Targeted operation against LJ: What are the options?
On February 16, 2013, a second deadly attack on the Shia Hazara community took place in Quetta within the span of just over a month.
This time too, the religious and ethnic minority, desperate for justice, declared they would not bury their loved ones until their demands were met. Among these demands was the call for a targeted operation against extremists operating in Balochistan – particularly the anti-Shia sectarian outfit Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ), which claimed responsibility for the attack.
This sentiment has been receiving increasing support across Pakistan, especially in the wake of the devastating Quetta attack in HazaraTown. There is a growing demand to focus on home-grown sectarian outfits, many say, as opposed to worrying about what’s happening across the border in India.
A targeted operation, however, would need to be a focused and sincere one. Many have been skeptical of arrests made within days of the blast, where four suspects were killed and the mastermind of the attack was reportedly arrested along with seven other suspects.
Meanwhile, the public also remains cynical after an increasing number of reports which indicate that political parties themselves are unwilling to crack down on LJ and its predecessor Sipah-e-Sahaba (SSP) because of electoral concerns. News reports also indicate that such concerns include seat adjustments for the upcoming elections between the Punjab government and the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ).
With the facts on the ground indicating that political parties may not be willing to seriously crack down on sectarian outfits, a number of questions arise.
Should the government go all-out and launch such an operation that specifically targets organisations like the LJ? If so, who should go about it? Would the operation be carried out by the police, or should the requests that the army be called in to clean up the way they did in Swat in 2009 be paid heed to? The army itself, meanwhile, has found itself defending itself against having links with the LJ.
Furthermore, where should such an operation take place? Should it be limited to Balochistan, or should bases be cracked down in Punjab as well, the heartland for many of these sectarian outfits?
Most certainly a consensus must be reached between the federal and provincial governments, as well as powerful institutions like the army, on deciding what to do next.
Option number 1) Operation against L.J should be handled by the police (under the indirect guidance from the army; please don’t forget there are a lot of SHIAS in the army as well. The real problem is not to handle LJ but to handle SHIAS) and then the result delayed as much as possible, till after the election; by that time nation would be too busy to think about LJ. Option No.2) From Sipah-e-Sohaba to Lashkare Jhangvi, now another name is needed for the future operations. 3) All Hazaras cannot be moved from Quetta to another city; A long pause in operation is in order, while the attention is diverted from LJ to Taliban, Shrines (to the followers of Barelvi school of thought)
These are the same terrorists that murdered innocent Ahmadis in Lahore on May 28 2010. They have now murdered innocent Shia Hazaras. If the army does not root out and destroy this evil, which is in bed with our government and possibly the army itself, it will eventually attack the majority Sunnis.
“First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Imran Khan believes we must negotiate with Talibans. So do Mulana Fazalur Rehman , Syed Munawar Hasan and Nawaz Shareef .
Following the logic given by these esteemed politicians we must negotiate with Lashkar-e- Jhangvi as well.
Since these four politicians believe we should not ask Talibans to stop killing innocent civilians prior to coming on a negotiable table . We should apply the same logic for Lashkar-e- Jhangvi and tell them that we want to talk to them and they are allowed to continue to kill as many innocent civilians as they like.
Targeted Operations , is the topic of the Forum. Targeted operation ? Are you out of your mind ?
Our Great politician Imran Khan has been saying from day one that we must stop Army action against Talibans in Waziristan. With the same logic we must not talk about bringing Army in Quetta , in fact we must remove FC and other forces from Quetta. Let Taliban give free hand in Waziristan and free hand to Lashkar-e- Jhangvi in Quetta to exercise what they love most i.e. killing innocent civilians.
I agree with Imran Khan that this is not our War. When the USA leaves Afghanistan and stop the drones then both Talibans and Lashkar-e- Jhangvi will be distributing flowers amongst the civilians and they will throw away all the arms.
Wow we are so gullible that we allow these men to be our leaders. The word that best describes our thinking is masochism. We are all masochists. We will vote for these leaders.
No shame on Talibans, No shame on Lashkar-e- Jhangvi . Shame on us. Shame on us.
Why is it that you do not realise that once you let the Gennie out of the bottle, you can never ever control it again?
The problem ios lack of transparency. You can still have transparency without insulting religion.
