Them, ourselves and war
Pakistan and the war on terror
THERE is no triumph in wars, just torments. The war drums being thumped by the media on both sides and social media warriors rarely realise the impact of war are contained with annihilation and death of millions. The world has seen the state of people who battled for individual glorifications and pride. The glorification serves temporarily but the damage is permanent. Whether it was war of Peloponnesian which turned Athens - the city known as a cradle of Democracy - into hollow structures of hopelessness and dismay or any of the world wars - the end results were devastating and undoable.
There are long term consequences associated with wars. The countries engaged in war have unprecedented impact on economy and foreign policies. It is not just left alone to the countries but the region. The impact of long Iraq-Iran war is still faced by the Gulf Region. The South Asian region is a subject to the American invasion of Afghanistan.
The effect of war doesn’t stop here, there is a great subconscious damage to the public. The family member pulled apart or killed can shape a life of individuals forever. The society is collectively built by individuals. The agony can have a worse effect. Kashmir is a prime example. The region which has faced worst state oppression. The life in Kashmir is different from the life we live in free air. Those people live with a cloud of death hovering over them all the time.
When you are constantly living under the fear of a bullet, you become a different person. A person who would want to get out of the fear, you would want freedom more than anybody else would wish for. This in a long run will shape a society which would have rebels in it. The prime example of such a rebel is the freedom fighter of Kashmir, Burhan Wani who was killed by the Indian forces. Burhan Wani has become a symbol of freedom and liberty just like Bhagat Singh was. Both were treated as traitors by the governments then but both had one thing in common. The urge to breathe and walk in the free air.
The recently developments at the United Nations General Assembly has pushed Pakistan forward diplomatically. Pakistan has positively put forward the stance of illegal occupation of Kashmir and the human rights violation. In respond to well worded point of view of Pakistan, India responded by emotionally charged words with little or no value at all. India referred to Pakistan as ‘terrorist state’ without realising that Pakistan is the front end ally of the world in a fight against terrorism. There cannot be a country which has given more than Pakistan in the fight against terrorism.
We have not just responded to the terrorism with ammunition, planning and execution but with the blood. We have lost an incredible number of individuals to it. We have lost mothers, children, fathers, sons, daughters. We had attacks on our citizens irrespective of the cast, creed and religion. We paid prices from Mosques to Churches, from schools to universities, from police stations to public parks.
We are now battling a war with an enemy within. The war we are engaged in is different from a war with an external enemy. There is no nation on earth at this given time which would know the cost of war better than Pakistan. Our law enforcement agencies, our government, our army and a common citizen is fighting it.
Indian hypocritical response would have been valuable if they were not sponsoring terrorism against their own citizens. In the last 80 days, additional 700,000 security personnel deployed in Kashmir for a region with 6 million male populations which means there is one armed security personnel for every 8 males in Kashmir. Out of those 6 million, many of them are children and older men. With these acts in bag, India loses the right to talk about human rights violation for any country of the world, leave Pakistan alone.
Pakistan is confident and very clear on rooting out the poison of terrorism. Every individual of this nation stands with the policy of rooting out terrorism. We have paid price, we have given incomparable sacrifices and we are willing to give more. We are willing to fight to eradicate extremism.
There are no victories in war but miseries, we have been through agonies, but for the war against terrorism, there is victory and it will be ours.
Rana Muhammad Usman is a data scientist based in Islamabad. He tweets @rana_usman and can be reached at usmanashrafrana@gmail.com