Taliban doublespeak

The Taliban (specifically the Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat Muhammadi) have a spokesman, curiously named Muslim Khan. Now as a spokesman, he is supposed to make… well… statements. It does not matter if next statement has no continuity, consistency, coherence with the last. Apparently years of enforcing religious fundamentalist laws, with a gun in one hand and a RPG launcher in the other, dulls your ability to see the difference or care about it.

Consider this…

On Tuesday, this gentleman says and I quote…

‘Weapons are an ornament of Pakhtuns, but now that Shariah has been enforced in Malakand, there will be no need of arms anymore,’ [Source: Dawn.com]

Let us leave aside the WTF remark about weapons being the the ornament of Pakhtuns because it brings to mind an image of grenade earrings hanging from the ears of Pakhtun tribesmen and other such disturbing imagery. But the point here is that the Dawn.com link I have quoted reports that Taliban have called for a ban on display of weapons in Swat.

Now consider this statement from the very same Muslim Khan, the very next day…

‘Sharia doesn’t permit us to lay down arms,‘ … ‘If a government, either in Pakistan or Afghanistan, continues anti-Muslim policies, it’s out of the question that Taliban lay down their arms.‘ [Source: Dawn.com]

Massive WTF-ness has been precipitated. Levity, if any, aside… I think the reason for this doublespeak is the TNSM struggle to legitimize it’s drive to enforce Sharia law progressively through Pakistan. Being a militant group trying to force the Sharia law is self-limiting in it’s effectiveness. Moreover the talk of the western world being agreeable to a “moderate Taliban” may be an added incentive. Of course, Zardari’s deal with the Taliban is rumoured to have a clause that asks the Taliban to lay down their arms. And so perhaps the first statement. But a chameleon may change its colours, but not the fact that it’s a lizard. That’s probably the reason behind the second statement. The Taliban has been and will continue to be a militant, religious fundamentalist force that is, at present, a grave threat to Pakistan’s weak democratic setup and a clear danger that will knock at India’s borders in the not-too-distant future.

On a slightly related note, speaking of lizards, here’s an interesting Pakistani lizard story via @acorn.