In a column in The News, Ayaz Amir paints a terrifying picture of the spread of Talebanism to Punjab:
Which are the elements flocking to Mahsud’s banner in Waziristan and Fazlullah’s in Swat? Not the big Khans or Maliks but the have-nots. Beware Punjab’s huge under-class which will be fodder and recruiting ground for the Taliban if the revolt in the north-west, escaping the best ability of the Pakistan military establishment to suppress it, snakes its way into the adjoining districts of Punjab.
Every Punjab town, large and small, has a mosque, if not more than one, sympathetic to the Taliban brand of Islam. So at least there is a handy network — a Ho Chi Minh Trail, so to speak — down which the ideology of the Taliban can travel, whether we like this ideology or abhor it being a separate issue altogether.
And a couple of analogies to boot:
If this were Nepal this would be a Maoist uprising. If this were a Latin American country it would be a peasant or a Guevarist uprising. Since it is Pakistan, the revolt assaulting the bastions of the established order comes with an Islamic colouring, Islam reduced to its most literal and unimaginative interpretations at the hands of those leading the Taliban revolt.
[ht/t FaithWorld. ]
Thats alarmist to say that there is a mosque in every village in Punjab that is sympathetic to the Taleban.
The Punjab will never fall to outsiders.The Taleban is not a foreign influence forced upon the Pusto.Its a natural bedfellow and cousin …to the conservative life of a disconnected tribal..rural people-scape.Punjab is not that kind of place.It may harbour Islamist sympathies especially amonsgt the middle classes who don’t have to deal with the consequences of these people….but rule from a Pusto based conservative theology….thats never happening.Punjab has the biggest most powerful power centres in the country…its almost a country on its own two feet.
If you look carefully at Pakistani society on the plains you’ll see a hindu oriented caste style society that has no space for a nomadic based ( Arab+ Afghan) conservative ideal.