Come Elections, Terrorists Will Be In Great Demand in Pakistan

Asma Sharif, New Age Islam

March 5, 2013

Pakistan’s home minister Rahman Malik has once again put his foot in his mouth by admitting that Taliban was behind the car bomb blast in Karachi on Sunday which killed more than 50 people and injured more than 140. The blast occurred outside a Shia mosque in Karachi. Shias have been the target of the radical Sunni extremist organisations in Pakistan who have vowed to cleanse Pakistan of the ‘Kafirs’.

It should be recalled that in the last week of January, Malik had predicted that something very disastrous was going to happen in Karachi ‘very soon’ and that some ‘forces across the border’ will create havoc in Karachi with the help of Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and other local subversive forces. In the same speech he had given clean chit to Taliban saying that they were not involved in sectarian and terrorist attacks in Karachi.

Now his recent statement after the Karachi blast betrays his dilemma. He has held Taliban responsible for the attack in Karachi. This somersault seems to come from the recent political situation in Pakistan which is going to have its general elections in May. The political parties have decided to go soft on terrorist organisations because they help them to win the elections by forcing candidates to withdraw their candidature and providing security to their political masters. Rehman Malik had hoped to pacify and befriend the Taliban by giving clean chit to them before the elections but when he saw that the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba (new name Ahl-e-Sunnat Al Jama’at), an affiliate of the Taliban has entered into a poll alliance with PML-N, Rehman Malik has upped the ante against the Taliban. Otherwise, there seems to be no other reason for him to link Taliban with the Karachi blast as Taliban have not owned up to the attack.

Recently, the ASWJ (Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jama’at) chief Maulana Muhammad Ahmad Ludhianvi had claimed that PML-N was in talks with him for an alliance in the next general elections.

It should be mentioned that PML-N leader and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is known to be close to the Taliban so much so that when the Taliban extended the talks offer to the Zardari government, they named three persons as guarantors among whom Nawaz Sharif, President of PML-N was one of them.

This is the tragedy of Pakistan that on the one hand, the Taliban and its affiliate terrorist organisations in Pakistan are destroying innocent lives and economy, and on the other, the politicians who publicly vow to fight these terrorist organisations race against each other to gain their patronage to win the elections.

Shahbaz Sharif is currently the chief minister of Punjab and owes his Chief Ministership to Sipah-e-Sahaba (Ahl-e-Sunnat wal Jama’at) chief Maulana Muhammad Ahmad Ludhianvi. In the 2008 elections, there were 17 candidates against him. Sipah-e-Sahaba helped to make all his opponents withdraw their candidature against Shahbaz Sharif paving his way to the office of the chief minister of Punjab. Today, the terrorist forces have a stronghold in Punjab and it has become a centre of terrorist activities in the country thanks to Punjab chief minister’s loyalty to them.

The elections are round the corner and so Shias will be killed in hundreds. No political party will take a hard stand against them because they too are at their mercy. If they antagonise them, they will lose the elections.

Till then God save the Shias!

URL: https://newageislam.com/current-affairs/come-elections,-terrorists-be-great/d/10648