Frontier Insurgency Spills Into Peshawar

From The New York Times.

For centuries, fighting and lawlessness have been part of the fabric of this frontier city. But in the past year, Pakistan’s war with Islamic militants has spilled right into its alleys and bazaars, its forts and armories, killing policemen and soldiers and scaring its famously tough citizens. There is a sense of siege here, as the Islamic insurgency pours out of the adjacent tribal region into this city, one of Pakistan’s largest, and its surrounding districts

The story continues with,

At the core of the troubles here, many say, lie demands by the United States that the Pakistani military, generously financed by Washington, join in its campaign against terrorism, which means killing fellow Pakistanis in the tribal areas. Even if those Pakistanis are extremists, the people here say, they do not like a policy of killing fellow tribesmen, and fellow countrymen, particularly on behalf of the United States.

The people of Pakistan can blame the United States all they want. It is not the United States that is radicalizing the youth in Pakistan in madrasas, blowing up DVD shops, making girls wear burqas, and killing their policemen.

I believe that fact is something this article misses as it finds people who solely blame the United States and not the people who are actually doing the evil deeds.

In 2002, the MMA received 11% of the vote. The MMA is no longer a consolidated organization due to its loss of popular support. It is not expected to get half this percentage of votes in the 18 February elections.

One thing the article notes in passing is,

At one such school, in Shah Dhand Baba, a town on the northern fringes of Peshawar, the principal, Gul Bahar Begum, said she received a handwritten letter in the mail last February demanding that the students cover up or the school would be blown up. Ms. Begum, who wears lipstick and lightly covers her hair with a scarf, and whose office is filled with sports trophies won by her students, said that about 70 percent of the girls now wore burqas when they stepped outside the school. "It is the Islamic way to cover," she said of her instructions to the girls to cover up. "So the militants were right, but the way they imposed their decision was not."

The Sunnis in Iraq too thought initially it was the United States fault until they came under full control of Al Qaeda. Just as Al Qaeda lost popular support in Iraq due to their indiscriminate killing of innocent Muslims, so too is Al Qaeda losing support in Pakistan. It is only a matter of time before the people of Pakistan quit blaming others for letting evil doers into their cities.

Al Qaeda has no choice but to stop free and fair elections in Pakistan; otherwise it will have lost Pakistan. The elections of 18 February will end up being the deciding factor for many Pakistanis.

These Pakistanis still have one vital lesson to learn in route to becoming a democracy. A democracy is the land of the free, because of the brave.

Blaming others is only passing the buck. It is not being brave.

As Al Qaeda steps up its attacks a couple of weeks prior to the polls, we will see if Pakistanis are brave enough to have freedom.

For a full read, click here.