Pakistanis rallied against the Taliban in Lahore Tuesday, urging the government to step up its fight against the militants.
(K.M.Chaudary/AP)Photos (1 of 1)
Pakistanis stage rare protest to ‘save Pakistan, fight Taliban’
On Tuesday, the military also began bombing northwestern Buner District, expanding a new offensive against the Taliban.
By Issam Ahmed | Correspondent 04.28.09
LAHORE, PAKISTAN – Hundreds of protesters marched to Lahore’s General Post Office on Tuesday armed with letters urging the government to step up its fight against Islamist insurgents.
“Mr. President, we too must fight the Taliban, who have chosen to fight against the state and who routinely terrorize and kill innocent Pakistanis. It is incumbent upon you to mobilize the nation against the scourge of the Taliban before it is too late,” read the letter, which was circulated through email and Facebook ahead of the demonstration.
Though relatively small in size, the demonstration reflects growing concern in Pakistan’s urban centers against the expansion of Taliban forces in the northwest. Last week the militants moved beyond their stronghold in Swat Valley into the neighboring districts of Buner and Shangla, some 60 miles from Islamabad (see the Monitor’s story here).
Bombs over Buner
A few hours after the protest, security forces began aerial bombing of Buner, according to Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas. Casualty figures are not yet known. The attack expanded the military’s latest efforts to confront the Taliban, which began Sunday in a neighboring district, Lower Dir.
The offensive threatened an already tenuous peace deal between the government and the Taliban. A spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) – whose Taliban-linked leader, Sufi Mohammad, brokered the deal – accused the government of violating it by launching the Dir operation.
‘8,000 Taliban. 500,000 Pakistani Army troops. You do the math.’
Wednesday’s protest brought together women’s rights activists, students, and political party workers.
Says Shaista Pervez, an activist: “What the Taliban are doing does not represent Islam, which is a progressive and moderate religion.
“Their vision of Pakistan is totally at odds with vision of Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Iqbal,” she adds, referring to Pakistan’s founding fathers.
The protesters, who derived mainly from the city’s middle- and upper-class, also donned T-shirts and waved placards to reinforce their message. “8,000 Taliban. 500,000 Pakistan Army troops. You do the math,” said one T-shirt. Another was more explicit: “Save Pakistan, kill Taliban.”
“We’re basically pro-democracy,” says Hamid Zaman, a spokesperson for the pressure group, Concerned Citizens of Pakistan, which had earlier supported the peace deal in Swat, in which the government agreed to impose Islamic law, or sharia.
“There is nothing wrong with the Nizam-e-Adl [sharia] regulations per se, but it’s how it’s being brought about – at the barrel of the gun,” he says.
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2. Mahmoud | 04.28.09
I think all Muslims should protest against those extremists if they wanna save the face of Islam.
Islam is about peace not about killing innocent people…
3. jonathan | 04.28.09
It is impossible for me to understand how Pakistanis are not outraged when their so called Muslim brothers are murdering their own women and children in the name of Islam.
4. Ismael | 04.28.09
Ahmed,unfortunately that “sense in Pakistan”, I think is but a drop in the ocean of senseless people in pakistan, who have supported idiotic policies, politicians and generals over 5 decades. You have supported the cancer called terrorism, against India, that has just come back to bite you. I don’t think, in spite of whats happening now, without external support or push, there is neither the will, the strategies nor the resources in Pakistan to support a long term offensive against the Taliban. It was the guerillas who beat the mighty soviets, what is pakistan’s army compared to the soviets’? Enjoy the fall.
5. Anwar Raza | 04.28.09
This protest proves that Pakistanis will rise to the occasion, when pushed to the wall by these exteremists. Next step should be to ban politions and parties who provide material and moral support to Talibans for their narrow political agendas, Such as Jamat Islami, Tablighi Mullas, Jamat Dua…and Mula Diesel..These are the one who have provided a legal cover to Taliban. They should be now stripped..
6. Tagreed | 04.28.09
Taliban behead and explode bombs to force their “interpretation of religion” through carnage and fear. The other few brave and intelligent Pakistanis protest peacefully with words and grander ideas. Hmm? Which one seems to be following the righteous path?
