Asserting that the Pakistani society was still deeply divided over what the Tali

ban represented, Mohammad Hanif, a contributing op-ed writer to the New York Tim
es, has recalled the relevance of the saying - "Most countries have an Army, but
in Pakistan, it's the Army that has a country."
In his latest opinion piece titled 'Pakistan's Triangle of Hate' in The New York
Times, Hanif questions the reasoning of enlisting their "children's killers" in
their "campaign against India," while also subtly suggesting and claiming that
Islamabad has "evidence that India has funded groups to strike at Pakistan for i
nterfering in Kashmir."

Hanif also outlines the apparent message being sent by the Pakistan Army to the
world: You can kill thousands of Pakistanis, but if you later testify that you h
ate India as much as we do, everything will be forgiven.
The testament to this message is the constant appearance of Liaquat Ali, better
known as Ehsanullah Ehsan, on the Pakistani media.
A familiar and dreaded figure in the national media, after every atrocity commit
ted by the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Ehsan would ma
ke triumphant statements in audio messages or bloodcurdling videos, putting the
fear of God in the national media and causing revulsion among Pakistani people,
Hanif says.
Soon after the TTP killed three employees of Express TV in January 2014, the tel
evision channel invited Ehsan on the air by phone. He very calmly explained the
reasons for the murder, and the interviewer promised to give him more airtime, w
hile "begging" for guarantees that there would be no further attacks.
Ehsan had also claimed responsibility for an Easter Day attack in a park in Laho
re last year, which killed dozens of people, the librettist for the opera 'Bhutt
o' says.
Despite a short-lived ban by the state media regulators on a detailed interview
with Ehsan before it aired after families of Taliban victims expressed outrage,
the Army preferred to parade him and his winning smile in front of TV cameras, a
nd released footage of him telling salacious stories about how his Taliban colle
agues had three wives or how the current TTP leader took away his teacher's daug
hter by force.
The author of the novels - 'A Case of Exploding Mangoes' and 'Our Lady of Alice
Bhatti' - further rues that the purpose of this exercise seemed to be suggesting
that the Taliban were not a formidable force with an ideology and deep roots in
Pakistani society, but rather a bunch of sexual perverts bankrolled by India; t
he latter, being Pakistan's forever existential enemy.
Referring to them as "supposed assets in Pakistan's historic feud with India", H
anif asserts that even the Taliban want a just society, with the only difference
lying in the way they want to achieve it; the methods surely being unacceptable
.
"If they dare to attack Pakistan, then, God willing, we will share happiness and
grief with all Pakistanis," Pakistani Taliban's spokesman Maulvi Omar said when
India and Pakistan were on the verge of war in 2008.
"We will put the animosity and fighting with the Pakistani Army behind us, and t
he Taliban will defend their frontiers, their boundaries, their country with the
ir weapons," he had added.
Drawing attention towards the much-in-news Dawn Leaks fiasco and its aftermath,
Hanif says that the Army seems to be propagating a message that it "won't abide
any discussion with civilians over who is a good or bad militant, or a good or b
ad Pakistani," and "will have the last word on this subject."
In a suggestive conclusion, while asserting that many "Pakistanis still love the
Army, and many politicians fear it," Hanif advises the Pakistani politicians to
stop calling one another traitor just to please the Army, only if they want to
take their country back.