By
Sajjad Shaukat
In the recent past, new wave of terrorism in
Pakistan’s province of Punjab, Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa killed
several innocent people, while various terrorist outfits such as the Islamic State group (Also known as Daesh, ISIS,
ISIL) and the affiliated faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaat-ur-Ahrar (TTP-JA also known as JuA)
claimed responsibility for these brutal acts. TTP based in Afghanistan have its
connections with ISIL and other terrorist organizations and affiliated terror
groups, including Baloch separatist elements and is promoting the anti-Pakistan
agenda of the foreign entities to destabilize Pakistan. These terror outfits
are misguiding the general masses by misusing the concept of Jihad and
provoking them for suicide assaults.
Besides other similar terror attacks, at least
15 innocent men, women and children were killed in and around 80 people were
injured on February 13, 2016 when a suicide bomber struck outside the Punjab
Assembly on the Mall Road (Charing Cross) in the eastern city of Lahore during
a peaceful protest of the chemists and pharmacists against a new law.
The affiliated faction of the TTP, the TTP-JA or
JuA took responsibility for the deadly suicide bombing in Lahore.
In this respect, the rebuttal of the Shuhada
Foundation of Lal Masjid to the claim of TTP-JuA that Lahore Charing Cross
attack was perpetrated to revenge the killing of Abdul Rasheed Ghazi is
surprising; however it depicts growing abhorrence for terrorists in our
society. Every religious scholar of Pakistan condemned the TTP for this attack
by the Shuhada Foundation, which also manages media campaign of Maulana Abdul
Aziz, is a major upset for TTP. TTP attributes its genesis of Lal Masjid
Operation and it often publishes articles and statements on this issue in its
magazines to provoke general public. The outrage of people associated with Lal
Masjid against TTP is, therefore, a major defeat of faulty narratives of
terrorists in Pakistan.
Maulana Abdul Aziz is a person of dubious
character and people under his influence are also not constant in their
thinking. In the past, they have been supporting TTP’s terrorism in Pakistan
and they allegedly expressed allegiance of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and DAISH. We
hope they will adhere to their statement that leaders of TTP-JuA are agents of
Indian RAW and they are killing innocent Muslims in their anti-Islam activities
in Pakistan. Reportedly, the son of late Maulana Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, Haroon
Rasheed Ghazi has also condemned TTP’s terrorism and has asked for political
settlement of issues in Pakistan. Such statements are positive omens and
reflect that the space for violent extremist Jihadi narratives is even
shrinking in religious groups.
The nexus of Al-Qaeda, DAISH and TTP has killed
55 thousand innocent Muslims in their terrorist attacks in Pakistan so far in
the name of Jihad. Militant leaders like Fazullah, Mohammad Khorasani and
Ahsanullah Ahsan with their unholy hearts and evil minds defend their attacks
like that of Army Public School of Peshawar and that of Bacha Khan University
in which only little children and students were brutally massacred. Pakistan’s
military and civil high officials strongly condemned the attack and recent
terror attacks by pointing out their connections in Afghanistan.
It is notable that as part of the dual strategy,
CIA, RAW and Mossad are in connivance with the Afghan intelligence agency,
National Directorate of Security (NDS) and other terrorist groups. With latest
capture of six NDS supported terrorists in Balochistan, the number of NDS
backed terrorists arrested and killed by Pakistani intelligence agencies has
crossed over 126. These external secret agencies are particularly supporting
the TTP which is hiding in Nuristan and Kunar provinces of Afghanistan.
Reportedly, Mullah Fazlullah led TTP is behind the fresh wave of terror
activities inside Pakistan, as the latter has also become center of the Great
Game owing to the ideal location of Balochistan. These intelligence agencies,
especially Indian RAW is trying to damage the
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project.
After the recent terror assaults in Pakistan, a
statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that senior Afghan
diplomats were summoned to the General Headquarters (Of army) over the recent
spate of terrorist attacks in Pakistan and asked to ensure that immediate
action was taken against the Pakistani terrorists living in safe havens in
their country.
The army, which took the lead in dealing with
Afghanistan over the terrorist sanctuaries there, had announced closure of the
border crossings with Afghanistan citing security reasons.
According to the statement of the DG ISPR Major
General Asif Ghafoor, on February 17, 2017, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar
Javed Bajwa appealed to the nation to stay calm by saying, “our security forces
shall not allow hostile powers to succeed…each drop of nation’s blood shall be
revenged, and revenged immediately…no more restraint for anyone.”
Gen. Javed Bajwa had called Gen John Nicholson,
commander of the US’s Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan through telephone
to protest continued acts of terrorism in Pakistan perpetrated from
Afghanistan, saying that they were testing Pakistan’s policy of cross-border
restraint.
Gen. Bajwa told Gen. Nicholson that recent
incidents of terrorism in Pakistan had been claimed by terrorist organizations
whose leadership is hiding in Afghanistan, and asked him to play his role in
“disconnecting this planning, direction, coordination and financial support”.
In a terse message, during the conversation with
Nicholson, Gen. Bajwa also informed him of the list of 76 “most wanted”
terrorists handed over to Afghan authorities earlier—operating from Afghan
territory or hand them over to Pakistan for trying them over their involvement
in terrorism.
Taking cognizance of the terror assaults,
Pakistan Army targeted a training camp of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and militant hideouts
located close to the Pak-Afghan border in areas adjacent to Mohmand and Khyber
agencies.
In a similar message to Kabul, Adviser to the
Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz called Afghan National Security
Adviser Hanif Atmar to call for strong action against JuA and terrorist’s
sanctuaries in Afghanistan.
The Foreign Office of Pakistan said that
Afghanistan had been asked to address concerns about presence of terrorist
groups on its soil, which are behind the latest wave of terrorism in the
country.
It is notable that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz
Sharif, while addressing a press conference on February 17, this year claimed
that the suspects involved in planning and carrying out the Feb 13 suicide
bombing on a protest at Lahore’s Charing Cross belonged to Afghanistan. Sharif
also announced the arrest of the facilitator of the attacker, Anwar-ul-Haq who
he said belonged to Fata’s Bajaur Agency which neighbours Afghanistan. The
suspect’s confessional statement was aired during the briefing. The suspect
stated: “I was associated with Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and they trained me”, adding
that he has visited Afghanistan around 15 to 20 times.
Nevertheless, TTP related terrorist groups and
extremist religious leaders, having connections in Afghanistan are following
the agenda of enemies against Islam and Pakistan with the aim to create fear
and panic in the society to weaken the whole country. Therefore, all eminent
religious scholars and Grand Muftis have already rejected the deviant ideology
of terrorists and declared that unjustified killing of innocent people is
entirely prohibited in Islam. All brutal acts of terrorists are aimed at
discouraging general masses from challenging their existence and their radical
religious views. Unity of whole Ulema (Religious scholars) of Pakistan has
proved that people of Pakistan will never bow down in front of heinous crimes
of terrorists and will win the war against terror.
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