THERE appears to be no redemption from the culture of terrorism that Pakistan has nursed over decades of its romance with terror philosophy. It heaped a lot of terror on India, but all that appears to have been a thing of the past as India learned the ways and means to get over the scourge with tenacity and strength -- of the military and morality. In Pakistan, both these dimensions appear to be missing altogether. That explains how suicide attacks are taking place in Pakistan -- mostly targetting Pakistani establishment where at least some Chinese persons are involved. And as if this is not enough, freedom fighters from Balochistan, too, are putting relentless pressure on Pakistan’s internal security ecosystem and making life hell for the Pakistani establishment. Going by the manner and method of how terror is being used to harass Pakistani authorities, it is clear that the Islamic country is less likely to emerge from its terror woes at least for the next quarter of a century. The latest spell of organised violence in Pakistan has involved the deaths of 5 Chinese people among the 6 killed in terror strike. A few months ago, too, Pakistan had faced a similar attack and suffered many a death. And to make matters worse, the Baloch freedom fighters are not giving Pakistani authorities even a moment of breather from their concerted attacks on its military establishment. Possibly for the first time, the Pakistani military establishment is finding it very difficult to handle the pressure from several terror groups that it sponsored previously -- as is proved by the attack by Baloch freedom fighters in a Pakistani naval air-base.

 

Each such attack only acts as a further reminder to the Pakistani authorities that they are getting the taste of their own medicine. Pakistan, thus, has every reason to believe that an organised activity is being unleashed on the country by some hidden masterminds whose job it appears to be to keep up confusion in Islamabad beyond the point of common comprehension. It may be mentioned here that Balochistan is only one of the few regions that are up in arms against the Pakistani army establishment. The pressure on the law-and-order is so great that the Pakistani authorities are unwilling even to try to bell the cat. As a result, several underground freedom-fighter-outfits are milling around the Pakistani establishment all over the place for quite some time now. It was rightly believed by the world that it was Pakistan that had earned the notoriety as the world’s biggest sponsor of terror. Today, however, the world realises how the Pakistanis are falling prey to various vagaries of terrorism in different garbs. In the past few years, it has seen many terror masterminds living in Pakistan were killed one by one by unknown gunmen.

 

The chain of events involving terror masterminds is growing longer and more complex with every passing day bringing in worse news. How will Pakistan redeem itself from the current terror-related mess? The answer to this question is hardly easy to offer. For, the open secret is that the Pakistanis are getting paid in their own coin by using terrorism as a tool. At least in the near future, such a redemption does not appear possible. In the nutshell, Pakistan appears headed for a living by the bomb and the bullet at least for the next 25 years. The sufferers will be the members of the larger Pakistani society -- innocent civilians, in other words. As it talked of the so-called freedom of the Kashmiri people from the clutches of India, Pakistan never actually realised that it was digging its own grave in the long run -- say of a quarter of a century. Those who know what is happening in Pakistan also know that the country is on the verge of disaster.