Saman Hamid
Many in Pakistan could not believe when on November 5, 2016, a local market or shops were demolished for trading weapons in Wana. It was exercised under an old British Law called the FCR or “collective responsibility”. According to FCR a single act of one person leaves the whole tribe responsible. The market was evacuated by the locals. The market was re-opened 3 days later. The action occurred after an Army Major lost his life in a search operation in the same market. The media unfortunately muddled the situation further, where some credible local newspapers and media outlets having learned nothing from the debacle that is unfolding in investigation committees as we speak, painted the whole incident as a knee jerk reaction to the Major’s death. The late owner, Mirza Alam’s son, Ali Wazir, ran for the National Assembly in the last elections, some report his dismay over the actions. There are factors that play with retention and cognitive abilities of the reader to greatly undermine a few facts that blatantly stand out.
We are in a state of war with terrorism and Zarb-e-Azb has been declared a success but the terrorist forces are still active, in such a situation can we afford to give warning and simply arrest people when the enemy keeps on blowing everything to pieces? If this action was not acceptable to the owners would they have evacuated so easily? Why did Afghan national Kharoti Khan manage to find a shop in Ali Wazir’s market who had run for NA hence there are no big reasons to doubt his intent but if there were covert Mehsud operatives in the area they had to be penalized and symbolically so. Above all the press has no official access to the area, disclaimers were run by some of the media outlets, yet there was a biased picture painted by the reports coming out of the area. The loss is a huge loss but the bigger loss perhaps is what was inflicted by that shop on Pakistan by the illegal weapons trade, an example had to be laid.
This brings us to the fundamental question; what does any responsible nation do when they stumble upon illegal weapons? I believe a direct response would be that they would destroy those. Pakistan was amidst the top 5 in the Global Terrorism Index (GTI), 72% of the total deaths last year in 2015 were due to terrorism. According to South Asia Terrorism portal till November this year direct reported terrorism fatalities are 1702. Whether it is Quetta or Lahore; all major urban rural areas in Pakistan are littered with horrifying incidents. Countries like the USA, UK and even our neighbors constantly ask us to “do more!” In such dire straits what is the expected response when one discovers an illegal weapons market/ shop? One of the most tragic aspects of this is how Indian media outlets exploited the opportunity and painted Pakistan in bad light, conveniently skipping the part about weapons altogether and launching a smear offensive against the armed forces.
Another important aspect of the entire incident is the timing which is in the same timeline as one of the most fundamental breakthroughs by our armed forces. The COAS, General Raheel Sharif on November 11, 2016, laid the foundation stone for the SWAT Cantonment. Ensuring security of the entire region this is part of the greater plans for securing CPEC and ensuring development of the region in addition to political reforms. The road to development is long and difficult but the resolve of the people and armed forces is unwavering which is why the people of FATA have come so far. Attempts by covert external forces on Eastern and Western borders do not like the situation and are exploiting the natural loopholes that all such efforts have but so far they have been abated. An important point to note here is that around 700 major and minor projects have been undertaken by the armed forces in the areas where Zarb-e-Azb was carried out.
We are fighting many battles and this is one that affects us all. There may be innocent people who suffer but the cancerous penetration of various terrorist networks is such that these incidents are bound to happen. Media outlets must realize that they bear Pakistan’s flag and essentially when someone looks at our history several decades down the road it is how they report, tell stories will be our persona, image. Short term goals can simply not be enough anymore they have to fight with the rest of the nation. Those outlets that show irresponsibility again and again handing the enemy breakthroughs in the propaganda war must bear repercussions. At the end of the day the only reason why we are able to find normalcy in our lives is due to the sacrifices of our armed forces and the people who co-operate with them the last thing they need is for their sacrifice to turn into a ratings opportunity.
