Taliban apologists

Among the Taliban apologists, there are two major schools of thought — one considers the Taliban’s war against the Pakistan government as just and a result of the Americans presence in neighboring Afghanistan and the other wants us to believe that although the Taliban are on a wrong path any action against them will bring further trouble to the country. We see an upsurge of the second group in media. This type of apologists want us to believe that confronting Taliban is not in Pakistan’ long-term interest; in other words Pakistani shall surrender without a fight. May I ask these apologists in the Pakistan military, media and religious/political parties:

When Pakistan closed NATO supply route for several months, did we see any letup in Taliban activities? No, they continued to play havoc, killing military men and civilians, destroying schools, hospitals, communication infrastructure, mosques and shrines.

Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani made one thing very clear to these apologists on Aug. 14 that Pakistan can’t permit another government within its boundaries. War against insurgency in Pakistan is our own war, although it may mean fighting with our own people. To fight a war, you need to know your enemy and its goal — Taliban’ goal is to destroy the democratic foundation of Pakistan and establish a narrow-minded state based on tribal values which they have been mired with distorted religious beliefs.

There are two ways to fight this goal — enter into argument and logically defeat their philosophy, or use force to enforce the state’ writ within its boundaries. The time for dialogue, discussions and peace negotiations had lapsed long ago. The talks achieved nothing. Instead, the militants turned those talks into an opportunity to attack the army headquarters, the Mehran Naval Base and the Kamra Air Base.

It’s time for all Taliban apologists to stop the direct or indirect support of these bloodthirsty monsters. We need to take the Taliban and their sectarian allies by the horn before they succeed in destroying and dismantling the state of Pakistan itself. For this I propose some direct actions like cutting off communication services (mobile/ satellite phones) in tribal areas, controlling delivery of fuel — gasoline and diesel — and immediately enactmenting a legislation to enable the swift prosecution of Taliban and their cronies. Regrettably, the Pakistan government has some other priorities to address to.

Masood Khan, Jubail