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Showing posts from October, 2007

The war has begun

‘Terrorism’ is defined as, “The calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) by a person or an organised group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological, political or religious reasons.” For us Pakistanis, the definition of terrorism varies. The sad thing is that most of us have got it all wrong, though not for any fault of ours. It is more so because of our government’s skewed foreign policies. In the 1980s when the Afghan jihad was being supported by Pakistan, we were led to believe that the jihadis were not terrorists, they were ‘ mujahideen ’ (one who is waging a jihad in Allah’s way) since they were fighting the ‘godless’ communists. After the Afghan jihad , Pakistan started supporting the Kashmir insurgency. Despite killing many civilians and driving away many Hindus from the region, the Kashmiri mujahideen were not terrorists either, they were ‘freedom fighters’. But after the events of