The truth behind attack on Malala Yousafzai

The truth behind attack on Malala Yousafzai

Afshain Afzal

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney in recent briefing said, “President Barack Obama was very committed to ending the war in the Pak-Afghan region…He has made it clear that he would refocus attention on what was a neglected war in Afghanistan, refocus our mission on Al Qaeda, and on decimating Al Qaeda’s leadership in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” Terming the attack of Malala Yousafzai as a turning point in the war against militancy in Pakistan, he said, “So obviously, the degree to which the Pakistani people turn against them help their government to go after them.” US, western and Indian Cyber Commands are on their full throttle to malign orthodox Sunni Muslims in terrorist related incidents. Despite the fact that peace has been restored in Swat and the adjoining areas, a drama was staged in the shape of self engineered attack on Malala Yousafzai. Whatever the case may be, the incident with Malala Yousafzai is worth condemning in strongest possible words but one wonders why missile attacks by US drones on a Mosque and Madrassa in Orakzai Agency on 11 October 2012 that martyred 18 innocent people including some students failed to attract the attention of those who are commenting on an incident without having any background.

It is interesting to note that on the day Malala Yousafzai was attacked i.e. 9 October, US Anti War Group activists held a symbolic twelve hour hunger strike outside the Islamabad Press Club, holding “pictures of around 164 Pakistani children who have been killed by US drones and missiles attacks. The other important event was landing of Pakistan International Airlines flight in Swat on 10 October which symbolizes that peace has been restored in Swat and adjoining areas. But due to incident a day earlier the flight had to land under tight security. One wonders how can western blood thirsty beasts, who have developed the habit of spilling innocent blood would not resist their kicks on their backs. Another event that is equally important to mention here that there was strong resistance of private schools in KPK province against government decision of introduction of Pushto as compulsory subject. In fact, government decision is binding on both private and public sector educational institutions in KPK but a large number of schools in private sector are openly resisting implementation of government’s decision. No doubt, father of Malala Yousafzai, who is President of Private School’s Association, would at least earn immunity for his chain of schools after the incident.

One wonders another bomb shell is coming in the shape of implementation of syllabus of Text Book Board and how private schools would save themselves. What… another attack on the students of private school or their bombing? Washington has been signalling long that they have physical presence in Pakistan. More than 90 percent of the terrorists attacks are either directly or indirectly linked with state sponsored terrorists from foreign soils including US and India. In the same regard, US State Department’s Victoria Nuland said during a daily press briefing on 11 October 2012, “We have an intense counter terrorism relationship. We would like to do even more together. We are continuing to try to work on these issues and encourage our Pakistani partners to do as much as they can against these issues, because Pakistanis are the greatest victims of terror inside their own country”. She confirmed that Washington is in contact with the Pakistani side in the wake of attack on Malala and said, “I think it speaks to the work that we’re trying to do to get all of these working groups that we had under our counter terrorism cooperation back up and running - as you know, we had the counter-IED group, etcetera - and to continue to support each other and share intelligence, etcetera.”.
After the US and allies withdrawal from Afghanistan, the western players plus India are trying their level best to invest in girls education, health and women issue as possible during next fourteen months. Already, the European Union (EU) has been working through a multi-donor trust fund in various fields, which has set aside $114 million for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Malakand. EU is spending 300 million Euros on the reconstruction of schools and other development projects in Swat and Malakand. The USAID has provided $25 million for reconstructing about 110 insurgency-destroyed schools in Malakand. The KPK province would also be receiving another $200 million for reconstruction activities from the UAE’s Abu Dhabi Fund for Development for various projects including construction of a University in Swat, reconstructing damaged schools and colleges. One wonders why so much generosity with Malakand?

It would be surprising for many propagandists that Malala Yousafzai, although, voiced against the closure of government girl’s schools in Swat but she did not study in any government school. Malala’s father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, who also writes poetry, is owner of a chain of private schools known as the Khushal Public Schools which are funded by US, UK. The attack also took place while she was returning home from same school. Eye witnesses and residents of area presented their unique views and said that Ziauddin and her daughter are working on communists’ agenda and CIA may have targeted her. But the fact remains that we cannot so easily link Malala Yousafzai with communists for her delivery of speech at International Marxist Tendency camp organized in Swat from 13 to 15 July. The statement of Marxist Alan Woods who condemned the assassination attempt, claiming “Malala Yousafzai was on the side of the oppressed people of Pakistan and Afghanistan and every other country” does not mean that Malala was linked with Russians. Double agent, triple agent game or otherwise; one can only make a wild guess at this stage?

Washington wants to open war theatres in Pakistan after the shameful humiliating defeat in Afghanistan. The genocide of over 1.5 million orthodox Sunnis in Afghanistan and Pakistan cannot be justified by such self engineered insulated incidents. Islamabad has been tolerating western violations of territorial integrity and sovereignty because of powerful propaganda that terrorists are threatening the very existence of Pakistan. No doubt, there are terrorists in every country. Pakistan has unfortunately a good number of foreign terrorist and agents from many countries, especially from India and west. The propaganda themes like “The US, enemy of Islam, is building schools in Pakistan; Taliban, Islam’s friends, are blowing up schools,” are aimed to malign those Muslims in favour of Shariat. One of the media channel in Pakistan being run with the funds and directions from Washington is actually telecasting western culture and carrying out black propaganda against rule of Muslim before the intrusion of British in Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. A Pakistani top newspaper gave a unique idea, which suggested Satan to play role of Moses (Hazrat Musa Alhe Salam); dubbing Taliban as followers of Pharaoh and inviting a western country to follow in the footsteps of Moses. The inhuman attack on three students of a private school namely Shazia, Kainat and Malala and its linking with Taliban is nonsense as it is on record that since centuries Muslim orthodox Sunnis never carryout such cowardly acts on women or girls.

No doubt, there are Islamic punishments but these are executed after in public after getting verdict from authorities. Police and security forces have arrested over 250 individuals for their connections in attack on Malala. People of Pakistan are not terrorists but those who are compelling them to adopt the path of terrorism need to be punished. Pakistani Armed Forces and security forces are struggling hard to bring the country back to the path of peace and prosperity. The development work carried out by Armed Forces in troubled areas is clearly indicating that these personnel do care for general public rather they are people’s Army etc. Unfortunately, under the thick cloud of western and Indian propaganda sometimes it is difficult to differentiate between friends and foes. Of course there were some wrong actions but neither Taliban nor any other religious group is against the institutions including security forces. It is high time that we need to come out of war phobia due to western spell and stop killing our own people to let the peace prevail. The bottom line is that enough is enough… No more dictations… No more do more…… no more foreign counter-IED group in Pakistan and no more baseless unconfirmed breaking news such as Taliban have accepted the responsibility of attacking Malala Yousafzai. Let’s open the door of Swat for all the people who had been living there since centuries and enforce writ of government in the shape of Nizam-e-Adl as passed by parliament in April 2009t. afshainafzal@yahoo.com