Attacks leave dent on Pakistanis’ confidence

Tom Hussain, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: October 25. 2009 10:47PM UAE / October 25. 2009 6:47PM GMT

Youths chant slogans during a demonstration against terrorism in Islamabad. Anjum Naveed / AP Photo

ISLAMABAD // The latest wave of terrorist attacks in Pakistan, now into its fourth week, has dealt a fearsome blow to the public psyche, with the urban middle class, in particular, displaying symptoms of what has come to be referred to as “bunker mentality”.

For about a year, following popular revulsion at a suicide attack at the Islamabad Marriott in September 2008, which killed 52 people, most of them gathered in a restaurant to break their Ramadan fasts, militant commanders had limited their attacks to security institutions and personnel.

That helped foster the impression that Pakistan’s government was fighting somebody else’s war, that is the war of the United States.

That changed on October 20 when twin suicide attacks targeted the segregated male and female campuses of the International Islamic University in Islamabad, killing five students, including two girls.

Schools, colleges and universities across the country were ordered to close and crucial examinations postponed.

The students’ killings struck a raw nerve among family elders across the country that was summed up by Nusrat Tahir, a school principal, as she sat with her grandson and his high school friends that evening at the family home in Islamabad.

“At this stage of life, it shames me to admit that it is as if we are looking at the young generation, saying: ‘this is the mangled Pakistan we have made for you. Do something with it if you can’.”

The remark was spontaneous, but it sparked a thought in the mind of Iyla Hussain, 17, a high school senior.

That night, having shooed her father away from the family laptop, she surfed her way to Facebook and registered her status as: bass karo bass, which translates to, enough is enough.

Within hours, Ms Hussain had persuaded many of her friends in English medium high schools across Islamabad and Rawalpindi to join a public protest demanding an end to the violence.

The feedback was initially mixed, with many chatters questioning the sanity of staging a protest at a time when terrorist attacks have risen to two a day, with Islamabad, the capital, being the favourite target.

Her tenacious response was: “We aren’t even safe in our houses any more. We have got to take back our country. If you are too scared to participate, go back to hiding under your bed.” For three days, the online debate raged on a quickly prepared event page, but cynics were rapidly outnumbered by enthusiastic pupils who were as sick of being stuck at home as they were of the terrorist attacks.

Many of the pupils, the children of civil servants and military officers, sought assurances, readily given, that the protest was not against the recently launched army operation in the militant stronghold of South Waziristan tribal agency.

And so some 60 students gathered on Saturday, at a park adjoining a market full of popular cafes and restaurants, a little unsure of how to go about things.

However, the arrival of an older group of civil rights activists, who secured the use of a cafe’s outdoor public address system, brought out their anger and passion and, soon, Islamabad’s central residential district was ringing with their chants.

For three hours, they yelled, waved placards and lit candles in memory of the thousands of victims of the terrorism that has swept Pakistan over the past two years.

They also shared experiences, among them Maria Ali, whose family home partially collapsed after being hit by the shock wave from the Marriott bombing, and “BK” (name withheld for security reasons), who, as the son of a security official, had spoken to one of the terrorists arrested for involvement in the October 5 bombing of the World Food Programme office that killed five people.

“He told me the suicide bombers would keep coming because they had gained nothing from the Pakistani state, but that their families would be well looked after by the militants,” BK told The National.

“Those guys are brainwashed and have got nothing to lose. That’s why they must be stopped.”

The students, having made their point and spoken to journalists deputed to cover the modest protest, gathered at a cafe, satisfied that they had done “something”. It was not until they arrived home and sat with their parents to watch the main evening television news bulletins that the impact of their impromptu protest struck home.

Two leading cable news networks, Geo News and Dawn News, ran video reports, wrapped in emotion-tugging packaging, of the protest as a “top three” headline in main bulletins for the next 24 hours.

Seated back at the family laptop yesterday, Ms Hussain was back in the Facebook world, celebrating with her friends the unanticipated success of the protest in raising public morale, and discussing their next move.

“Pakistan’s real tragedy is that, however deep a mess it is in, it really wouldn’t take much to bring about a big improvement,” Ms Hussain said.

“That’s what we are going to do.”

thussain@thenational.ae