Since the Peshawar Tragedy – Terrorism Attack on the Army Public School – I have not written anything here. Just a few tweets about Death Penalty that were produced here. I have remained very confused, in my efforts to make sense of what is happening. I know after years of studying this phenomenon that all TTP groups of proxies of one kind or another. Proxies are controlled in an intricate Wheel within Wheel type of mechanism. Foot soldiers – the kind of suicide fidayeen that attacked APS in Peshawar – are mere zombies of this conflict.
To defeat these “primitive warriors with modern weapons” we need to have a comprehensive strategy, which is principally going to be a war strategy but that does not mean that we will start challenging and fighting against all kinds of medieval Islamist groups or sectarian outfits all across the country.
These zombies don’t know what they are doing; they are indoctrinated in a way that they lose control over their bodies, they have no minds of their own and they have no will. We can hate them or call them as animals but they were mere human drones. But the complexity of this issue runs deeper beyond this; even the handlers who send them would not know who really wanted this kind of attack and what was the real objective. Was it just revenge against Army action? or the real planners wanted to achieve many things – aik teer say kain shikar – ??
Read more: Pakistan: Terrorism at Lal Shahbaz Qalandar Shrine; What does it mean?
Many things have happened since then; Pakistani politics has changed altogether, regional dynamics are changing; Is this what the planners of this “dastardly attack” wanted? Do these primitive warriors wanted a shocked and enraged nation and a military machine molten hot with anger to be chasing them? I feel the debate which has ensued since the tragedy is, as usual, happening at a very limited superficial level. We are again moving in the circles.
Read more: Pakistanis must learn the limits of military-led counter-terrorism
To defeat these “primitive warriors with modern weapons” we need to have a comprehensive strategy, which is principally going to be a war strategy but that does not mean that we will start challenging and fighting against all kinds of medieval Islamist groups or sectarian outfits all across the country. That will be a disaster of huge proportions. If we want to succeed then we need to ask ourselves: who did it? Why? Was purpose only revenge or the goal was also to influence Pakistani politics and regional dynamics? Armed with these questions we can hit back with military force, precision targeting and diplomacy; we can ignore these questions only at our peril. Hating “brain dead remote controlled zombies” and filling newspaper and tv space with such hatred is no solution.
Moeed Pirzada is prominent TV Anchor & commentator; he studied international relations at Columbia Univ, New York and law at London School of Economics. Twitter: MoeedNj. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Global Village Space’s editorial policy. This piece was first published in Moeed Pirzada’s official page. It has been reproduced with permission.