Trying times for Pakistan

“Just desserts” is not something you say easily, particularly in public, even when misfortune befalls your worst enemy. And good people don't even say it in private, despite the gravest provocations. So it was with horror that India woke up on Monday to its TV channels telecasting news of one of the worst ever terror attacks in Pakistan; on the country's naval airbase at Mehran, in Karachi.

On Sunday night armed militants stormed the three hangars at the airbase, their first target being the aircraft parked there. Using rocket-propelled grenades and guns, they caused severe damage to several warplanes. Next they opened fire and killed several naval officers. The Pakistan Taliban has since taken responsibility for the assault, saying this was in revenge for the “martyrdom” of Osama bin Laden. This was the most brazen terror attack on Pakistan since the killing of bin Laden in a US operation on May 2. That the Taliban militants, who are allies of the al Qaeda, were able to launch this sensational attack on the heavily guarded building has raised several questions on the Pakistan government's ability to protect its installations.

Beginning of havoc

Pakistan is steadily going downhill under frequent assaults by several militant groups that hate the Pakistan government for its “unholy alliance” with the US. Sunday night's attack was reminiscent of the assault in October 2009 on Pakistan's Army headquarters in Rawalpindi. Following this attack, in India in particular, there was consternation that terror groups in Pakistan are making a determined bid to lay their hands on the country's nuclear arsenal. Even the thought of what that will mean for India is petrifying.

That this is only the beginning of the havoc that can be caused by terrorists in Pakistan, particularly in its North-West Frontier and Balochistan regions, where the tribal communities are totally in sync with Afghanistan's dreaded Taliban, is the most frightening takeaway from the attack on the naval airbase.

Only last month the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), a largely independent body, came out with a report which said that militant attacks had killed over 2,500 people in Pakistan in 2010. Nearly half of them were civilians, killed in suicide attacks.

The report on the security and human rights situation in Pakistan estimated that US drone attacks had killed about 900 people during the same period. The report also mentioned the increasing violence in Balochistan and said that in 2011, the situation was bound to get worse as the Pakistan government seemed unable to get a grip on the situation.

It also expressed concern over the growing religious intolerance in the country, where 99 members of the Ahmedi sect had been killed in attacks and 64 people had been charged under Pakistan's anti-blasphemy law. In January the entire world was shocked when Punjab's influential Governor and senior leader of the Pakistan People's Party, Salman Taseer, was killed by his own bodyguard. The killer said he had done this because Taseer was against the anti-blasphemy law.

Even as the assault on the naval airbase raged through Monday morning, with navy commandos and marines launching a counter-assault that finally ended the siege, a section of the Afghan media claimed that the Taliban leader Mullah Omar had been killed in Pakistan. It was claimed that he was in Pakistan and was advised by the ISI to move back to Afghanistan and was killed while travelling from Quetta to Wazirabad in the company of former ISI chief, Hamid Gul. Not only did the Taliban deny this, Mr Gul said he had never met Mullah Omar!

Impact on society

As Pakistan falters on the brink of despair and chaos — the deft bin Laden operation carried out in the heart of the country by the US, with the host country not even getting a hint of it, has really diminished its already fragile reputation in the international community — one wonders what all these developments mean for people across sections of society in the country, from the middle classes to the elite or the liberal classes. Oh yes, Pakistan does have people of the latter category too.

In cities such as Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, which I have visited numerous times, while enjoying the most succulent chicken tangri kebabs in Karachi's Boat Club or downing a pint of beer along with fried fish and tartar sauce at the Lahore Gymkhana, the accompanying conversation has invariably been scintillating.

If the hospitality has been impeccable and the courtesy extended nothing short of regal and nawabi , the discussions have been stimulating too. So many of these moderate/liberal, intelligent, sensible and sensitive people, even while defending their country's position on Kashmir, have criticised their government and even the Army in the harshest possible language, and some of them on record too. Pakistanis then were even more zealous and proud about the freedom of their media, than we in India. Of course the media's image, here, there, and everywhere else, has since suffered a severe drubbing, but that is another story.

One wonders what the industrialists and businessmen, bankers, artists, advocates, women activists and other professionals I had met and interviewed in Pakistan, feel about the downhill journey of their nation, the frequent episodes of violence and terror that tear it apart or the pathetic image of its political leaders. Certainly, they deserve to live in a better nation. And it is not surprising that those who can afford to do so, are sending their children to western universities in the hope they will be able to get jobs and settle down outside Pakistan.

(Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in and blfeedback@thehindu.co.in)

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