Next Operation in Southern Punjab?
By The Pakistani Spectator • Jan 20th, 2008 • Category: Politics • 5 CommentsAfter the operations in Lal Mosque, Islamabad, South Waziristan and Swat region, is the next army operation going to be in South of the Punjab province? After military operation in Islamabad and in Swat, now Army is focusing on terrorists in the FATA area, and the whole world is concentrating on this tribal belt.
As President Musharraf has himself said that some of the suicide bombers are coming from the South of the Punjab, which is one of the most under-developed area of the country and is largly administered by the feudal families. It’s in the interest of these feudals to keep these areas backwards and ignorant to keep on with their exploitations, and that is why they were happy to let the hard-lined religious seminaries flourish in that area.
Now some of these schools are posing a grave threat to the whole of the nation and giving a very bad name to Islam domestically and internationally. The terrorist attempt which was just recently foiled by Karachi police, which was aimed at the Ashoura procession in Karachi included terrorists from Southern Punjab.
There are 253,125 students in the 2,715 seminaries belonging to various religious organizations in the Punjab and most of them are in the South of Punjab. Very few and handful of them are hard-lined and government should make a very calculated effort to bloodlessly neutralize their seminaries, which pose threats. There are 971, 397 students and 363 such schools in what use to be the Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan and Multan divisions.
In Multan, 140 seminaries belonged to Deobandis, 175 to Brelvis, 30 to Ahle Hadith and 13 to Shias. They had 6,076, 12,878, 3,880 and 726 students, respectively.
In Dera Ghazi Khan division, there had been 146 religious schools run by Deobandis, 191 by Brelvis, 27 by Ahle Hadith and 33 by Shias. The number of students was 10,897, 13,565, 4,109 and 940, respectively.
The Bahawalpur division had 368 seminaries of Deobandis, 540 of Brelvis, 39 of Ahle Hadith and 21 of Shias with 38,404, 35,238, 5,549 and 841 students, respectively.
These are our own people. We need to engage them. South of Punjab is very populous and very broad area. Army could easily bungle the situation there by using the brute force. It would highly prudent that government should use political leaders to convince and negotiate with the religious leaders and they both use their clout and authorities to bring the fractious people into the mainstream.
The best way to eliminate militancy and extremism from that area is to render education, jobs and basic necessities of life there. A massive awareness campaign should be launched to educate the people out there. Pakistan doesn’t want and cannot another military operation in Southern Punjab.
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Crush them all i say, our land is worth fighting for!
It will be the biggest mistake, if u will do this act of brutalism, the reaction will be massive.
So, its an advice to stop it now…otherwise…
Praying for the best!
Regards.
Sherdil Khan
“Contributor”
http://www.factualreadings.com
Answer to terrorism is terror, not the dialogue
After reading few of the above comments, i am compelled to think that even after all the mess that we have seen in Pakistan, still alot of people support these brutal techniques. I think we should give diplomacy a chance and learn to keep our promises. The last incident in which our government failed to fulfill its part of the deal with the Baithullah Masud shows the level of professionalism prevailing in our government.
Moreover, the recent resignation of Ex Corps Commander and Governor of NWFP Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai, is a case in point that all those people who know the culture and traditions of the area are only suggesting a negotiated end to the present crises. This governor was famous for his support to the military regime but even he preferred to stay out of it as he didnt agree with the government decision of conducting further operations.
All those who think that the answer to terrorism is terror should learn one simple thing. Since our government terrorised those brave tribal people, it is getting terror in response as Liaqat rightly said “Answer to Terrorism is terror”. In case you have this way of thinking, then dont cry when these people use their suicide tactics againt our forces because you yourself think you are good enough to beat them with your sheer use of power.
Regards,
M Junaid Khan
http://thelandofpure.blogspot.com/
If it is required and people starts doing same things as Lal Mosque students or Maulvi Fazlah or B. Meshud doing an operation would be necessary in southern punjab or eatern sindh or western baluchistan.
We would support the action in the interest of Pakistan