But when you acceept what the Dictators do, and never crirticize it, and when a coup is more popular then democracy – you will never know what is being done in your name – because of the lack of teransparency
not a single shia has ever been acused of suiciide bombing,whats wrong with sunnis,it requires deep soulsearching,Are the sunnis up to it or are they going to get into a deeper denial.Pakistanis are being despised because of this,we need to keep the saudi’s at an arms length.god bless pakistan
if our sunni majority is truly fed up and wants to cleanse themselves from these barbarians, LJ, SSP, TTP, etc, then good things will happen. I am certain of it. But if the people prefer saving face by finding similar crazies in other denominations, or justify atrocities as necessary to “purify” Islam, then only God’s intervention can save Pakistan.
So you don’t want to clean your house, in other word one house is acceptable with filth to spread hate.
Before people belonged to outskirts of Baluchistan, and far from Khybar-P and Waziristan were so simple and kind. Now most of them are radicalised and became anti state elements. Most of these terrorists organizations operate from KP and South Panjab. How have they become extremists and suicide bombers are deep concern to be addressed.
You said it all in the second half of the last sentence of your article.
In Pubjab, the Police need Army protection from the likes of LJ etc. The LJ, supposedly a strategic asset of certain establishment players including certain political parties including in Punjab, cannot be dislodged easily. They are a part of the establishment.
Make pakistan a secular state…..
We have to get to the root of the problem. Most of these criminals are not convicted by courts because of the lack of evidence. We may deploy few reconnaissance drones to listen on conversation and follow these individuals and gather evidence against them and then use preemptive surgical strikes to get them before they carryout terrorists act. There should also be a real-time online national registry for every vendor of bulk fertilizer chemicals (used in (IED) that can be seen by our intelligence folks to track individuals who are buying (identity & finger prints) these chemicals. Increased intelligence gathering, effective conviction rates, vigilance/infiltration of these organizations and strict laws against spreading hate would help to overcome this menace.
root cause is majlis/sermon full of insult/humilation
what i believe first govt. need to check who is funding these outfit? who’s backing they are getting ? cut those backing and reveal the external factor behind them…and u will see waves of terrorism will go down sharply.
A consensus of the callous politicians will never be reached and the Hazaras will become extinct in Pakistan.Its time for the Army to step up to the plate and as a federal body go after the sectarian murderers throughout Pakistan.
it is not the responsibility of Army, Ulma/Alim of both sides need to be cleaned to avoid any incident in future
In doubt very much if the state has either the ability or the willingness to wipe out LJ. What is required is the kind of resolve shown by the Ceylonese President in eliminating LTTE. Such action invariably involves a very high amount of collateral damage, large scale killing of innocents which would be unacceptable, given the weak government and the essentially fractured society.
Here’s an idea: 1. Put the terrorists on the spot. Erect billboards with their pictures, a bounty for their death or capture and include all pertinent info on them including their last known address, their aliases, the name of their wife(s), and where their wife(s) live, all the names and addresses of their closest relatives and the names of those known to associate/help them. Seriously. Why should terrorists be allowed to live as singular, anonymous beings? Why should their friends and family members be allowed to avoid scrutiny? Put them out there, and their relatives/associates with them. Here in the US, if authorities want to flush out a criminal they put all the pressure on the family members and associates of the criminal and eventually the family members get tired of being harassed and end up giving up the whereabouts of their own kin. Law abiding members of society often have little incentive to allow their own names dragged through the mud due to the criminal ways of their relatives.
2. Give villages, provinces, and cities a financial incentive to enact a NIMBY (not in my back yard) attitude toward terrorists. Let each area decide upon the best approach that works for their particular issues. So long as their constituents remain safe, their city/village/province gets money. Problems with public safety = no money. And any person found to be aiding or abetting a known or suspected terrorist gets a prison sentence and all land and property is forfeited to the local provincial government even if that means the person’s family is thrown into the street destitute. And before anyone deems that as harsh, it is a legal thing done in the US all the time. If I deal drugs out of my parents’ home and am arrested doing so, the gov’t confiscates the home and auctions it off even if my parents were not a part of the criminal offense. This is a deterent created to not allow one to turn a blind eye to the criminal behavior occuring under their own roof. Ignorance (feigned or real) is not a defense.
