Crush Punjabi Taliban also

By Siddiq Baluch

There is a controversy in the Punjab following the Provincial Assembly by-election in southern Punjab when newsmen exposed the links between the PML-N leadership and the Punjabi Taliban or the banned religious outfit involved in acts of terrorism in Punjab and other parts of Pakistan. The newspapers and TV Camera published and telecast pictures showing the PML-N Minister addressing joining public meeting during the by-election campaign.

Following the disclosure of the links between the top leaders of banned religious outfits and the PML-N, there is a growing demand from all corners in Pakistan for Government action against the banned religious outfits involved in killing hundreds of fellow Muslims and Pakistanis for sectarian or other reasons. All those people are presently known as Punjabi Taliban. The radical political elements had been blaming the Government and its functionaries for supporting the Punjabi Taliban considering them as assets in the Jihad in Kashmir and Afghanistan. There was no substantial rebuttal from the Government and its functionaries on these serious allegations.

There was an interesting report on the Urdu Service of BBC when the young students from Jamiat Dawa schools staged a peaceful but noisy demonstration outside Karachi Press Club condemning closure of their schools. They were accompanied by their teachers but they kept quiet. The teen age students were chanting slogans demanding reopening their school. The young BBC correspondent interviewed a score of children and specifically asked what they want to become after completing education, almost all replied that they want to become Mujahid.

When prompted them to become the prime minister, President, Governor, Commander in chief, they all said no. They want to become Mujahid and wage Jihad. No body knows against whom. The interview clearly indicated that it was no school of Jamiat Dawa, but it a production line for Mujahideen to fight against their own fellow Muslims and Pakistanis.

Dozens of deadly incidents were reported in which Punjabi Taliban were involved in the massacre of innocent Muslims, all non-combatants, in the suicide attacks. There are more powerful religious parties who failed to condemn the suicide attacks, killing of fellow Muslims and for no reasons by launching suicide attacks. There are some naïve politicians extending unqualified support to the Jihadis in Punjab, FATA, PATA and other settled districts of KP.

There was an explosion in one of the huge ammunition dump inside a religious seminary in Central Punjab indicating the level of arsenal available for the Punjabi Taliban. When the ammunition dump exploded inside the religious seminary, the whole village was destroyed completely. Later on the issue was hushed up and no one knew what had happened later on. The recent attack on the worshippers inside Ahmadi Mosques confirmed that the Punjabi Taliban are determined to overthrow the Government using force or by intimidating the people to submit to their will.

One can quote dozens of major incidents in which the Punjabi Taliban had used terror tactics to intimidate the Government, its armed forces and the people in general in an attempt to pave the way for take over of Pakistan by force. The international community is using it as a propaganda tool against Pakistan and its establishment rightly claiming that not enough is being done by all the segments of the Pakistani establishment to eliminate the threat to regional peace and security.

The links between the Punjab Government and the Punjabi Taliban had raised some eye brows all over the world confirming some connection between the Government authority and the Punjabi Taliban. It is the duty of the Government and also all right minded people to mobilize public opinion against the Punjabi Taliban entrenched in major parts of Central and Southern Punjab and use full force to uproot and defeat them as early as possible. They are a serious threat to the stability of Pakistan as they are enjoying tacit support of some Government functionaries, some naïve politicians and hypocrite religious political parties who failed to condemn all the suicide attacks, including the deadly ones at Parade Ground Mosque and the GHQ in Rawalpindi.

(The write is a veteran Quetta-based journalist with five-decade journalistic experience of covering Balochistan. He is currently the editor-in-chief of Daily Balochistan Express and Daily Azadi (Urdu), Quetta: dailyazadi@gmail.com. To read previous articles by the same writer, click here)