It sounds flippant, but I don’t worry much about terrorism. Here in Pakistan you have more chance of being run over trying to cross the road, (and considering the number of motorbikes which drive on the pathways you don’t actually have to be anywhere near a road to get run over). More Pakistanis will die of something preventable like hepatitis than terrorism, and no one seems to care about that. It’s just not that dramatic.

 

I’m not belittling the death of people who have died. Far from it, but I recently passed Liberty Chowk (junction) in Lahore where the Sri Lankan cricket team were not so long ago assailed by some Islamic extremists, or Indian agents, (or someone else depending on what conspiracy theory you believe). The boards placed there in memory to the traffic police officer and the regular police officer who died are still there. Shamefully, I can’t remember their names. They deserve better than that I admit. Actually I’ve passed by lots of times, and not given the place a second thought. The place doesn’t look like it was the scene of a terrorist attack. The roundabout is covered in grass with nice flowers; the area looks rather well kept, and were it not for the aforementioned boards you wouldn’t know what had transpired.

 

Previous to that I’d passed by the Police training academy near Lahore that has been the most recent scene of a terrorist attack around Lahore. It was December and as I passed I saw all the recruits being paraded, or undergoing fitness drills, and other such training. This was all clearly visible from the road. I couldn’t help but think that security was largely nonexistent, and they could all be mown down from the road. Obviously that occurred to someone else too, (or they were within mind reading distance as it entered my mind). I have to say though that the security response was rather better than that when the Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked, (bar the ‘Lebanon Volleys’ at the end of it), and it was heartening to see the locals cheering the security forces on.

 

It was all in stark contrast to the pretty shambolic effort that we saw in Bombay in November. That’s got to be one of the most dramatic acts of terrorism ever undertaken. I’m not supporting the attack in anyway. It was an inexcusable act of evil, all deliberate attacks on civilians are. It’s simply something that’s unjustifiable. However, I still wish I’d thought of the idea, only so I could have written a thriller and hopefully made some money out of a plot most people would have considered far fetched. It certainly had a something ‘le Carre’ about it, even ‘McClean’ at his best. You have to admit it was exceptionally well planned and executed. Despicable though it is, I have some grudging respect for the guys who dreamt it up, (though any person connected with it that’s still alive deserves the death penalty).

 

However, were it not for the foreigners killed, and apart from the political mileage, (there are still those trying to milk it for all it’s worth, hopefully in order to back Pakistan into a corner), it would be largely forgotten. In South Asia death is after all a constant companion, and life is cheap. So whether it’s a terrorist outrage, the latest Indian pogrom against the selected religious minority, caste or whatever, or the latest terrorist attack, ethnic or sectarian bloodbath in Pakistan, life goes on. Life here is cheap.

 

Why is that the case? I know Allah/God/providence gets the blame for most things, (‘kismet’/fate), no matter how preventable. That’s as unfair as it is unwise. To blame anyone but ourselves for a lot of this is to say that we are lacking in freewill and therefore control over our own destinies. So when the bus crashes and everyone dies because the driver was driving like a lunatic in a vehicle with bald tyres and bad breaks, it’s because the driver was driving like a lunatic in a vehicle with bald tyres and bad breaks. (I know the popular joke is that the ‘Angel of Death’ has subcontracted these guys to carry out his work, but apart from the black humour it just papers over a pretty severe collective character defect). If you die in a crash because you weren’t wearing a seatbelt, it’s because you weren’t wearing your seatbelt.

 

Perhaps what I’m getting at is that people just resign themselves to their ‘fate’, and are not proactive enough in trying to shape their destinies. They’ll re-elect the same pack of vultures to tear at the carcass of their country, steal its wealth and stash it away in Swiss bank accounts or spend it on property in the UK. They’ll just accept the latest terrorist outrage, and find a whole mountain of excuses if the perpetrators dress up their motives in some fancy religious words (or not so fancy, some of the target audience are surprisingly dim and appear to have been collectively brainwashed no matter how educated they think they are).

  

Why has it taken so long to take a stand against the Taliban? It seems to me that politicians finally panicked with all the talk (unfounded as it is unfeasible) that these ignorant and illiterate savages would somehow overrun Islamabad. With the ‘gravy train’ threatened they suddenly found their voices. The nation seems to have found its voice at the same time too, and now we hear a lot more people clamouring for the type of action that kicked off a few days ago to kick the Taliban out of places like Buner.

 

How long it will last I don’t know, but I sincerely hope that it’s the beginning of a period of national consensus that this menace has to be openly tackled and not excused. Sadly, I’m probably wrong, because a professional and apolitical police force and judiciary that would be at the forefront of tackling the Taliban doesn’t exist, and Pakistani politicians care only for filling their pockets whilst they can, not the country. Also, if a culture of democracy instead of kleptocracy was properly instilled politicians would know they are the servants of the people, and not the other way around; (though with feudalism and the PPP still kicking around that’s not going to happen any time soon).

 

In the meantime let’s hope the political consensus lasts long enough to support the military action to send the Taliban packing. I know they’ll be back, but they at least have to be given a bloody nose iof not a damned good thrashing. If the long fight to rid Pakistan of terrorism has to start anywhere, it has to start with a convincing victory here.
 
Dealing with a dubious collective character trait may take longer, and prove to be a harder challenge however.