Tolerance Required

Shooting statements against terrorists and extremists wouldn’t solve the problems of bomb blasts and suicide attacks. Only condemning the attacks wont really do anything worthwhile in curbing such calamities in the future. Force is simply not the solution. How many people will we kill? You cannot simply.

Vice Chief Army of Staff General Ashfaq Kiyani is right when he says that there are few pockets of extremists who are operating against the society, but they are our own, and we have to deal with them with passions, tolerance and wisdom. What a fresh blow and what great words he has uttered. It’s a great change from Musharraf’s “punches” and the “They wouldn’t know what hit them”. Dialogue is what is required. These are our own brethren. If we wouldn’t take care of them with words who else will?

General Ashfaq’s approach is realistic and positive and the need of hour. It’s a fact that some people have become really angry due to Pakistan’s pro-US and pro-Western policies, due to support of NATO in Afghanistan, and other issues, and they are not accepting it, and venting their angers in a bloody way. But they are own own brothers, and if they have adopted the way of mutual destruction, then trying to curb them with force wouldn’t accomplish anything, and we need to change their mindset and their approach. We have got to strike at the root causes, and try to convert the nurseries of terrorists into the gardens of peace and harmony.

It’s not mere rhetorical wistful thinking, but this is what the real solution actually is. The real national consensus and national amnesty is required here. We need to include those dissenting people in the main stream. How could you just bless one or two provinces, and expect others to not get angry? It is the need of hour to shower the fruits of progress and the “aid” from US in all the provinces. Give those people education, health-care, employment, recreation facilities, modern technology and other social boons, and who in heck will even think blowing himself up?


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