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UNDOUBTEDLY the capture of Liaquat Ali aka Ehsanullah Ehsan was good, in fact great, news. So why then are we in the process of making a hash of it?
There is no official word on whether the spokesman of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s most toxic arm, the Jamaatul Ahrar, was snatched from inside Afghanistan in a special forces operation or surrendered after ‘seeing the light’ as the terrorist himself seemed to suggest in his video ‘confession’ released to the media.
Regardless of how he was taken into custody, the manner in which this success has been handled leaves a lot to be desired. First, photographs were released to the media that showed a relaxed, composed Ehsanullah Ehsan smiling and laughing with not a scar on him.
Regardless of how Ehsanullah Ehsan was taken into custody, the manner in which this success has been handled leaves a lot to be desired.
Then the video confession was made public in which the former JuA spokesman, whose familiar face and voice millions of Pakistanis saw as synonymous with acts of terror that the TTP and JuA claimed responsibility for, is saying the TTP was infiltrated and supported by the Indian intelligence.
In addition, Ehsanullah Ehsan lectures his audience on what Islam stands for and what it abhors as he implies his former comrades should also see the right path as he has and not play the foreign powers’ game.
The release of these photos and the video drew howls of protest from many public opinion leaders who likened such media releases to insulting the memory of thousands of civilians and soldiers the terrorist groups killed or maimed.
As expected, diehard loyalists of the establishment took to social media and slammed the critics with the rather warped argument that the latter’s criticism was motivated by the terrorist’s confession of Indian involvement.
No matter how ludicrous this debate may be, it has now become the norm as every development has to be seen as part of a zero-sum game between the (treasonous) liberal-civilians on the one hand and the military and its patriotic supporters on the other.
More than an indication of acute polarisation in society, such attitudes appear to be manifestations of a policy vacuum for which both the elected civilian leaders and the military must share the blame.
Viewed sympathetically, the handling of the Ehsanullah Ehsan case by the military establishment suggests two main objectives. The first is to reinforce the message that India is to blame for exacerbating much of Pakistan’s internal security nightmare.
Equally, a subtle message is being sent out to TTP terrorists that anyone of them who surrenders voluntarily will be treated well, fairly and possibly even be rehabilitated. Let me share with you why I may have a problem with both these objectives.
Only the very foolish will believe that a hostile foreign power such as India will not take advantage of our follies. Pakistan may have nurtured the jihadis in its pursuit of national security goals, as a low-cost force multiplier for bleeding its enemies across its borders. But now when it has alienated some of these jihadi groups for a myriad reasons, the enemies they were supposed to bleed and kill via a thousand cuts are turning and deploying these very low-cost weapons to inflict damage and misery on Pakistan itself.
I didn’t need Ehsanullah Ehsan’s confession to know this was happening, but I don’t count. Pakistan wants the international community to see and believe this. Is it? Well, what became of the much-talked about ‘dossier’ submitted to the UN secretary general? Nothing.
Cast a wider look around and see the Indian oppression in the Kashmir Valley where human rights are being trampled with impunity every day as security forces write one bloody, brutal chapter after another. And what is the international reaction? Near zero.
Sadly, the world is being driven solely by market considerations and the Indian market, with its nearly 400 million strong middle class and its enormous purchasing power, is drool-inducing to the outside world. Images of India-held Kashmir fade into oblivion when viewed against this.
As for the second possible objective of encouraging desertions in the TTP ranks, it would be naïve to believe one Ehsanullah Ehsan will swing it. A lot more will need to be done and that may first require a national consensus even if diehard TTP terrorists can be turned.
A bloodied but proud nation, which has bought into Zarb-i-Azb and Raddul Fasaad and celebrated the operations’ successes, will need to give assent to a policy aimed at appealing to the ‘faith and sanity’ of the terrorists.
Such a policy change in extreme cases may also entail an amnesty. Whether desirable or not, nobody seems to be in the mood for such a concession to mass murderers at this or any stage and that too without debate.
Here is where the elected government and the military leadership are found culpable for the policy vacuum. Let’s look at the example of parliament’s overwhelming view that Pakistan stay away from the Yemen war for which the Saudi-led military coalition was first announced.
This seemed to be a policy written in stone. What happened to it? The former chief of army staff is now leading the coalition. The incumbent is said to have agreed to station 5,000 troops in Saudi Arabia. The rationale being advanced is that our troops will be there solely to guard the holy sites.
The news filtering through suggests the brigade strength contingent will be stationed in southern Saudi Arabia. The nearest holy site from here is at least 500 kilometres away as the crow flies but the Yemeni border is at a stone’s throw. The elected government acquiesced to this in defiance of parliamentary consensus.
In the absence of debate, we can be sure that all the ramifications of this decision may not have been thought through. One hopes there is no blowback; for as always, 200 million-plus confused victims will suffer the brunt and no one else.
The writer is a former editor of Dawn.
Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2017
