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| The enemy within? |
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Friday, June 26, 2009
The Pakistan Airforce has confirmed it had acted against at least 57 personnel following the December 2003 assassination attempt against then President Pervez Musharraf. Six of these men were sentenced to death, others were arrested or dismissed from service. In total 100 PAF men faced disciplinary action in the aftermath of the murder attempt. The confirmation of rumours we had heard at the time is still shocking, over five years after the event itself. There are several reasons for this. The fact that people who were found to have links with terrorists were present within an elite wing of the armed forces, some at a senior level, is obviously a matter for grave alarm. The system in place to defend VVIPs from attack is not designed to deal with those in such places, given that they have potential access to sensitive information and access to important political figures. It is also apparent that terrorist groups have deliberately targeted those in key places, aware that they can do a great deal to further their cause.
There is every possibility that in some positions such people still lurk. The PAF, and we assume other services, carried out a purge after the details of the 2003 plot were uncovered. But can we really be sure that each and every person with militant sympathies was rooted out? It is hard to imagine this could have been achieved. The hard reality is that more may still be present in various positions. This holds true not only for the military, but the police and the bureaucracy as well. Indeed, during the 1990s, sectarian groups made it a specific priority to win over police officers to their cause, aware of the advantages this gave them. Other accounts suggest bureaucrats may have been lured over in similar fashion. Certainly, in the case of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and in other matters, we have heard tales of just such a nexus.
The existence of the enemy within the ranks of those intended to protect us against militants poses to all of us a very real threat. The fact that they exist is a consequence too of past policies during which 'jihad' was promoted actively as a cause worth dying for. In some materials circulated among the armed forces this line remains unchanged. The policy in this respect needs to be reviewed. If we are to build a safer country, we need to rid ourselves of the extremism that has crept in and stolen large chunks of our country away. It has done so not just in terms of territory but in terms of people as well. Those within the police tell of colleagues who insist the Taliban are forces of good; the fact that such beliefs can exist despite the deaths over the last few years of hundreds of policemen, in cities and towns across our country, is a pointer as to the power of this ideology. There is a possibility that adherents to it watch and wait elsewhere too. They need to be weeded out. While the suggestion that militants could seize nuclear assets is in many ways absurd, the reality is that some may indeed be based in powerful places. They must be removed if our country is to be made a safe place for all of us to live in.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
