A nation must think before it acts.
On October 10th, 2013, the Taliban sympathetic Nawaz Government, yet again, arrested Former President Musharraf for the crime of being the President of Pakistan and Chief of Pakistan Army at the time the Red Mosque operation was successfully conducted against defiant hard core militants, extremists, terrorists and abductors, who were hiding in the Red Mosque.
The Nawaz Government’s claim that they have acted in the Red Mosque matter to satisfy a court order could not be further from the truth. It is also important to underscore that, while the Pakistan Government has arrested the Former President, it has thus far failed to bring to justice militants that were named in 2007 in forty-two (42) separate First Information Reports (FIRs) registered to seek redress in abducting 7 Chinese expats, killing 13 Pakistan Army soldiers and paramilitary troops, and taking hostage Islamabad policemen, while hoarding, brandishing and using illegal weapons to cause physical harm and destruction to State and private property.
A judicial commission was formed by the Government of Pakistan, which in April 2013, confirmed the following forgotten facts relevant to the Red Mosque standoff:
Red Mosque militants regularly vandalized shops and also stormed Government buildings, damaging public and private property. They also killed a paramilitary soldier deployed outside the mosque, and severely injured a photographer of a private TV channel.
Maulana Abdul Qayyum, spokesman of Red Mosque, publicly announced that suicide bombers of Red Mosque had been permitted to find targets and strike at-will.
It is a travesty that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is following a dangerous path in criminalizing the acts of the Musharraf Government, which were meant to enforce the Writ of State. Whether this is an attempt to appease extremists or an action driven by a personal vendetta, it is emboldening terrorists, demoralizing the already stretched security forces of Pakistan, and putting Nawaz Sharif squarely on the side of the militants.
These are ominous signs and, for now, terrorists are winning in Pakistan.
Raza Bokhari is the International Spokesperson for General Pervez Musharraf, the Former President of Pakistan. He is a Trustee of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, Vice Chairman of the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia and Past President of Pakistani American Public Affairs Committee. The views expressed here are his own.