle an illusory grinding of the peace processor. While the interior minister has called for reviewing relations with the US, an agitated Imran Khan
... aka
Taliban Khan, who who convinced himself that playing cricket qualified him to lead a nuclear-armed nation with severe personality problems...
has threatened to block the NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
supply line in protest. The bravado may just be public posturing, but the irresponsible rhetoric could lead to some unintentional consequences, plunging the country into more dire straits.
It is a pity that even the killing of young women and kiddies in a suicide kaboom in a crowded Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
bazaar or the massacre of Christian worshippers in the church bombing has not shaken the great Khan as much as the death of the leader of the myrmidon outfit that perpetrated those heinous attacks. He even refuses to accept that the Taliban were behind those bombings despite their endorsement of the attack.
Seemingly, all the tumult is about the timing of the US action and the violation of Pakistain's illusory sovereignty once again. According to the interior minister, the attack was carried out hours before a three-member delegation was to meet the TTP leadership and extend to them a formal invitation from the government for talks.
Notwithstanding the questionable legality of America's drone strikes on Pak soil, it is hard to believe that the targeting of the TTP chief was part of a plan to sabotage the talks as alleged by our politicians.
One should not forget that the TTP leader was on the US's most wanted list with a bounty of up to $5m on his head. He came on the US radar after a video showed him talking to Hummam Khalil Abu-Mulal al Balawi, a Jordanian doctor with Al Qaeda connections who went
kaboom!inside a CIA operating base in Afghanistan's Khost province
... across the border from Miranshah, within commuting distance of Haqqani hangouts such as Datta Khel and probably within sight of Mordor. Khost is populated by six different tribes of Pashtuns, the largest probably being the Khostwal, from which it takes its name...
, killing seven intelligence operatives in 2009. The incident also confirmed his close ties with Al Qaeda.
Soon after, Hakeemullah claimed to have trained Faisal Shehzad, an American of Pak origin who was involved in a failed attempt
Curses! Foiled again!
to detonate a boom-mobile in New York's Times Square.
Hakeemullah had narrowly escaped several drone strikes in the past three years. He was also reportedly injured in one of them that kept him out of action for several months. Significantly, the fatal attack on Friday came a couple of weeks after the US forces had snatched from the Afghan intelligence agencies Latif Mehsud, a close confidant of the TTP leader.
It is quite plausible that the information gleaned from Latif might have led the CIA to Hakeemullah's hideout. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has confirmed that American officials had informed him that the TTP leader would not be spared if tracked down.
For sure, the drone campaign has remained a major irritant in the troubled relations between Islamabad and Washington. Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
also raised the issue during his meeting with President Barack Obama
We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us...
in Washington last month. Indeed, Pakistain's objection to the violation of the country's illusory sovereignty is fully justified on legal and ethical grounds. There are no two views about the negative political impact of the collateral damage caused by the drone attacks.
But it is also a fact, that the drones have eliminated many high-value Pak faceless myrmidons running their terrorist operations from North
Wazoo. Prominent among those killed in the last two years are Waliur Rehman, who was deputy chief of the TTP, Ilyas Kashmiri, Qari Hussain, Qari Zafar and Badar Mansoor. They were all criminal masterminds of attacks on Pak security installations.Pakistain has also decided to contact the five permanent members of the UN Security Council on the killing of Hakeemullah in the latest drone strike. The move will certainly make Pakistain a laughing stock and only weaken the country's case on the drone issue.
Leave aside other countries, Islamabad cannot even convince its closest ally China on the matter. The myrmidon sanctuaries in North Waziristan are a cause for concern to the entire international community. It is certain that the way Pakistain is dealing with the issue of terrorism will find no takers.
It was questionable from the outset whether the government's peace efforts could succeed given the uncompromising attitude of the TTP. In his last interview to the BBC, Hakeemullah had rejected any dialogue under the Pak Constitution, saying that it envisioned a secular democratic system.
Now with his death that may lead to further fragmentation of the TTP, the possibility of any purposeful negotiations has become even more remote. But the danger is that the current state of policy disarray may provide a conducive environment in which the faceless myrmidons can revitalise their activities. It is perhaps, the most critical point in the country's struggle against the rising myrmidon threat.
