The killing fields of Pakistan

The current war in Pakistan has two faces. Both are ugly and brutal, as demonstrated by the massive Islamabad Marriott hotel attack in which more than 50 innocent people lost their lives and many more were injured. It also destroyed a symbol of the resting place of the Pakistani establishment and an icon of the "western culture." The other side of the war is being fought in the mountains of the tribal belt, near Afghanistan, stretching some 27, 220 km (10,507 sq mi), and more than 3 percent of the Pakistanis live there. Gunship helicopters, fighter planes and tanks have also killed and injured scores of innocent Pakistanis, amongst them women and children. Unfortunately these killings have been dismissed as 'collateral' damage as if they were not humans, and more so, fellow Pakistanis. Thousands have been made homeless, forced to take refuge in the non-combat areas.

For years, the neglect of Islamabad establishment and their vague and confusing policies towards the conflict in Afghanistan and its linkage with the tribal areas of Pakistan have culminated in the most treacherous conflict, with no end in sight. Many of us warned that if not understood and managed accurately, this conflict can engulf the whole of Pakistan, turning it into the killing fields, where no city, no town and no sanctuary will be safe. This is exactly what has happened. The unchecked simmering tensions have matured to be a full-fledged war, call it by any name - the American war, the Pakistani war or whatever. The fact remains it is damaging Pakistan, bit by bit and piece by piece. The most frightening aspect of the current fighting is that it can very well take the shape of an ethnic conflict as well, with disastrous consequences.