EDITORIAL : THE DAWN, PAKISTAN

 

An alarming confession

IT is clear that the festering wounds inflicted by militancy and extremism are not going to heal any time soon. The alarming confession made the other day by a teenaged would-be suicide bomber who took part in the recent attack on the Sakhi Sarwar shrine shows that the enemy within is still alive and fatally dangerous. True, the boy in question is only 15 years old and he may not have a precise picture in mind of the real state of affairs. It is also well known that purveyors of hatred continue to go about their deadly business in parts of the tribal belt and elsewhere in the country. But still, what we have before us now is some rare insight from a person who has first-hand knowledge of the indoctrination or brainwashing programmes run by the recruiters, handlers and trainers of suicide bombers. Abhorrent as the idea might be to right-thinking people, 15-year-old Umer was told he would be sent to Afghanistan to kill infidels, or kafirs. Instead, he was dispatched to bomb a Sufi shrine near Dera Ghazi Khan. According to his own testimony, when Umer told his handlers “there are no kafirs here”, he was informed that “these people are worse than kafirs”.

These revelations are an eye-opener and negate the impression created by some religious groups that there is no sectarian element in militancy and acts of terrorism. Muslims at a Sufi shrine are seen as infidels by our home-grown extremists, simply because peaceful devotees do not subscribe to the brand of `Islam` espoused by violent, heavily armed people with hate in their hearts. We have reached the point — indeed did so quite some time ago — where anyone who disagrees with the ideology of the Pakistani Taliban and their ilk can be considered worthy of death. And the truly alarming thought here is that the situation may get a lot worse before it ever improves.

Umer says that at least 400 suicide bombers are currently receiving training in North Waziristan`s Mirali area. Again, given the boy`s age, his assessment may not be entirely accurate. But even so there is no doubt that militant sanctuaries and training centres for suicide bombers are still very much a reality in that part of the tribal belt. The army chief said on Friday that he is satisfied with the progress made in the fight against militancy. That may be so but it is widely believed that militants pushed out of South Waziristan are now operating out of North Waziristan. The mayhem they can create must be checked.

Kashmir killings

THE State Department report about extrajudicial killings in India-held Kashmir must come as a shock to all, for it reports no less than 1,600 unlawful executions by Indian security agencies in one year alone. If we consider the fact that the insurgency in the Kashmir valley has been going on since the late 1980s, the cumulative figure for arbitrary killings for more than two decades must be astounding. The victims of the crimes committed by the security personnel were not necessarily Kashmiri civilians; an Indian army officer was found murdered because he had detected illegal executions of four Kashmiri porters by senior railway officers. Besides illegal executions, the rights violations have ranged from arbitrary detentions and police firing on unarmed protesters to rape and murder. The most well-known case was that of Asiya and Neelofar, whose bodies were found in a stream. A court later ordered the arrest of four police officers for destroying evidence in the case, in which investigations established that Indian security personnel had gang-raped and murdered the two women. Since the `normal` law of the land has failed to deliver, the state legislature has authorised the government to declare any zone a “disturbed area” and armed the security forces with special powers, including the Public Safety Act. This is seen as a licence by the law-enforcement personnel, who can detain anyone against whom “reasonable suspicion exists”. Similarly, the PSA gives the police the right to detain any person without a judicial review for two years. The result was that in one month alone, no less than 3,500 people, mostly youths, were arrested.

Because of this stifling atmosphere, the people of Kashmir seem not to have benefited from the current attempt at détente between Pakistan and India. Even though the two sides have pledged to take up “all issues”, the Mohali spirit doesn`t appear to have made much difference to the lives of the Kashmiri people. New Delhi should realise that a breath of fresh air in the valley will help strengthen the peace process and expedite the normalisation of relations between the two countries.

Permanent solution needed

THE Indus River System Authority has temporarily cut Punjab`s share to help Sindh meet its water requirements for cotton sowing. Punjab did not object to the Irsa decision. While this month is critical for Sindh`s agriculture because of the kharif season, Punjab doesn`t need water for cotton sowing until May. Moreover, according to an Irsa spokesman, the higher releases to Sindh are expected to be adjusted against its share in the run-up to the conclusion of the current season. The water levels in the dams and rivers are also expected to rise over the next several days once temperatures in the northern parts of the country begin to climb.

That the two provinces with a long and bitter history of dispute over the distribution of water shortages are able to find a solution to the sudden drop in the dam and river flows must be welcomed. However, the present `bonhomie` between Punjab and Sindh is unlikely to last for long. The old dispute over sharing water shortages is bound to crop up again. Sindh has already told Irsa that it would not accept a cut in its share to absorb the shortages (during the rest of the season). An Irsa meeting on April 20 to decide the inter-provincial share of the shortages in case of a drop in flows is likely to be a re-enactment of past meetings on the issue. While Sindh will insist on its `full` share according to the 1991 water accord, Punjab will press for distributing shortages on the basis of `historical use`, or the average use of Indus water between 1977 and 1982 as decided by a ministerial committee in 1994. The bitterness of the past is not going to go away unless a permanent, negotiated solution to the water-sharing dispute is found, within or outside the accord.