Terrorism in Pakistan Has Foreign Roots

By: Kayhan Int’l On the heels of the mayhem in Peshawar a couple of days ago that killed a score of people at an election rally, bloodbath was unleashed yet again at an election gathering in Pakistan on Friday by terrorists of the same hue and colour in the town of Mastung, near Quetta the capital of Baluchistan, with the fatality toll almost a hundred men, women, and children, and the numbers of the wounded nearing the 200-mark. With the general elections set for July 25 and the various political parties vying with each other to have a fair share of the parliament, terrorists and their backers abroad, taking advantage of the lack of proper security measures by state forces, whose ranks are long known to have been infiltrated by anti-social elements, are trying to cause the maximum harm to the people and the image of Pakistan. We hope Friday’s two incidents of terrorism might not be repeated and the Pakistani nation will be able to vote in a peaceful manner for candidates of their choice for the next government and the prime minister, following disqualification for life by the judiciary on corruption charges, of the last elected premier, Nawaz Sharif, on 28 July 2017. Terrorism, however, has become deep-rooted phenomenon in Pakistan and this seems unlikely. The roots go back to 1980 when the then President Zia ul-Haq – a general who had seized power through military coup against the elected government – made the fatal mistake of biting the bait from the CIA and the Wahhabi clique of Saudi Arabia to allow free flow of heavy weaponry to the pseudo religious outfits, on the assumption that these would be fighting a jihad in neighbouring Afghanistan, which the Soviets had taken over in December 1979. Since then the Pakistani people have seen no respite from terrorists of all hue and colour – religious, ethnic, burglary gangs with neither any cause nor affiliation to any party, group, or country, and those comfortably based in Pakistan to carry out acts of terrorism in neighbouring countries, especially against the Islamic Republic of Iran. This state of lawlessness has destroyed the reputation of the country, whose officials – whether civilian or military – unconcerned of national unity and progress, and heedless of the necessity of goodwill towards neighbours, have refused to sereriously weed out terrorists, both domestic and those indulging in cross-border terrorism, because of being beholden to the superrich sponsors of terrorism, especially Saudi Arabia.

On many an occasion, the Islamic Republic of Iran, as a brotherly obligation had offered its help in training the necessary dedicated, devoted, and popular forces to combat terrorism, but no serious response came. The result has been catastrophic. Among those killed in Friday’s bomb blast was Baluchistan provincial assembly candidate Siraj Raisani, whose brother Nawab Aslam Raisani had served as the provincial chief minister from 2008 to 2013. Siraj Raisani was the second electoral candidate to be killed in pre-election violence this week. Last Tuesday, at a rally in the northern city of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a terrorist had killed 20 people including Haroon Bilour who was hoping to win a provincial assembly seat in July. It is still not too late to combat terrorism and week out terrorists from Pakistan. Hopefully, when the new government is elected, it will review national and regional interests for the sake of the Pakistani people and forge cordial ties with the immediate neighbours, rather than allowing itself to be constantly misled by the Americans and the oil-rich Saudi criminals.