February 03, 2023

Peshwar mosque attack points to Pakistan-sponsored extremism

topic:	Political violence
located:	Pakistan, Afghanistan
editor:	Shadi Khan Saif

The Peshawar mosque bombing has cast a grim shadow over the future of Pakistan due to its scale of destruction and the ease with which it was carried out. There is still confusion surrounding the nature of the assault; some commentators have maintained it was a suicide attack, while others are skeptical to believe so, claiming the huge scale of the destruction could not be caused by a lone bomber. Regardless, the fact that a highly-guarded sacred place was bombed in bright daylight is enough to make every one in Pakistan feel fearful.

Losing more than 100 army officers in a single day while they were praying in a mosque would shake a nation to its core and oblige the authorities to rethink their national security plans. Will the Peshawar tragedy put Pakistan on the right course in battling terrorism?

Unfortunately, it is possible that this attack will not have a major effect on the government since this is not the first dreadful incident of the kind to strike the country, which is dealing with a poisonous extremist ideology. This attack recalls the Army Public School massacre that occurred in the same city of Peshawar in 2014, in which 140 people, mostly children, were killed by the Pakistani Taliban.

The group, also known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP), immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on the mosque, but later denied its involvement, indicating a lack of organisational discipline in this lethal militant group. The TTP has been waging ‘Jihad’ against the state of Pakistan and has scaled up its attacks following the rise to power of the Afghan Taliban in Kabul in August 2021.

The roots of religious extremism in Pakistan can be traced back to the US-funded ‘Jihad’ against the pro-Soviet government in Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s, which has resulted in devastating impacts for both Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past 50 years.

There has, however, been very little debate on the extent of the damage caused by the ‘Strategic Jihad’ orchestrated by the state of Pakistan following the exit of Soviet forces from Afghanistan. This strategy of assisting terrorism carried on into the 20 years of the United States’ occupation of Afghanistan, when the Taliban enjoyed the military, financial and logistical support from Pakistan.

Groups opposing this support warned that emboldening the group would lead to consequences within Pakistan, as was seen in Peshawar this week. The strategy of differentiating between a “good and bad” Taliban has backfired on Pakistan, and has now become too complicated to fix quickly

What Pakistan needs now is a national dialogue on the use of extremist religious ideologies for political gains, both at the grassroot level domestically and as a foreign policy tool internationally. It is an open secret that mainstream political parties in Pakistan have been seeking patronage from fundamentalist groups for electoral gains.

For peace and prosperity to return, Pakistan needs to ensure supremacy of the rule of law without granting leverage to any individual or group based on its beliefs. One practical step is to legally stop entry to the power corridors for the extremist groups and their sympathisers through electoral rules. And most importantly, Pakistan needs to take all the hatred and extremism out of religious school syllabi which was introduced during the US-funded anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan.

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy

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