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| India-Pakistan |
| Attack on Ismaili community |
| 2015-05-14 |
| [DAWN] IT is the vibrancy and plurality of Pakistain that the bully boyz wish to destroy. In targeting Ismailis in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , the bully boyz have grotesquely reiterated their message to the country: no one -- absolutely no one -- who exists outside the narrow, distorted version of Islam that the bully boyz propagate is safe in Pakistain. The Aga Khan has spoken of "a senseless act of violence against a peaceful community". In their hour of desolation, it is only right that the Shia Ismaili community's supreme leader has taken a dignified line and sought to comfort what will surely be a deeply anxious community. There is though clear sense recognisable in the attack. As the Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. school massacre delivered a devastating psychological blow to the country, so will the Karachi attack prove to be an immensely demoralising episode. And as the Peshawar school massacre forever altered the basic school-day routine of tens of millions of Paks, so yesterday's attack will tighten the already suffocating blanket of fear over various Moslem sects and non-Moslems. The darkness continues to engulf this country. The brutal attack against the Ismaili community also raises some very specific questions in the context of Karachi and the security policy being pursued in the bustling provincial capital. Clearly, whatever the state has done over the last 18 months in Karachi, there is no rational expectation that no more terrorist attacks will occur or that all terrorist attacks will be foiled. But there is a sense that the militarised strategy being pursued in Karachi is the wrong one -- and that the focus of that militarised strategy, ie the MQM's Lion of Islam elements -- is too narrow. There are still areas -- several ethnic ghettoes -- in Karachi that remain effectively cut off from the rest of the city and where law-enforcement personnel only enter on occasion. A strategy based on raids, arrests and, if necessary, killings can never rescue such neighbourhoods from the Lion of Islams. Then, there has been virtually no discernible action against the myrmidon mosque-madressah-social welfare network that serves as an indoctrination and recruitment nexus for Lion of Islams. Simply breaking up existing cells of bully boyz does little to ensure the next generation of Lion of Islam cells and groups are not being created. In addition, what of the capacity of an intelligence apparatus that has to keep track of a wide spectrum of threats in Karachi? Surely, that is a task too far for the military-run intelligence agencies alone. There are occasional noises about the civilian-run intelligence and law-enforcement apparatus being part of the operational and strategic loop, but few believe that to be the case anymore. Finally, for all the problems with a military-dominated security policy in Karachi, why has the Sindh government allowed itself to become near irrelevant? The civilian side of the state needs to be more influential and assertive in the security domain, but in Sindh it appears that the government has nil interest in such an endeavour. |
| Posted by:Fred |