The entire nation stands shocked and disgusted by the dastardly attack on the defenceless 14-year old Malala Yousafzai who spoke against the bigoted elements whose agenda is to terrorise society and among other things, deny women the right to an education. Malala, who herself took up the challenge of speaking out in favour of girls like herself, attending school, is fighting for her life as a consequence. The army chief, General Kayani, showed a firm resolve “not to bow before terror”. The COAS, visibly angered and saddened when he visited CMH Peshawar on Wednesday to inquire after Malala, strongly berated those (in this case the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan), who would not care for human life if that came in the way of their ambition of imposing their ‘twisted ideology’. He asserted that the army would fight them regardless of all costs and, God willing, would win. These views were endorsed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee that met at the GHQ a day later.
Earlier, there have also been reports purportedly conveying the sense of outrage being felt at the GHQ, with the top brass consorting together to outline a strategy for a possible operation in North Waziristan to forestall such incidents, in line with the internal dynamics of the country that would not countenance loss of innocent Pakistani citizens. The reaction, is no doubt justified. Militarily targeting can only be condoned in the extreme case of defiance when all possibilities of reaching an understanding through a peaceful approach have been exhausted and the general opinion in the country is favourable for such an action. It would be ruinous to launch an attack on North Waziristan without the necessary preparation and taking into account the consequences it might entail. Already, the majority of terrorist attacks have followed some action against the militants, either an armed action like the one carried out in Swat from where Maulvi Fazlullah, having taken refuge in Afghanistan, keep sending across groups of militants to attack Pakistani territory; or the provocation caused by as high as 98 percent of civilian casualties by drones, as cited in a Stanford/NYU report prepared by a group of researcher. While there is an argument that the army is already too thinly spread for it to launch another campaign, it must also be seen that we are undoubtedly under attack. The war has come to us and the casualties are ours, not foreign. In the absence of law and order in these regions and the writ of the state being deliberately and brazenly challenged, we must bring these areas back under state control and implement the laws of Pakistan, not those arbitrarily drawn up by the handful of terrorist elements keeping the population there hostage.
Now, the entire nation is consumed by rage on the one hand, and an earnest wish for the full recovery of Malala Yousafzai on the other. The incident has sparked a countrywide debate about making serious moves to put an end to this scourge. This debate is welcome. Preference goes for a well planned concrete strategy to crush this evil once and for all. The government and the military must cat aside any differences and offer a solution to the Pakistani people, who are tired of this war and now want peace and security to return to Pakistan, by any mean necessary.