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Coinciding with the bloody events at the Lal Masjid and its seminary Jamia Hafsa in Islamabad there have been horrendous incidents of mindless violence in the northern regions of the country. A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a military convoy near a seminary in Bannu's Gurbaz area on Wednesday.
Resultantly, ten precious lives were lost and nine people suffered serious injuries. Six of those killed were soldiers doing their duty and four unsuspecting boys playing cricket on the roadside. The injured, too, were soldiers and children - innocent victims of a madness that shows no mercy and compassion for human life.
Since the suicide bombing coincided with the violent Lal Masjid stand-off, some saw a link between the two occurrences. But more solid information suggests that the Bannu incident was associated with the wider war in Afghanistan and its spillover effects in the adjoining tribal areas of Pakistan.
Following the June 19 missile attack in Datakhel near the Afghan border that left 34 people dead, a local commander of the militants, Maulvi Abdul Khaliq Haqqani, had vowed to give a "fitting response" to the attack. Apparently, it was a response from him, though as unfitting as it could be in terms of the victims it claimed.
Supporters of the Lal Masjid clerics have been wreaking violence elsewhere. On Wednesday detonation of an explosive device in Mangora in Swat district claimed four lives. The explosion occurred when the District Police Officer rode in his car in the area. Four passers-by were killed while the police officer; his driver and three ordinary people were injured. In another incident on Tuesday night, a mortar attack on a police station in Mata area of Swat district killed a policeman and injured four of his colleagues.
The provincial police chief Sharif Virk had good reason to blame the attacks on a militant leader Maulvi Fazlullah, who, he said, "has close links with the administration of the Lal Masjid". In fact, Maulvi Fazlullah had left little room for doubt in this regard. According to press reports, his FM radio station broadcasts on Tuesday and Wednesday exhorted his supporters to take up arms against the government to avenge its Lal Masjid action.
They also asked people to carry out suicide attacks. It is just as incomprehensible as it is shocking that such people should have had the privilege of running FM radio service and pollute the minds of simple people with their gospels of hate and violence. Virk disclosed that the provincial government is contemplating action against the Maulvi. Considering that he has been openly engaged in rabble rousing and instigation to suicide attacks, one cannot but wonder why the contemplation process has to be so long.
The federal government, in consultation with the relevant provincial governments, must also prepare a comprehensive strategy to deal with all such individuals and outfits. And it must not act in a half-hearted manner, as has been the practice thus far. The Lal Masjid example has amply, and painfully, demonstrated the inherent dangers. Indeed, use of force alone can create more problems than solving any. A combination of carrot and stick needs to be used to rid this society of the scourge of religious extremism and its hugely ugly manifestations.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2007

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