posted October 30, 2006 11:24 PM              

A war on innocents

31 October 2006

WHERE is Pakistan headed? This question must be confronted by the people of Pakistan as well as those who wish the country to progress and prosper with the rest of the world. The air attack by Pakistani army on a madrassa in Bajaur tribal region yesterday that claimed more than 80 people is yet another sign that all is not well with the Islamic republic.

For which country launches air strikes against a school inside its own borders targeting its own people? The fact that most of those killed in the attack are believed to be innocent people and religious students makes the attack all the more unfortunate and completely unacceptable.

Of course, the army claims that the madrassa was a ‘militant training camp’ and all those killed were ‘terrorists.’ At the same time, the army spokesperson Shaukat Sultan also insists that there were no Al Qaeda or Taleban militants among those killed in the air strike.

The question arises, if those killed in the strike were not Al Qaeda or Taleban militants, who were those so-called terrorists? Obviously, they were local tribesmen and more likely madrassa students. How could a government order air strikes against its own people in the time of peace? Even if the Pakistani authorities genuinely suspected the school to be a ‘militant camp,’ shouldn’t they have approached local tribal chieftains and community leaders to address their concerns? More importantly, it was only last month that Pakistani authorities had patted themselves on the back for clinching a ‘landmark’ peace deal with the tribal leaders in Bajaur Agency. Under the circumstances, you would expect the authorities to think long and hard before bombing the school in the area and at least ensure the safety of innocent bystanders.

Clearly, under intense pressure from the US and scathing criticism in the US media, Pakistan is going to absurd and often unacceptable lengths to please Washington. Of course, Pakistan has to deal firmly with extremist forces that are as much a threat to the US as they are to Pakistan’s peace and stability. Besides, extremism does not go with Islam’s inherently peaceful and reasonable nature and humane teachings. Extremist groups such as Al Qaeda need to be dealt with firmly and effectively by the Muslim world.

That said, we must emphasise that victimisation of innocent people both by non-state players and the state is equally unacceptable and deserves to be condemned in strongest terms. Terror is terror, whoever initiates it. In fact, it is all the more deplorable if it’s unleashed by the state. The war on terror being waged by the US and its allies has degenerated into a war on innocents.

It’s about time the Islamic republic of Pakistan seriously examined its role in this war.

posted October 31, 2006 07:24 PM              

Thousands of Pakistani tribesmen attend a protest rally to condemn a Pakistani military airstrike in Chingai village near Khar, the main town of Bajur, at the Pakistani tribal area along the Afghan border. (AP Photo/Press Information Department of Northwest Frontier (NWFP) Province)

Habibullah Khan And Sadaqat Jan
Canadian Press

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

KHAR, Pakistan (AP) - Thousands of tribesmen threatened to send suicide bombers to attack Pakistani forces and to execute people found spying for the United States in a fiery protest Tuesday denouncing the Pakistani air raid the killed 80 people a day earlier.

An estimated 20,000 people turned out for a rally in Khar, the main town in the tribal Bajur district and close to the village where Monday's missile attack on a religious school took place. It was the largest of several demonstrations to denounce the raid held across Pakistan on Tuesday.

In the southern city of Karachi, 1,000 supporters of a hardline Islamic group burned U.S. flags and denounced Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Some 500 protesters burned an effigy of Bush in Peshawar. American flags were also burned at rallies in Multan, Quetta and Lahore.

A Pakistani security official said the seminary in the Bajur village of Chingai had been frequented in the past by al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, and an Egyptian terrorist who was behind August's foiled terror plot to blow up transatlantic airliners. But neither man was there at the time of the attack.

Pakistan's military claims the religious school - known as a madrassa - was a front for an al-Qaida-linked terrorist training centre. Local residents and Islamic leaders said the victims were innocent students and teachers.

Inayatur Rahman, a local pro-Taliban elder, said he had prepared a "squad of suicide bombers" to target Pakistani security forces in the same way that insurgents are attacking Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"We will carry out these suicide attacks soon," he said, asking the crowd if they approved the idea. The angry mob yelled back in unison, "Yes!"

The crowd railed against Musharraf and against U.S. President George W. Bush.

"Death to Bush! Death to Musharraf!" and "Anyone who is a friend of America is a traitor!" the crowd chanted.

The rally also adopted a verbal resolution to stone to death anyone found spying for the Pakistan army or the U.S. government.

Many local legislators and regional cabinet ministers resigned in protest over the attack. The planned signing of a peace deal between tribal leaders and the military was also cancelled Monday in response to the air strike.

Tribesmen and religious figures blamed U.S. forces in neighbouring Afghanistan for carrying out the attack, but American and Pakistani military officials said it was the work of Pakistani helicopter gunships.

Maj.-Gen. Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's chief army spokesman, said American forces did not take part in Monday's attack, but suggested intelligence was provided in line with long-standing co-operation with coalition forces in Afghanistan.

"Intelligence sharing was definitely there, but to say they (the coalition) have carried out the operation, that is absolutely wrong," Sultan told The Associated Press. "One doesn't know . . . what was the percentage of help (provided)."

Sultan later contacted The AP to deny he had made the remarks about the intelligence sharing.

It was unclear when al-Zawahri and the Egyptian al-Qaida leader in eastern Afghanistan, Abu Ubaidah, had last visited the seminary, the security official said on condition of anonymity.

In Kabul, Col. Tom Collins, a U.S. military spokesman, said it is common knowledge that the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan share intelligence as part of a three-way military agreement. He said he had no information regarding the recent operation in Pakistan.

Another U.S. spokesman, Lt.-Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, said no U.S. equipment, aircraft or forces were involved, but declined to say whether other American assistance was provided.

Pakistan said its helicopters fired five missiles into the madrassa, flattening the building and killing 80 people inside.

The attack threatened efforts by Musharraf to persuade deeply conservative tribespeople to back his government over pro-Taliban and al-Qaida fighters, who enjoy strong support in many semi-autonomous regions in northern Pakistan.

In January, a U.S. Predator drone fired a missile targeting al-Zawahri in Damadola, near Chingai. The strike missed him, but killed several other al-Qaida members and civilians and prompted anti-U.S. protests across Pakistan.

One of the three survivors of Monday's attack, 22-year-old Abu Bakar, said from his hospital bed in the northwestern city of Peshawar that the seminary was used by students - including many children - and teachers, not terrorists.

"There was not militant training in the madrassa," said Bakar, whose legs were broken by rubble from the building. "We had come here to learn Allah's religion."

Bakar said 86 people were inside the seminary and just he and two other students - 15 and 16 years old - survived the raid. Many children, including some as young as five, were among the dead, he said.

"I am wounded but am more saddened by the deaths of small, innocent children," said Bakar.

© The Canadian Press 2006