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The Peshawar Massacre: My Take

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by Balajee, Dec 17, 2014.

  1. Balajee

    Balajee IL Hall of Fame

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    I would have jumped with glee and yelled “ serves’ em right” but for the fact that innocent schoolchildren, over 100 of them were killed. The Peshawar school massacre should make Pakistan realize that you can’t play Dr.Frankenstein, create a monster and expect it not to attack you. But will Islamabad learn.

    The fact is Pakistan is hoist with its own petard.. It has become the victim of an instrument that it had created. The boomerang has returned to the owner knocking him down badly.

    But this has also given Pakistan a great chance to indulge in breast-beating and deny it is a terrorist state (which it actually is given the fact that terrorism against its neighbours India and Afghanistan is an instrument of state policy). After all, it has been a victim of terrorism too. So how can it be a terrorist state, would be the repeated refrain of the country’s rulers, to whatever political party or junta they might belong. The terrorists have given Pakistan a golden opportunity to play the victim that it is not.

    Now Pakistan is making a lot of noises about fighting terrorism but terrorism does not end by shooting terrorists but by shooting what makes them terrorists. Even if they eliminate all the existing terrorists , an impossible task at any rate, can they kill what males people terrorists.

    The fact is even ainstream Pakistani leaders have made lot of noises over the years about "holy war" against India.. Even the otherwise liberal Benazir Bhutto once thundered that Pakistan would fight a holy war over Kashmir.Fight against India has been depicted as a holy war, a religious duty. The shortsighted politicians thought that creating an army of “holy warriors” would help them have an upper hand against India.

    They got the opportunity during the western attempts to oust the pro Soviet government in Afghanistan. With Uncle Sam’s help, they trained students from religious seminaries to fight the holy war. Students or to use the Urdu term,. Taliban.

    The Frankenstein’s monster thus created was quite effective in devouring Babrak Krmal’s Afghan regime and later went on to knock out even the pro-western governments of sections of anti-Communist alliance and assume power.

    The Taliban with their brains fuddled with the medieval mentality inherited from the reactionary Deobandi madarsas sought to impose a theocratic state in Afghanistan, oppressed women deprived them of rights and barnned their education. But US invasion following 9/11 put paid to their governance and they went underground, attacking Afghan , US and allied troops in a guerrilla struggle.

    But in Pakistan the toxins continued to flourish in the minds of madarsa alumni and they sought to impose similar theocracy in the Northwest Frontier Province and indirectly ended up being the cause of Malala Yusufzai getting the Nobel peace prize. They blasted girl schools and co-ed institutions. To impose their agenda. The Peshawar attack on army public school is the latest attack on educational institutions and the most dastardly one so far.

    Now military operations have been launched against the Pakistani Taliban but are they enough?. Can they kill a Taliban mindset?What do you do with people who think that getting killed in a “holy war” will open heaven’s gates for them? Can Pakistan attack the religious seminaries where such drivel is taught to students? Because the real problem lies there where the Taliban mindset is created—the seminaries.

    This is really doubtful. No government has the political will to take the battle to these institutions and try to regulate what is being taught there.. Immediately that would result in a howl of protests. The opposition will try to score brownie points and passions will be whipped up and some fanatic may try to bump off a government leader or two.

    Even otherwise, Pakistan had been treating radical groups with kid gloves. When terrorist Hafeez Sayyed organized a mass gathering the government obligingly ran a special train for those attending it..

    One cannot but have a pessimistic view of the situation in Pakistan. . Because even if Pakistan gives up the idea that terrorism could be a good stick to beat India, it is too late. The body politic of that country has been poisoned too much for recovery.
     
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  2. GoogleGlass

    GoogleGlass IL Hall of Fame

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    Well narrated view about the situation B'

    Pakistan has long before lost its control when it embraced terrorism.

    True Jihaad is only when they come out of terrorism.

    Condolences to the families those lost their nears and dears.
     
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  3. Balajee

    Balajee IL Hall of Fame

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    GG, the radical Islam preached in these seminaries perverts the idea of Jihad. Jihad is actually a spiritual excercise according to enlightened theologians. It is a war against onself, the negativity in which we are steeped. But these terrorists, alas, have lost their jihad that way.
     
  4. FromMars

    FromMars Gold IL'ite

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    Very painful to take.

    To go to a school and kill children.

    We have heard of mentally ill doing something like this. But for a group of humans with sane mind to do the same. What is the use of them having brains.

    Every time something brutal happens, someone shows an even more uglier side. A sad day for mankind.

    All this in the name of God. A God whose existence and presence, no one can prove.
     
  5. Balajee

    Balajee IL Hall of Fame

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    Frommars who told you they are sane? They are religious people and the best way to drive anyone mad is through religion (Many may contradict this). Religion equips you to commit the most heinous of crimes with a lily white conscience.
     
  6. FromMars

    FromMars Gold IL'ite

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    I dont know if these people were particularly religious.

    Would they have said " Alla hu akbar" or whatever they say, before gunning down the children. Would they have gone home at the end of the day and kneeled down and prayed and said, "god..today I did something for you. I am working towards a world where people believe in you"?

    These people are no different than the henchmen of a mafia leader.

    Put poverty together with being around violence everyday and it doesn't matter if they are asked to be brtual in the name of religion, a don or something else. They will do.

    Eradicating poverty and bring education is the only way to fix this. Pakistan first has to shutdown all its madrasas for that. Will it do?

    We speak about Pakistan, I am sure the Indian muslims wont allow shutting down the madrasas in India.


    My goal is not to attack a particular religion. I am sure every religion comes with its issues. But every religion needs to take a positive step from where they are. Not all are doing that.
     
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  7. chillbreeze

    chillbreeze Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Balajee, you have echoed my thoughts exactly. I was discussing the same thing with DH today. Such an act of cowardice. And couldn't agree with you more about the rest of post about the people's mindset in Pakistan. Some people never learn from their mistakes.

    Infact it scares me sometime when I read about the strict islamic nations that seems to be on the rise.
     
  8. Balajee

    Balajee IL Hall of Fame

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    FromMars, people who kill motivated by faith kill with a clean conscience. From its primitive days when people sacrificed their own kind to gods and felt satisfied about it to these gun toting killers who massacre innocent children, religion is a great motivator,. You see faith can make you into an angel and it can also turn you into a devil. It all depends on how you perceive it and how it is dinned into your head.
     
  9. FromMars

    FromMars Gold IL'ite

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    I dont know if I agree with this. Do you think that a serial killer kills with a guilty conscience?
     
  10. Balajee

    Balajee IL Hall of Fame

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    Chklbreeze I think Pakistan has reached a dead end. The liberal elements are too terrified to talk and these reactionary maniacs are having a dance of death. And the rulers are solely responsible for it.
     

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