A humble effort to wake up Pakistan through personal and borrowed thoughts.
You have to stand guard over the development and maintenance of democracy, social justice and the equality of mankind in your own native soil. [Mohammed Ali Jinnah]
Friday, February 6, 2009
Insurgency in Swat - An analysis
Here's an analysis of the Swat situation by Abdullah Saad (http://abdullahsaad.com), a must read:
"One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist." So it's just about the perspective my dear. We can make as many comfortable hypotheses sitting far away from Swat, creating stories in our head with our shiny laptops in front. It's easy to call anyone anything..... very easy. After all, it's our choice; to believe anything we want to, based on the choices we have made for ourselves, for our life, uptil this point in time. And that defines our belief, and who we are.
Due to the choices that have come to define my belief system uptil now, it becomes very easy to decide which side to believe. For me the neocons of US, UK, Israel etc are the enemies of Humanity at large. Things were not always like this. And if that side declares one party as terrorists, I will consider a lot of things before letting their piece of information be a part of my established belief system; especially since I know in Reality what they have been doing in Palestine, Iraq ,Afghanistan and the world at large, for long!!!
As far as the perspective of someone (unlike most of us) close to the situation is concerned, here's a letter to the editor of The News. According to this letter, it somehow seems that it's another proxy war just like it has been in Iraq and Afghanistan. The objectives and motives are other than being stated, however innocent people and children are losing their lives every day:
Swat -- so very strange Saturday, February 07, 2009 I belong to Khwazakhela in Swat and find many recent happenings in the valley very strange. For instance, in many cases the security forces shell areas where everyone knows that there are no militants. The Cobra helicopters being used are among the most advanced in the world. Despite that they fail to target check-posts set up by the militants, which in some cases are no more than two or three kilometres from those belonging to the security forces.
The militants have also set up their own courts where the common people go for case hearings but the security forces apparently don't know the location of the courts because these are also not being targeted by the attackers -- which is quite strange. Sometimes, security forces cross check-posts set up by militants and both have heavy weapons and nothing happens -- which is also strange. Schools and bridges are blown up by the militants and this mostly happens during the time of curfew -- where only security forces are patrolling. This too is strange.
Both Fazlullah and Muslim Khan are interviewed by the media but for some reason the security forces are not able to target them. Why? Ordinary residents of Swat seem to know the location of the top leadership of the militants but apparently the security forces don't seem to know of this. I find this very strange as well. The proportion of civilian deaths to those of militants is very high. Why? Instead of using artillery shells wouldn't it be better to deploy units on the ground to fight the militants at close quarters?
The people of Pakistan as well as the politicians are by and large silent on what is happening in Swat but very vocal on demonstrating against Israel -- why? Even Nawaz Sharif and his party seem more interested in restoring the superior judiciary rather than doing anything to improve the lot of the people of Swat.
1 comment:
"One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist." So it's just about the perspective my dear. We can make as many comfortable hypotheses sitting far away from Swat, creating stories in our head with our shiny laptops in front. It's easy to call anyone anything..... very easy. After all, it's our choice; to believe anything we want to, based on the choices we have made for ourselves, for our life, uptil this point in time. And that defines our belief, and who we are.
Due to the choices that have come to define my belief system uptil now, it becomes very easy to decide which side to believe. For me the neocons of US, UK, Israel etc are the enemies of Humanity at large. Things were not always like this. And if that side declares one party as terrorists, I will consider a lot of things before letting their piece of information be a part of my established belief system; especially since I know in Reality what they have been doing in Palestine, Iraq ,Afghanistan and the world at large, for long!!!
As far as the perspective of someone (unlike most of us) close to the situation is concerned, here's a letter to the editor of The News. According to this letter, it somehow seems that it's another proxy war just like it has been in Iraq and Afghanistan. The objectives and motives are other than being stated, however innocent people and children are losing their lives every day:
Swat -- so very strange
Saturday, February 07, 2009
I belong to Khwazakhela in Swat and find many recent happenings in the valley very strange. For instance, in many cases the security forces shell areas where everyone knows that there are no militants. The Cobra helicopters being used are among the most advanced in the world. Despite that they fail to target check-posts set up by the militants, which in some cases are no more than two or three kilometres from those belonging to the security forces.
The militants have also set up their own courts where the common people go for case hearings but the security forces apparently don't know the location of the courts because these are also not being targeted by the attackers -- which is quite strange. Sometimes, security forces cross check-posts set up by militants and both have heavy weapons and nothing happens -- which is also strange. Schools and bridges are blown up by the militants and this mostly happens during the time of curfew -- where only security forces are patrolling. This too is strange.
Both Fazlullah and Muslim Khan are interviewed by the media but for some reason the security forces are not able to target them. Why? Ordinary residents of Swat seem to know the location of the top leadership of the militants but apparently the security forces don't seem to know of this. I find this very strange as well. The proportion of civilian deaths to those of militants is very high. Why? Instead of using artillery shells wouldn't it be better to deploy units on the ground to fight the militants at close quarters?
The people of Pakistan as well as the politicians are by and large silent on what is happening in Swat but very vocal on demonstrating against Israel -- why? Even Nawaz Sharif and his party seem more interested in restoring the superior judiciary rather than doing anything to improve the lot of the people of Swat.
Naeem Yousafzai
Khwazakhela
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