MALALA YOUSAFZAI
IS AN ICON OF COURAGE
Pakistan’s powerful military chief
has put himself at the centre of a national outrage over the attempted murder
of a 14-year-old girl who had dared to speak out against the Taliban.
General Kayani, the army chief, flew to the bedside of Malala
Youafzai as
she lay recovering in a military hospital in the city of Peshawar after a
three-hour operation to remove a bullet lodged in her head when she was shot.
Yousafzai and at least two other girls were attacked as they sat on a school
bus waiting to return home after a mid-term examination at
her school in Mingora, the major city in Swat, a picturesque valley three
hours' drive from Islamabad. Her attackers had approached the vehicle and asked
for Yousafzai by name before one of them opened fire.
Her
father, Ziaudduin Yousafzai, said doctors were encouraged by a CT scan taken
after the operation. He said Malala, who is still unconscious, also moved her
hand slightly after coming out of surgery.
In
a statement published online by the military, Kayani said Yousafzai was
"an icon of courage and hope" and the attack showed "how little
regard they [the Taliban] have for human life and how low they can fall in
their cruel ambition to impose their twisted ideology".
The
statement added: "Such inhuman acts clearly expose the extremist mindset
the nation is facing."The attack is embarrassing for the army, which has
made much of its 2009 efforts to crush what by then had been several years of
creeping Taliban takeover of Swat.Many Swatis said the Yousafzai attack proved
the situation was still parlous. "Before this incident we were thinking
that there is peace in our Swat," said Iqbal Hussain, one of Yousafzai's
teachers. "But now all people have the feeling that militants are living
among us."However, Hussain said that the rest of the girls at the school
remained "high-spirited" and anxious to return to classes now that
the school is temporarily closed.
Kayani's
statement came amid condemnation from political parties, including a motion
passed unanimously by MPs.Public fury seems to have built up as the country's
rolling news channels devoted considerable attention to the story and the
Taliban announced they would make another attempt on her life if she survived.
Perhaps
conscious of what one media pundit described as a "major PR disaster"
for the Taliban, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) circulated a lengthy
statement that tried to justify the assassination with references to Islamic
history and the Qur'an.It said that although the TTP did not believe in
attacking women, it was obliged to kill anyone "whosever leads campaign
against Islam and sharia" and that her main crime was "because of her
pioneer role in preaching secularism and so-called enlightened
moderation".
It
also said that Yousafzai had been guilty of inviting Muslims to hate themujahideen, as the insurgents style
themselves.
Yousafzai,
who won Pakistan's first peace prize for her efforts, did indeed speak out
against the Taliban, initially on a blog published under a pseudonym on the BBC
Urdu service website. There she chronicled the terror of life in Swat when the area was
being fought over by the Taliban and the government. Later she spoke
confidently in public against extremism and spoke of her desire to enter
national politics.Some
observers said Kayani was not just channelling the mood of anti-Taliban fury
but also trying to build a national consensus around tackling militancy in
Pakistan.
In
August he broke new ground in the debate over the country's vexed relationship
with militant groups in a major speech in which he said the "war against
terrorism and extremism" was the responsibility of the whole nation.Cyril
Almeida, a newspaper columnist, said Kayani was attempting to "channel
public anger and sustain it". He said: "What the army understands is
that anger and the sort of disgust currently felt towards the militants helps
the state in their fight against militancy."
The
issue of how best to deal with the threat of militancy divides opinion in
Pakistan, with some leading politicians, in particular Imran Khan, arguing for negotiations with a
movement that they regard as a reaction to Pakistan's involvement in the
"US war in Afghanistan".
But
in the wake of Yousafzai's shooting, and the images of the young girl
unconscious in hospital, public sympathy for the Taliban appears to have
plummeted.Khan,
who led a rally of supporters towards the country's tribal areas on Sunday to
protest against US drone strikes against militants, prompted a storm of
criticism on Twitter and the country's chatshows for being too soft on the
Taliban. He responded by announcing he would visit Yousafzai on Thursday and
even offered to pay for her medical treatment.Raza
Rumi, from the Jinnah Institute thinktank, suggested Khan would have to toughen
his public stance against the Taliban. "A couple of days ago he was
talking of making peace with the Taliban and portraying them as a reaction to a
few hundred killings by the drones," he said. "Now his entire
argument has fallen flat and he is making some rapid adjustments to his
message."Public
anger was also expressed in demonstrations held at the press clubs of most
major Pakistani cities.
Mohammad
Malick, a television presenter and former newspaper editor, said the attempted
killing of Yousafzai could prove to be a "turning point" that could
embolden those who dare to speak out against the Taliban."The
overwhelming majority is of the view that the Taliban have crossed the thin red
line this time," he said. "There is extreme shock and damnation, but
the positive thing is that we see people are coming out talking about it. It is
forcing people to take public positions."
Prof. John Kurakar
No comments:
Post a Comment