Bannu attack, grim realities

Politics getting mixed with terrorism has produced a functional rational and marketing reach for this war against the state that terrorists and their backers have never enjoyed before.

The terrorists who tried to enter the Bannu Cantt to create a spectacular event botched it up. They ended up killing civilians as “collateral damage” of their despicable act but didn’t reach their goal, seemingly to take hostages and make mayhem inside a protected military zone.

But the event is still big—big enough to invite immediate attention. Yes, the nature, scale, and audacity of the attempt looks small when stretched against older terrorist hits like the Parade Lane attack and the GHQ raid, but the issue here is that of an emerging pattern of terrorism that has become far more diverse and multifaceted than what Pakistan has witnessed, withstood and also defeated.

It is not about how big these attacks are; it is how complex these have become.

The groups that are now at work have a far better coordination among themselves than those who operated earlier. Even though they seem to be pursuing local deadly agendas (BLA and North Waziristan based outfits for instance) they pursue a smart symmetry in their operations. Kalat female suicide bomber, Bannu attackers and then those attempting to cross into Punjab through DG Khan, all are arms of the same clock that seem to tick together. Also there is no ideology at work either in this coordination. Nothing binds them together ideologically, which used to be the grid older groups used to connect with each other.

The current groups don’t want to create an Islamic State (don’t be confused by their religious sounding titles). Their aim is simple and often publicly stated too: they want to take on the army to take down the country. It is not an ideological debate. It is a brutal and unapologetic war on the state.

The other difference is that while previous groups rooted for support within their own bands (they hated the liberals), the new phalanx of terrorists are willing to shop sympathy from all quarters, from mushy democrats to misinformed rights activists, from well-meaning but ignorant peace nicks to champions of blind political causes. Never has Pakistan seen the kind of so-called mainstream’s quiet endorsement of the agendas of these groups that we are witnessing now. The PTI’s official response from the USA to the Bannu attack is not of horror and disgust but of barely-hidden jubilation because this gave them an opportunity to punch against the army chief. Imran’s own account and his contextualization of the attack on Akora Khattak is no less appeasing of the terrorists’ motives. Baloch grievances are now the new formula for making the argument that their killing of the Punjabis and attacks need a “sympathetic hearing” because after all they have been wronged for so long.

There is no doubt that all forms of violence in the end produce more violence and state violence is no exception but to confuse a systematic war against the country with reactionary retaliation has never resonated across the land it does now.

There are other striking differences too between the present and two earlier waves of terrorism (2001-2008/2008-2014). The regional and the global interests were never in such a problematic alignment as these are now. You have pretty much every bordering country of Pakistan fomenting, planning and exporting terror. Except for China, Pakistan is surrounded by inimical forces that would fund and bankroll different groups that carry out wide range and brand of terrorism. Throw in the multibillion dollar smuggling economy, and you can begin to get a good sense of how complex the present terrorism is as compared to the past.

The social media because of its reach, immediate impact on young minds and its infinite potential to peddle fake news or sympathy-gaining narratives is yet another new dimension. This had been absent earlier, making previous terror waves more manageable even though these had far more operational capabilities than the present ones because those groups actually occupied chunks of national territory.

But above all else the most challenging nature of the present wave of terrorism is that it is totally caught up in national political chaos preventing even basic clarity in the national discourse as to what an existential threat this has become. Every word coming out of the Establishment’s mouth about the aims and objectives of terrorists finds a political counter from its opponents who drag the debate back to stolen elections and 26th amendment. Every step to counter-check inciteful propaganda somehow becomes another misstep towards media censorship. Every argument for national cohesion is smashed against the demand for Imran Khan’s release. There is a lot of institutional and governmental promotion of the idea of unity against terror, but there is no national ownership of the idea because no two people in the opposing camps can agree on a single thing.

This makes the current terror wave far more dangerous than anything that we have seen in the past. When political forces can invade and torch core commander’s house in Lahore Cantt, Bannu Cantt’s botched breach by terrorists should not be taken lightly. Politics getting mixed with terrorism has produced a functional rational and marketing reach for this war against the state that terrorists and their backers have never enjoyed before.