Shadow of the Taliban

While the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and its supporters constitute a direct challenge to the authority and resources commanded by the state, it is equally worrying that the extremist right-wing ideology they represent and the tactics they employ are casting a shadow that looms far beyond their strongholds.Large sections of the citizenry living far from the actual theatre of war are being threatened in this manner. This is dangerous for the former threat, it can be hoped, may be countered through superior weaponry and sufficient political will; but the latter threat, being nebulous and diffuse, is almost impossible to control.

In recent weeks, educational institutions in urban centres such as Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi — which stand in little danger of being physically overrun by the Taliban — have been receiving threats of varying intensity. Security has been tightened, and staff and students work under the fear of attacks by either militant ideologues or shadowy copycat criminals. The fact that at least two educational institutions have enforced stricter dress codes —mainly for female students — shows just how far the fear invoked by the Taliban has spread. In some cases women have been threatened for what the extremists consider ‘liberalism’ or ‘improper behaviour’.

Although the women of this country are no strangers to harassment, the gravity of the threats they now potentially face is greater than ever before. Women are usually the first and most vulnerable targets of the extremist right-wing thinking that now holds Pakistan at gunpoint. Yet they are now accompanied in their peril by others such as media personnel, who have been told to ‘mend their ways’, and thousands of citizens — including teachers, barbers and CD shop owners — whose businesses or workplaces have been destroyed or otherwise targeted by the extremists.

Instances of such targeting include the blackmail, harassment and intimidation of citizens at the hands of a dark ideology that has seeped into the very fabric of society, the tactics of which are most horribly apparent in the activities of the Taliban. The fact is that the Taliban have already extracted a heavy toll in terms of civil liberties and freedoms of citizens.

While the government and the security forces mull over methods to defeat the Taliban militarily, they would also do well to recall that the basic purpose of the state and its apparatus is to ensure the safety and personal freedoms of the citizens. It may require years to neutralise the Taliban threat in this deeper sense.