Part 14 (Final)
By Dr. Humam Khan
There are still many dark chapters in the history of Pakistan’s military that remain to be discussed, and, InshaAllah, we will shed light on them when the opportunity arises. But the point this series set out to make should by now be clear from everything that has been presented. Once a person understands the history and mindset of this military, nothing it does should come as a surprise. The bombing of a hospital in Kabul, the extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and kidnappings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan all become entirely consistent with its record.
Nor should anyone be surprised to learn that over the past years this army has destroyed not dozens but hundreds of mosques and religious madrasas, from Swat to Waziristan. It has forced millions of Muslims from their homes. Through air strikes and artillery bombardments, it has martyred thousands of innocent Muslims. It has provided intelligence for drone strikes and played a direct role in the shedding of the blood of hundreds of Muslims. It has burned villages, flattened towns and markets, stripped respected scholars in public and subjected them to brutal torture. It has lined up supporters of Sharia and shot them. It has violated the sanctity of people’s homes and families and abducted the mothers, sisters, and daughters of the Mujahideen.
In Swat, Buner, Darra Adam Khel, and many other places, it looted people’s property and carried it away by the truckload. It dragged the Mujahid sons of this Ummah through the streets and public squares. Inside its intelligence prisons, it inflicted every kind of cruelty and torture imaginable upon them, even to the point of disrespecting the sacred name of Allah Almighty, in an effort to break them psychologically.
None of this is surprising. What is truly astonishing is that there are still sincere but simple-hearted believers who consider this army to be “their army” and continue to hope that some good will come from it. This is the same army that served as the right hand of British colonialism. At one time it spilled the blood of scholars and Mujahideen in Delhi, at another in Swat and the tribal regions. It trampled the honor of Muslims in Bengal and later in Balochistan. It fought Britain’s wars in Baghdad, helped hand Palestine over to the Jews, played its part in dismantling the Ottoman Caliphate, and later stood in war against the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
What sense does it make to call such a disgraced and oppressive army “our army,” or to expect any good from it? This army belongs neither to me nor to you. It exists to protect British interests. It stands guard over the colonial order and the legacy of British political and cultural influence.
What is needed today is for every believer, from Hind to Khurasan, to recognize friend and foe for what they truly are, to distinguish between their own and the outsider, and to regard this struggle as their own. They must fulfill their duty of loyalty to the friends of Allah and enmity toward His enemies.
May Allah Almighty grant us the ability to recognize the truth and follow it, and to recognize falsehood and keep ourselves away from it. Ameen.
