The scarecrow army cannot protect a young girl

A Statement from the Asian Human Rights Commission
PAKISTAN: If the scarecrow army cannot protect a young girl how can it safeguard the nuclear assets of the country?
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) strongly condemns the brutal and cowardly attack on the brilliant 14-year-old student, Malala Yousufzai. The Talibani attackers stopped the school van in which she was traveling and asked the other students to identify her. They then sprayed bullets at her in an attempt to kill her for promoting education for girls. This incident took place only yards away from a military check post where soldiers were stationed but typically, in attacks where the Taliban are involved, not a single soldier moved to prevent the attack or follow the assailants despite the fact that they had two armed vehicles under their command.

The AHRC was the first organisation to introduce Malala as a nominee in the International Children's Peace Prize 2011 where she came second in the competition. Please see the AHRC article from Farazana Khan: PAKISTAN: A teenage Nobel Prize nominee leads the struggle for the education of girls. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, himself a Nobel Peace Laureate, announced the five nominees and Malala was second in the list of children chosen out of 98 that were put forward by organizations and individuals from 42 different countries.

After the shooting there was a strong reaction from the civil society of the country and the Taliban changed their statement, declaring that they intended to kill her, not simply because she was promoting education for girls but because that she was promoting secularism in an attempt to gain popularity from the fundamentalists and religious groups. They went on to say that they will not spare her if she survives this attempt but will continue to hunt her. The 'deep state' (the intelligence services and the military) remained silent for some days as the Taliban were translating their (the army's) sentiments.

Following the shooting there was strong criticism against the role of Pakistan's armed forces who take 30 percent of the annual budget and in total indirectly eat up more than 70 percent through the defense budgets and the purchase of arms and ammunition and a long list of perks and privileges. Perhaps this is the time for the parliamentarians and judiciary to take up the issue of defence expenditures and revise the figure to a more realistic one. It is also time to purge the army of its colonial attitude and make it one that the country can be proud of.

An open debate has been started, not only in the print and electronic media but generally in the masses questioning the viability of keeping such a big army which has never successfully provided protection to the country in the past and now does nothing to prevent the religious terrorism. Instead it is blatantly obvious that it covertly supports the religious extremism and killings of the masses in an effort to keep the country in a state of national insecurity for their benefit.

In its efforts to suppress the open debate against the security agencies the military’s public relations office, the ISPR, tried to stop it through coercive and intimating tactics which compelled the anchorpersons to lessen the verbal attacks. However, the representatives of civil society continue to express the views and general feelings around the country. The people themselves are expressing their concerns through different methods of communications, criticizing and questioning the existence of the armed forces and terming it a white elephant.

The chief of the army staff (COAS), first came out with a statement condemning the incident. However, this has not stopped the open debate on the armed forces' covert support of extremists or its negligence to provide any kind of protection to the people from any type of aggression -- internal or external.

To keep their uniforms stiff the army generals waited until Malala was shifted to Islamabad and it was only then that the COAS and other officers went to inquire about her health. Going to Peshawar, the capital of KPK province, where she was initially under treatment would have annoyed their 'allies' in arms. The ISPR came out with a statement after the visit of the COAS, General Kiyani, that the General had strongly criticized the attack on Malala, terming it, "A heinous act of violence". It was noted however, that the statement and the COAS conspicuously avoided any mention of the Taliban, which raised eye brows from different circles and questions as to why the Taliban are so dear to the army. It became evident that even saying the name is some type of sin even though the Taliban themselves is repeating that not only did they try to assassinate her but will continue their attempts until she is dead.

There are many cases of bomb blasts and bloody attacks where the involvement of army personnel was evident or that such incidents were held in the presence of men in uniforms or close to the check posts of army, Frontier Corp and Pakistan Rangers. There were three incidents of killings of Shias from Kohistan, Gilgit and Baltistan in cold blooded attacks by men in uniforms of the Pakistan Army. Around 50 persons from the Shiite community of Islam were targeted and killed. In Balochistan there were several attacks on the Shia pilgrims who were attacked and killed in close proximity of different check posts of the Frontier Corps, a unit of the Pakistan army. In Karachi the capital of Sindh province, many persons from different sects and particularly from the Shia community were attacked and killed in the presence of deployed trucks of Pakistan Rangers, another unit of the army. The Parachinar, a border with Afghanistan, has seen the worst kind of victims of the killings and persecution where the army holds the main street linking Peshawar and Parachinar and forces the inhabitants to cross Afghanistan and enter through Waziristan to Peshawar where they become soft targets for the Taliban.

The Pakistan army and its intelligence agencies particularly ISI are reluctant to conduct operations against the training centers and hide outs of the Taliban in North Waziristan and the Haqqani network who are openly operating both in Pakistan and Afghanistan for their nefarious designs. It is also evident that banned terrorist organizations and their leaders are freely operating in the country because of covert support from the deep state. According to different reports from the media and journalists the officials of the ISPR asked them to provide coverage to the 'Defence Council of Pakistan' in which many banned organizations are holding offices. One, a very prominent person, Hafiz Saeed, is the main leader of the organization and Saeed is wanted by the international community, particularly from India for his involvement in Mumbai attacks.

The COAS, Kiyani, took his time to condemn the attack on Malala and it is thought that if it had been an attack related to any political issue with the civilian setup either Kiyani or a spokesperson would have taken quick notice of the issue and come out with an intervention.

This latest attack has caused the people to ask damning and pertinent questions as to whether the Pakistani armed forces has ever won any war or succeeded in combating the butchers who run the Jihad to impose their version of Islam.

The Taliban and militants know very well about the impotency of the army in combating the insurgency and that they are more interested in seizing the capital as their real target. The militants are very well aware that armed forces are no more than a 'scarecrow' which is generally erected in the field to scare off birds for the protection of the crops. Unfortunately, as is seen in Pakistan, sometimes the 'crows' become so challenging that they peck at the scarecrow with their beaks.

The militants in the country are doing the same as they know that they are the backbone of the army for their 'strategic depth', a word is used by the army and foreign office in the context of geo-politic situations and Pakistan's role. The army has proved itself a scarecrow as its chief does not want to take action against the Taliban even after they claimed responsibility for the attack on Malala. Like crows the Taliban thumb their beaks at them and drop their shit on the scarecrow by holding public meetings and running suicide bomb training centers.

The appeasement policy of the deep state towards the militants is putting the country at tremendous risk. If they have proved themselves incapable of providing protection to a prominent student who works for the promotion of girls education in an area under military control how can they protect the safety of the nuclear bombs. This is a question which is commonly asked in the open debates in reference to Malala's shooting. If the military continues to be merely a scarecrow against the Taliban and Muslim militants who hire children as suicide bombers to kill indiscriminately how can one expect or even hope that the country's nuclear assets are out of the reach of militants. Perhaps it may be of some consolation when General Kiyani visits the dying victims of nuclear fallout in their hospital beds.

The AHRC believes that the continual interference of the armed forces in civilian affairs while at the same time they have proved themselves incapable of protecting the citizens is causing great harm to the rule of law in the country and is usurping the rights of the common people. The AHRC calls upon General Kiyani himself and the government of Pakistan to ensure protection to Malala Yousufzai in substance and not just word. Providing lip service in order to appease the militants will cost Pakistan the life of a courageous young girl.

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