Taliban`s Supporters______The Black Sheep Inside Us!

How to deal with Taliban? there is a clear division in Pakistani politics on this issue. The division is so severe that the political as well as religious parties are commonly divided into two groups which are called right and left wing. The right wing group, including PML-N, PTI, JI, JUI-F and JUI-S has always opposed any military operations against Taliban.  While, the left wing parties namely PPP, MQM and ANP consider the dialogue as a waste of time.

Although, like on other various issues of the country, this difference of opinion was also considered as a routine dissent in the political parties, however the Taliban`s announcement to support the right wing parties in the 11<sup>th</sup> May elections and to target the left wing ones, gave an entirely different color to it.More importantly, TTP not only just threatened, but also practically attacked PPP, MQM and ANP election campaigns and killed their several workers and supporters. The continuous Taliban`s attacks almost pushed these parties out of the election field that eventually helped the right wing parties to win most of the seats very easily.

Honestly speaking, if the TTP had not influenced the elections campaign forcibly, it would not have been so easy for the right wing parties to come into the comfortable position to form their governments. In other words, Taliban extended their clear-cut support to their supporting parties.

Not only Taliban, but also the right wing parties expressed the reciprocal gesture for TTP. The joint resolution from the Parliament in support of dialogues with TTP can obviously be considered as a return to Taliban. On top of it, the painful reaction on the death of Hakim Ullah Mehsud from Ch. Nisar,Munawwar Hassan, Fazal-ur-Rehman and Imran Khan surprised people including their own voters and supporters. In fact, it was surely a Give and Take relationship between TTP and them. That is why it seems very logical why Taliban have soft corner for these parties.

However, not only the right wing parties, but the former CJP Iftekhar Choudhry was also one of those who were in the good book of Taliban. It is on record that one of the most important issues on which the PPP government was criticized during its tenure, was the terrorism in the country. PPP representatives blamed the judiciary for this arguing that the courts were releasing the TTP terrorists arrested by the law-enforcement agencies. However, the lawyers as well as the former judges rejected their stand saying that it was actually the poor prosecution of the government due to which the judges had to release the terrorists. Whatever the reason was and whoever was truly responsible for that, the actual benefits went to TTP whose activists got released unhurt despite having being caught red handed. Perhaps, this was the reason why Taliban lauded the then CJP Iftekhar Choudhry for his role.

Immediately after the martyrdom of SP CID Ch. Aslam, a daily news papers “Ummat” published a report on the extra-judicial killings in Karachi in which it tried to prove that Ch. Aslam was not worth respecting that way despite his courageous fight against TTP. Though it was quite surprising for the common people, but was definitely providing a sort of justification of the killing of Ch. Aslam. That was the reason why Taliban` spokes man Shahid Ullah Shahid appreciated the role of daily “Ummat”.

Surprisingly, in the same press release issued from TTP in which Taliban termed it as an honor for them to be nominated in the murder of Ch. Aslam, Shahid Ullah Shahid also lauded the Additional IG Shahid Hyat. Logically speaking, from the right wing parties to former CJP Iftikhar Choudhry and from judiciary to daily “Ummat”, it was quite evident that Taliban had been benefited from all these people directly or indirectly. But the question is why did Shahid Ullah Shahid express their soft feelings for AIG Sindh? What had Shahid Hyat done for them intentionally or unintentionally? Generally, it is the policy of the seniors that juniors implement. So, if SP CID Ch. Aslam was targeting TTP terrorists by following the policy his seniors IG and AIG that made the TTP consider him as his deadly enemy, why did TTP consider Shahid Hyat as neutral in the fight between TTP and CID?

How Ch. Aslam was targeted by Taliban is still very suspicious.According to the media report, Ch. Aslam received a suspicious call that made him immediately leave for his office, and eventually got killed on the way. Ch. Aslam`s widow revealed that it was AIG Shahid Hyat`s call who required Ch. Aslam toreach office at the earliest. Taking into account the pre-attack and post murder scenario, the position of AIG Shahid Hyat has been very controversial. Therefore, the higher authorities need to consider all these important aspects as well.

In short, as far as the support of Taliban is concerned, we will have to adopt a proactive approach in order to find out the black sheep of us favoring the banned outfits. We should not wait until TTP names any of its collaborators in the press release appreciating their roles. We ourselves will have to trace and take them out from our rows. Otherwise, we will keep being targeted by Taliban with the collaboration of the black sheep inside us.