The political parties will continue to play their little games for small gains which will fuel other state institutions to use it as an excuse to not go after LeJ, Jaish and TTP. Military establishment was made to issue a press release denying having any links with LeJ. Was it any different from various political parties that kept blaming each other for having links with these sectarian outfits? It is sad that the time was ideal to push for a large scale operation and pursue it to its logical end against these bigots who pose an existential threat to this unfortunate country. But then for all practical purposes, the lore of sectarian outfit’s vote bank has blinded all politicians who can not see anything beyond the red rag of elections in their sight. It will only present the military a good excuse to wash it’s hands of any responsibility with regards to going after these outfits. The pretext: lack of national consensus. Who wants to work in the land of the pure when they can happily continue to enjoy their perks without it? Alas, our times have been arrested by the merchants of death.
LJ should be condemn and wipe out because of their barbaric actions but the big question is will incident of this kind wont happen again, not sure, we have to make rule so that hate wont prevail.
We have to discourage those Ulma/Alim who talk hate, insult to others sect, and humiliating of personality who are respected in other faith/sect ,any sermon and Majlis of such kind should be discourage by the people and government. And those people should be awarded who talk about Love, respect and peace.
HATE PROMOTE HATE AND LOVE PROMOTE LOVE
Yes, we should look into long term solution.I appeal to all community and faith that this is the time to think and if there exist any such thing or practice which come under hate/insult/humiliation they should be taken seriously and try to avoid those act for the good and safety of our coming generation because hate generate hate and respect bring respect
This is the 1,000 year history of Islam.
Simple common sense will dictate that if one wants to uproot a group of criminals then its top leadership and the base should be destroyed. But it does not seem to be possible in Pakistan because these religious criminals are supported by Pakistan’s criminal establishments such as political parties, military, and its intelligence services.
surgical operations are needed on the terrorists hideouts and bastions.! every province should have an elite batch of police like the one in Gilgit-Baltistan who should be given training on such counter terrorist operations. better late than never. federal and provincial governments should start the initiative.!
Every individual whether in army ,ISI ,politics or in organization(like difa e council Pakistan) whoever have any links with these Lej,SSP,TTP and Ahle sun at wal jammat terrorist organizations should be put behind bars and punished accordingly .As these people are companions of murderers of so many innocent Pakistani people. No more tolerance for these evils. They should be hang to death as many number of times as they have killed.
Who can launch an operation in Punjab while the security agencies majority hails from the same province as well as most of the banned terror outfits are also based there
Very true, but the majority of Sunnis, including the sect these clowns pretentend to belong to, do not support them but of course scared of guns and violence. What a wild wild west our beloved country has come! Shame on the ones who control it.
it has noting to with terrorism, it all about control and power. We have never learned any thing from history. It is repeating again, we lost one major part of Pakistan. Let us loose no more . I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot. Let us try to wise up our big brother.
The president does not wish to spend money on that adventure, and the Army does not want to be stationed in Quetta and Balochistan.
You choose:
a) Should be based on principles
b) Should it be based on advantages/dis-advantages
I hope choice “a” is uniform through out the nation, but unfortunately it will be choice “b” which will have a different answer at each level [law & order, political aim, financial implication and so on]
No political party will crack down on these terrorist, who are swamping the lives of innocent shia muslims.It is great sadness when you watch Prime Minister of Islamic Republic of Pakistan lying in front of Parliment he had been in Quetta before and promised to take action. Last hope for shia of Pakistan is to ask United Nation and International community to put pressure on Pakistani Government.
We have to find a solution o our problems within Pakistan. United Nations can give solution like they gave in GAZA and KASHMIR.
No political party will crack down on these terrorists because they fear them.
All such operations should be carried out by the police with assistance from intelligence agencies. This is not the job of the Army. Depoliticize the Police, train and equip it and see it do wonders. Police action is the antidote for insurgencies. When the Army is used, people take up sub-nationalistic causes. Police action allows for prosecution of these elements and it is not considered to be a heavy handed use of force whereas Army action is. Army should provide any or all assistance to the police in these matters, but should not be directly involved.
“Police action allows for prosecution of these elements and it is not considered to be a heavy handed use of force…”
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No money.