Raising the threshold of terror

 

 

It was early 1969. Pakistan was in the throes of a democratic upsurge aimed at its military President, General Ayub Khan. Going by the atmospherics of the late 1960s, the mood was rebellious. There was euphoria in the air as thousands of industrial workers, students, lawyers, doctors and teachers marched the streets denouncing the great dictator. On one such morning, students gathered at Sir Syed Girls College in Nazimabad where teachers were on a hunger strike. There was a complete lock out that day in Karachi, the financial hub of Pakistan, at a call given by the Democratic Action Committee (DAC), a motley alliance of political parties including the National Awami Party (NAP), Awami League, Jaamat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ulmae Islam and others.

By a coincidence, a cricket match between Pakistan and Commonwealth was to commence at the National Stadium, Karachi. Suddenly, Leftist students from the National Students Federation (NSF) decided that both the city and the cricket match needed to be shut down. They jumped into the stadium waving red flags and the match was cancelled. Looking back, that episode makes me sad and introspective. Was it adventurism or naiveté? Was it correct to show solidarity with teachers on a hunger strike in front of a middleclass girls college? Did it hurt the large gathering of cricket enthusiasts in the stadium? I vividly remember sneaking into the VIP gallery and hear a Commonwealth team player asking, incredibly: “Has the mob gone?”

Today's situation in the country has many similarities. There is real agony because the future of cricket – and indeed sports – in Pakistan looks perilous. “The future of cricket in Pakistan is very bleak after the Sri Lankan team was attacked in Lahore. It was not an attack on cricket alone, it was an attack on Pakistan,” former star batsman Zaheer Abbas told TSI. Like everyone else, Pakistan's top cricketers are preparing for the worst. “I think the ICC will now be reluctant to hold World Cup not only in Pakistan, but in Asia itself,” Abbas asserts. Mohsin Khan, another star cricketer concurs: “The future of cricket in Pakistan is now dark."

The attack has shocked cricketers the most. Says charismatic all rounder Shahid Afridi: “This has resulted in irreparable loss to Pakistan.”

Teenagers in Karachi who play passionate cricket in the alleys because encroachments have left few playgrounds, are heard mouthing strange comments. “Test matches in Pakistan will take place between Pakistani teams,” I heard one of them saying.

M Ali Shah, member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), an ally in Pakistan People’s Party-led government, said the attack was a “total security lapse” and would have grave implications for the country. He feared that Pakistan’s match with Australia in Sharjah may be called off because countries would not like to risk a terror attack.

Crucially for Pakistan – and its sports crazy public – this outrage will certainly leave its long and crooked shadow on the country's other sporting activities. Already, the staging of premier hockey internationals in Pakistan, like the Champions Trophy is in doubt with some European teams citing security concerns. According to Shah, countries would be very hesitant to send its players to Pakistan as even the mere safety and security.of players cannot be guranteed here. Rishad Mahmood, Sports Editor, The Dawn, Pakistan's leading English newspaper told TSI that an Indian under-21 hockey team was expected to come to Pakistan in December in 2008, but the visit was cancelled at the last moment at Amritsar because the Indian government said it had information about security threat to its players. After that, secretary, Pakistan's ministry of sports issued a statement that Pakistani hockey and squash teams were to play matches in India but now they are not sure the teams would visit India. "After the attack on Sri Lanka team in Lahore I don't think that there will be any matches between Pakistan and India," he said.

Political analysts take a broader view. “The biggest domestic implication is the further evidence of statelessness of Pakistan,” Dr Syed Jaffar Ahmed, leading social scientist and Director, Pakistan Study Centre, University of Karachi, told TSI. “Suicide attacks are quite common in Pakistan and law enforcement agencies are totally helpless and terrorists have taken the entire country hostage,” is his grim conjecture.

Political parties have reacted differently. Right wing Jamaat-e-Islami chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, sees a 'foreign hand’ in the terrorist attack while former ISI chief, Gen. (retd.) Hameed Gul sees India as directly behind the attack as a tit-for-tat for the Mumbai carnage and as a ploy to isolate Pakistan.

But eminent scholar and defence analyst, Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa Aga, sees serious implications in making speculative statements. “We are pointing a finger at India and if there is any evidence, it will make peace between the two countries extremely complex, but relations with other countries will not be affected,” she told TSI. Prof. Syed Haroon Ahmed, a distinguished psychiatrist analyses terrorism in Pakistan, historically speaking. Asked to explain this rising tide – and how it was affecting relations in the neighbourhood - Ahmed explains: “Historically, before the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971, nationalist forces based their policies to get their share from the federal government: In the then West Pakistan, they talked about Sindhudesh, greater Balochistan and Pushtoonistan and the most affected were the people of East Pakistan.”

According to Ahmed, after the emergence of Bangladesh, the military and civil bureaucracy in Pakistan encouraged religious parties, who were not in the mainstream politics. After the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan religious fundamentalist parties were under the illusion that they had brought the downfall of Soviet Union – not the massive American and logistic support by the Pakistan government. “The next scenario is the mujahideen being dumped by America and later the emergence of Taliban. The former were used for fomenting insurgency in Kashmir while the latter were firmly supported by successive Pakistani governments. This policy has had a great impact on Pakistan society, which is now more or less in a state of civil war.”

Just how much has been the road travelled during the last 40 years? I would say it has undergone a metamorphosis. I remember when our comrade, Farooq, was badly injured during a police lathi charge at Karachi's national stadium. The Chairman of the PCCB, Essa Jafar, dropped into the NSF office to apologise, even though it were the same students who had disrupted the international match, the same day. Today, Pakistan’s society has been brutalised to such an extent that unknown marauders slaughter humans unabashedly and people are condemned to live in constant fear and anxiety.