We can always daydream that rational thought will take root and flourish but…
7. david soumekh | 04.28.09
The Pakistani people are standing on the frontline of a battle, the outcome of which will significantly and inevitably impact the fate of civilization as we know it. Unfortunately America and to a greater extent Europe no longer have the stomach for war. Pakistan needs a strong compassionate leader, with the ability to rule with an iron fist, and given the full backing of the “moderate ” majority, to do what needs to be done to crush the totalitarian facists in its midst.
8. Toby | 04.28.09
Pakistan’s education system has collapsed - until they provide opportunity for the poor, well, what are the poor to do? The Taliban are a muslim doomsday cult but thats what you get with no education system. We might be witnessing the beginning of the end of Pakistan. If Al Quaida launches another terrorist attack at the US from NW Pakistan/ SE Afghanistan, I think we should nuke them.
9. Nadja | 04.28.09
Finally, Muslims standing up for Islam instead of pandering to the insanity spawned worldwide by the Wahhabiyya. I am so tired of hearing my co-religionists insist that to be a Muslim one must be miserable, unhappy, ruled by dictators, and, if female, illiterate and pregnant. These people are so ignorant and backward that they don’t even KNOW that during the height of Islamic civilization WOMEN taught at Al-Azhar!
10. thetrajectory | 04.28.09
Even though the ‘post protest’ was much smaller to the Long March in support of the CJ, it provides a glimmer of hope that democracy can survive in Pakistan. I fail to understand why are such positive developments in Pakistan not highlighted in the international media? Coverage is given to what the Pakistani government is not doing, but appeciation for what the people of Pakistan are doing in their small way rarely finds space in the international media.
http://thetrajectory.com/blogs/?p=473
11. flanker | 04.28.09
Not only Taliban, they have to oppose all the terrorist organizations inside Pakistan.
12. Dyood | 04.28.09
Please reflect on this comment from the article:
“There is nothing wrong with the Nizam-e-Adl [sharia] regulations per se, but it’s how it’s being brought about – at the barrel of the gun,” he says.
Questions to ask:
(1) Do you see a parallel to Sharia law to co-exist? (Presumably not.)
(2) Given any opposition to Sharia, would you still impose it on all?
(3) If yes to (2), how else would you do it than ‘at the barrel of the gun’?
The “Concerned Citizens of Pakistan” need to get their arguments right. You cannot have Sharia law and be pro-democracy unless you ensure, through the barrel of the gun, a unanimous “free-choice” of Sharia by one and all.
Choose plurality *OR* forced conformation!
Given all the political choices that Pakistan has made since the early 1980’s, the ‘chickens are finally coming home to roost’. The most likely long-term solution for Pakistan is its disintegration. NWFP joins Afghanistan and that should resolve the Durrand line issue created by the British. Balochistan either joins Iran or Sindh. And Punjab is a stand-alone. In the long run, this is coming and it makes sense…historically, culturally and psychologically. These are the stark fault-lines in the Indus river valley.
13. raj | 04.28.09
In Canada, according to an article by Dr. Sheema Khan, (see, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content/subscribe?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FRTGAM.20090127.wcosharia28%2FBNStory%2FspecialComment&ord=69769046&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true)a majority of Canadian Muslims prefer Sahria laws to be applied to them. So, why are Pakistanis against Sharia? Talibans’ methods are to be condemned but they want what majority of Muslims want!
15. Kharee | 04.29.09
A reformation of the political states in the Indian sub-continent is probably the best solution. Then with ethnicity out of the way the focus can be brought to bear on the religion question.
16. Gustavo | 05.02.09
I’m part Afghan, for many nationalistic Afghans, the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is artificial. The Durand Line divides Pushtun from Pushtun.
This border, the former frontier of the British holdings in South Asia, is now causing havoc in Pakistan.
Pakistan has been more fearful of India than the growing extremism in its country. I am not surprised that Pakistan would figure so prominently in the “war on terror.”
It was the birthplace of the Taliban, a cancerous tumor that was forced back into Pakistan when the Americans occupied Afghanistan, as “pay back” for 9/11.
Muslims must stand up against terrorism.
Shariah is not about decapitations, hangings, or murdering female relatives for sexual indiscretions.
Shariah needs be a changing, living body of laws, that stress rehabilitation and forgiveness and mercy over martial punitive laws.
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1. Ahmed | 04.28.09
Finally some sense in Pakistan!! Get rid of the Taliban monsters that want to destroy everything in Pakistan.