The Pakistani military has released a music video commemorating the 150 victims of the Peshawar school massacre to mark the first anniversary of the attack on Wednesday. But why is the army producing a song for peace?
Against a wall displaying the victims' school portraits, kids in bright green school blazers run around as a song on the audio track plays a rousing refrain. “Mujhe dushman ke bacho ko parhana hai (I want to educate the children of my enemies)," sings a chorus of voices in Urdu.
A year after Taliban gunmen stormed the Army Public School in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing more than 150 people, mostly children, the Pakistani army has released a video commemorating the victims of the December 16, 2014 massacre.
The music video opens with shots of parents sending their kids off to school, where they assemble in neat rows to sing a tribute to their slain classmates.
“Mujhe ma us se badla layne jana ha (Mother, I have to go take revenge)," the children sing before belting out exactly how they plan to extract retribution: I want to educate the children of my enemies.
Education as revenge, particularly in a country with a 55% literacy rate – among the lowest in the world – seems a fitting response to one of the most shocking terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil.
But it’s not the only retribution being meted out in Pakistan, some methods of which have been criticised by human rights groups. The Pakistani army's decision to release a commemorative video with a social message may be commendable in and of itself. But it also underscores the civilian government’s inability, and lack of will, to address the country’s most pressing social problems, lacunae often filled by Pakistan’s ubiquitous, all-powerful army.
One of the world’s top executioners
Shortly after the Peshawar school massacre, Pakistan lifted a six-year moratorium on the death penalty as part of a crackdown against extremism. Executions were initially reinstated only for terrorism cases, but in March they were extended to all capital offences.
Since then, Pakistan has earned the dubious distinction of being one of the world’s top executioners, according to Amnesty International. Exact figures on the number of people executed are hard to come by since Pakistani authorities do not discuss execution decisions in detail. But in a November 2015 report, Amnesty estimated that 300 people were executed based on publicly reported cases. A database by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan lists 302 executions since the moratorium was lifted.
Barely two weeks before the first anniversary of the school massacre, four men were hanged for their links to the attacks. The four were convicted in a military court – one of several in Pakistan – which critics have charged are shrouded in secrecy. A military statement said the men were linked to the Towheedwal Jihad Group (TWG), a little-known faction of the Pakistani Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the army school attack.
The military statement provided no information on how the convicted men were linked to the attack, nor were any details of the legal process released.
While there is popular support for the death penalty in Pakistan, human rights activists maintain that executions do not work as a deterrent.
"Even after the resumption of executions, violence has continued. There have been incidents of sectarian violence and we also witnessed attacks on churches," said Zohra Yusuf, head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, in an interview with the Associated Press.
Extending anti-terror operations
The Peshawar army school attack, which shocked a nation that is no stranger to violence, sparked public calls for an intensified military crackdown on terrorism as well as policy initiatives to address the root of the problem.
Shortly after the attack, the army extended its anti-terror campaign, called Operation Zarb-e-Azb, from troubled North Waziristan to other tribal regions near the Afghan-Pakistani border.
Over the past year the number of terrorist attacks has decreased across Pakistan, although sporadic violence by extremist groups targeting minorities, including Shiites and Christians, continues.
Nevertheless, the military has been criticised for targeting groups based in the western Pakistani province of Balochistan, where separatist groups opposed to the Pakistani state have been violently crushed. On the other hand, Operation Zarb-e-Azb has not been extended to the Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province and home to jihadi groups with close ties to the country’s intelligence agency, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence). Punjab-based groups, such as the outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba, tend to concentrate their activities on Indian-administered Kashmir.
The army, not government, provides
While the military maintains it is committed to extending the crackdown on terrorist groups, experts say Pakistani authorities have failed to address the roots of the terror threat.
Under a 20-point National Action Plan adopted by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government shortly after the Peshawar school massacre, the civilian government is charged with implementing socio-economic programmes. These include reforming the country’s madrassas, monitoring social media and upgrading the education system.
The government’s inability to tackle these longstanding issues has seen the military step in to fill the gaps, says Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistan expert and author of several books on South Asian jihadi movements. “Instead of encouraging and helping civilians to build capacity, the army's response has been to take on more and more tasks itself - which is becoming untenable as it is overstretched,” Rashid noted in a recent BBC column.
In addition to its defence functions, the Pakistani military runs a multibillion-dollar empire that includes interests in real estate, heavy industries and the financial sector. In her book, “Military Inc: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy,” Ayesha Siddiqa estimates the military’s private wealth at $20 billion, a vast empire ranging from street corner gas stations to industrial estates. Profits from these businesses are pumped into army-run schools, hospitals and other welfare institutions with no civilian oversight and little transparency, according to Siddiqa.
In an impoverished country with endemic corruption, army-run institutions have a reputation for efficiency. But, experts note, that military competence often comes at the cost of civilian capacity-building.
A year after the gruesome attack on the Army Public School, the military’s musical tribute to the victims has been widely hailed on social media sites. The video is the second musical tribute to the school’s victims released by the military’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) department.
The first song, “Bara dushman bana phirta hai jo bachon se larta hai (The enemy who targets children is some enemy)," was released a month after the attack. While resilience at a difficult time was the theme of the first tribute, this time the video features a song for peace aimed at Pakistan’s future generations.
Prime Minister Sharif will join the country’s powerful army chief, General Raheel Sharif, at the school on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of an attack that shook Pakistan. In the shocked aftermath of the massacre, thousands took to the streets to condemn the violence. A song calling for peace for Pakistan’s future generations represents one step in the right direction, but it’s still a tiny one on the long road ahead.
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