Peshawar school massacre: Pak must know their greater enemy is terrorism, not India

From Sydney to Peshwar, the jihadist brand of terror has reared its ugly head in a big way since Monday. In both the incidents innocent people were targeted and a protracted hostage situation developed. But the similarity between Sydney and Peshawar attacks ends there itself. The Lindt Café attack in Sydney was the handiwork of a lone wolf who was high on indoctrination and jihadi motivation being a cleric but low on military training. That’s why the Sydney attack did not prove to be too costly in terms of casualties, though it signaled the arrival of jihadist brand of terror in Australia in a big way. [caption id=“attachment_1853345” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Over a hundred children were killed when Taliban forces attacked a school in Peshawar. AP[/caption] The attack on Army Public School in Peshawar, on the other hand, is a devilish hit straight from hell which is unprecedented in scale and ferocity in this part of the world. While terror outfits have attacked schools and school children across the world in the past and many jihadist outfits have attacked schools in Afghanistan-Pakistan border areas routinely, this is the first time when a fierce fidayeen attack has been launched on a school in Pakistan. In terms of scale of the attack and very high number of deaths and injuries, there is only a single precedence in the whole world which comes to mind immediately: the 1 September 2004 Beslan school siege and massacre in North Ossetia, an autonomous republic in the North Cauasus region of Russia. At least 385 school children were killed and almost 800 were injured when Russian troops stormed the school on the third day of the hostage drama but the Russian military operation was badly botched up. The Peshawar attack will prove to be a watershed event and will inevitably increase pressure on Pakistan Army to change its attitude towards terrorism of all kinds. It would have the following implications. #1 Pakistan army will have to go all out to crush the perpetrator of the Peshawar school attack, Tehreek-e-Taliban, Pakistan (TTP). If they don’t do it now when will they? TTP has crossed the Rubicon by hitting Pakistan army where it hurts most: attacking the children of army personnel in retaliation to the army killing jihadists’ children during Zarb-e-Azb operation launched in North Waziristan in June 2014. Over thirty thousand soldiers have taken part in Operation Zarb-e-Azb (meaning sharp and cutting strike) and the operation is still alive #2 Pakistan army had then claimed to have cleared 90 percent of the restive region from terrorists, but Tuesday’s well-prepared ferocious attack shows that terrorists’ capabilities are in no way degraded. It is still business as usual for the Pakistan-based terrorist forces even after #3 TTP’s suicide bombing on the Pakistani side of Wagah border with India in November this year was also in retaliation to Zarb-e-Azb, but evidently the perpetrators were convinced as per their devilish thinking that it was far too inadequate a response and the Pakistan army deserved to be taught a lesson. The Wagah attack was primarily aimed at military personnel but the brunt of the attack was faced by innocent civilians #4 If Pakistan army goes for a fight to the finish against the terrorists, it will inevitably lead to more counter attacks by the jihadists, perhaps bolder and more lethal #5 The Pakistan Army, which runs 146 schools across the country for children of its personnel, will be forced to step up security and make it multi-tier at a cost of millions of dollars. But as per the track record of shrewd jihadists, this may go waste as they keep on coming up with newer plans and strategies and seldom repeat the target or the type of target Pakistan needs to learn one simple lesson which it has refused to do so far. Pakistan must know that there are no good terrorists because all terrorists are essentially bad. But Pakistan army and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) continue to be the biggest benefactors of terrorists. Their strategy still continues to be to raise an army of non-state actors to take on India. But their old strategy of proxy war has now changed to ‘mainstreaming of terror’ as Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin has put it aptly. Pakistan army must understand that their greater enemy is terrorism, not India. It was not too long ago when visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had bluntly told the entire nation at a live press conference in Islamabad in October 2011 thus: “You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours. Eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard.” More than three years down the line, however, Pakistan still continues to believe that they can still keep snakes in their backyard if you train them to bite only your neighbours. - The writer is Firstpost consulting editor and a strategic analyst who tweets @Kishkindha