For someone like me who has watched the footage of every human orchestrated tragedy on television, from school shootings to terrorist attacks, the one line that is most commonly repeated statements by the people who knew the attacker is “they never acted suspicious,” “I would never believe that he/she could do this.”
The uptick in Operation Zarb-e-Azb, the announcement of the potential expansion to Baluchistan and the Karachi operation, Pakistan has become a battleground again with terrorists, mercenaries and foreign intelligence agencies playing individually and collectively against the state.
In an extremely one-sided article, Reuters becomes the 6th article in one week to take shots at the Pakistan Army and the ISI. Starting from the ProPublica article and PBS program, American Terrorist, about David Headley, to the recent media blitz after Sabeen Mahmood was murdered in Karachi, the Western media has set its sights on Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency once again; this time with the help of domestic journalists and “social activists” ready to propagate a position without any evidence.
First, there was The New York Times decrying Pakistan’s nuclear weapons capabilities because we were buying nuclear submarines from China and we have missiles that can deliver a nuclear warhead to Israel, America’s greatest partner in the Middle East.
This past week has been like no other in Pakistan’s history. We are used to watching our own country projecting conspiracy theories and rumors as information, but rarely is there a national debate on whether Pakistan should be involved in someone else’s war.
We would love to pretend that this is the first time an occurrence like this has happened, but it’s just not the case. The Pakistani media, in the battle for ratings and viewers, elevates non-stories and unconfirmed rumors to breaking news, sometimes shaking the national conscience.
Syed Khalid Muhammad, Executive Director – CommandEleven, joined on Zain Khan on Tactical Talk to discuss ISIS in Pakistan & Afghanistan, their potential intentions and implications for the region.
Over the past week, we have learned that ISIL “Khorasan” has formed a “military alliance” with the Pakistani Taliban, Lashkar-i-Islam, and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar to counter the successes that the Pakistan Army has achieved in the Khyber Agency and other Afghan border areas.
When the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar happened, the whole country stood together and said we won’t let this happen again. 141 souls were lost that day. They were future doctors, engineers, professors, politicians, soldiers, and officers.
Cicero spoke of the guaranteed privileges and rights that were observed and protected by the Roman government for those who understood their obligations as citizens of the Empire.
