Military means unhelpful in solving Pakistan militancy: Academic
Press TV has conducted an interview with Liaghat Ali Khan, a professor of law at the Washburn University, in Topeka, Kansas, about a recent bomb attack in a mainly Shia area of northwest Pakistan.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: More violence in Pakistan. This time in Parachinar area. Tell me, what is the foundation of this? Why are we seeing so many people being attacked? And we have to say a lot of Shias who have been killed in Pakistan. Why is that the case?
Khan: Well, I think the killings in Pakistan are not confined to any one set. There is a war going on between the government and the militants in the tribal areas. So, we are not sure why these bombings occur.
And I think a lot of groups, you know, they take credit for these bombings. So, fundamentally there is a war going on between the government and the militants in the tribal areas. And I think this is just tit-for-tat going back and forth.
Press TV: What is the government trying to accomplish when their own people are getting killed in such large numbers? Tell me, what is the overall goal? How are they going to justify this? On the one hand, they say they are fighting militants; so, we have militants that are attacking the people, we have government forces; there seems to be a lot of confusion as far as the goal. What needs to happen in Pakistan in order to bring security back to the country?
Khan: It seems like that the tough approach that ‘we are going to kill you’ has been the policy of the new government. And I think the military is also interested in using the military approach to solve the problem.
I believe that this problem cannot be solved by using military means. I think the United States has failed; 21 nations have failed in Afghanistan. So, it seems like no matter how powerful you are, you just simply cannot succeed by killing these militants.
So, the other solution is that even though it is odious to talk to people who are killing innocent people, you still have to talk to them. And I think that’s what I believe ought to be done in Pakistan as well.
And as you said, these Taliban and these Pashtuns are people of Pakistan. There are 23 million Pashtuns in Pakistan. So, if you begin to kill your own people, it is not going to stabilize your country in any way.
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