By: Agha Haider Raza
When Salmaan Taseer was assassinated eight weeks ago, I quoted Max Weber in my article: “If the power of violence shifts from the state to the people, we also see a shift from a state to anarchy”. Weber’s paradigm of anarchy is becoming more evident in Pakistan as time progresses. The brutal murder of Shahbaz Bhatti in Islamabad has solidified the notion that the PPP led government is ignoring extremism. This perturbed ideology is challenging the writ of the State and if not handled with the delicacy and precision required, we will surely dissolve into a state of oblivion. Continue reading
The day after the terrible terrorist attack at Islamabad’s Islamic University that took the lives of eight innocent students, certain TV news channels ran a footage of a dozen or so angered students of the university pelting stones. The first question that popped up in my mind after watching the spectacle was, what on earth were these understandably enraged young men throwing their stones at?
In the tumultuous days leading up to the Pakistan Army’s ground offensive in the tribal area of South Waziristan, which began on October 17th, the Pakistani Taliban attacked what should have been some of the country’s best-guarded targets. In the most brazen strike, ten gunmen penetrated the Army’s main headquarters, in Rawalpindi, instigating a twenty-two-hour standoff that left twenty-three dead and the military thoroughly embarrassed. The terrorists had been dressed in Army uniforms. There were also attacks on police installations in Peshawar and Lahore, and, once the offensive began, an Army general was shot dead by gunmen on motorcycles on the streets of Islamabad, the capital. The assassins clearly had advance knowledge of the general’s route, indicating that they had contacts and allies inside the security forces. 
Let’s face it, we are at war. The ridiculous arguments about the terrorists only targeting government establishments, or it is the West’s war, it’s a Jihad against infidels, etc, were blown to smithereens last Wednesday afternoon in Peshawar’s Meena Bazaar. The powerful car bomb, which ripped through the thickly-congested market place — a favourite shopping area of lower and middle class families in particular — showed that it is a war with terrorists standing on one side of the blood line, and we the people on the other. The dead count had a heart wrenching abnormally high share of women and children. The message has come loud and clear: every Pakistani is a target, even the women and children are no longer off the hit list of the terrorists. 
It is a daunting debate at this time of terror visiting and revisiting our cities, day after day, as to where one should draw the line between fending for oneself and creating a sense of panic while doing so. The debate basically revolves around fear and prudence. For instance, anxiety has gripped the parents of many school-going children today. Authorities in Lahore keep closing down private schools that are not found to be ‘prepared’ enough to face a terrorist attack, while their counterparts in Karachi are less circumspect. A state of apathy prevails in officialdom in Sindh at a time when intelligence agencies have warned that high-end schools may come under attack. 
Agencies – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s charm offensive rolled into a wall of suspicion at one of Pakistan’s top universities on Thursday as students grilled her on whether America was truly ready to be a steadfast partner in a time of crisis. 
As the country’s electronic media and drawing-rooms buzz with the ins and outs of the Kerry-Lugar Bill, yet another suicide terrorist attack ripped through the already devastated and blood-soaked streets of Peshawar. 
