Benazir Bhutto, Victim of Home Grown Terror!

Yesterday, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in the city of Rawalpindi in Pakistan. It is very sad news. Very sad and very unfortunate! Pakistan is seeing the effects of fomenting and fostering terror against its neighbors. It has come back to hit them in their own belly.

Pakistan is good example of what goes wrong when a nation identifies itself on the theme of ‘hatred’.

From the beginning, Pakistan has identified itself on ‘anti-India’ stand which incorporates ‘anti’ as its core element. For many years, this element of ‘anti-India’ was handled at the state level, involving the secret services, the army and the administration. It had not involved the general population. But after 1971, when Pakistan lost the war decisively against India, and after Pokhran of 1974, Pakistan had to drop its carefully manufactured illusion that it could take on India in a conventional war. Using a previous half-successful experiment of 1965, the new warfare for future was designed to use incursion tactics (which resulted in Kargil, once again a failure). Meanwhile, another experiment was underway. USA had used Pakistan as a platform to fund mujahideen to kick out Soviet Union. That also led to Pakistan creating an apparatus of Islamization in the background to have an influence in Afghanistan even after the Soviets left. That led to Taliban in power.

This experiment of using religious fervor and extremism, which again had some precedents in the past, was also fueled to use against India. Religious extremists were fawned upon as heroes who would win back Kashmir from India. Many experiments were created to ‘bleed India’. Pakistan saw an opportunity to do a ‘Bangladesh’ against India when Indian Punjab flared up. That experiment failed too. Then came another opportunity in Kashmir when Indian government messed up its long standing equation of keeping peace in the valley. That unconventional war of attrition and bleeding worked well. For a long time, it looked like it was succeeding. The dual advantage was clear- Islamic radicals can torment and control both Afghanistan issue and Indian issue.

This led to a massive operationalization of madrasas which will create these radical elements. These are the soldiers who would be created on one theme only – hatred. Their hatred will be so much that they will not stop till they kill or die. Their hatred was focused on achieving two goals- the control in Afghanistan, and getting back Kashmir from India.

For a while, it looked like their strategy worked. There was an all round celebration; and congratulations were abound. India was bleeding and the situation in Kashmir was getting ‘internationalized’. Afghanistan was duly ‘under control’ through a puppet regime.

Post 9/11, USA toppled Taliban in Afghanistan and roped in Pakistan as a friend and mate to check the problem of ‘terror’. Now, Pakistan couldn’t do what it was doing anymore in Afghanistan with heavy US presence there. On the Indian side too, it was not working out anymore. Massive Indian Army in the valley kept a check on the infiltration. Also, after Kargil debacle, Pakistan could not think of another covert war with India. It had to ensure the trickling of infiltrators was kept to a minimum.

What do you do with all the pent up hatred?

It imploded.

Pakistan is now reeling itself under consequences of their failed experiments. There are thousands of religious extremists who are trained to kill or die. And they will do that no matter what, if not against India or in Afghanistan, then in Pakistan. Benazir seems to one of the victims.

Lessons for India:

The glee and the celebration amongst Indian Hindus that its Hindutva forces are winning is momentary. It’s ephemeral. Soon, the same guns will be targeted back at us, all of us, including the very Hindus who are celebrating now, and soon these pent up forces, built on hatred, will seek an outlet. That usually involves killing and dying. Unfortunately!

Related Posts: Benazir II, Lessons from Pakistan