People’s Guerrilla War in Pakistan is Inevitable

IN LIGHT OF the recent constitutional amendments in Pakistan, which have destroyed the independence of the judiciary, a people’s guerrilla war against the Pakistan Army is now inevitable. Peaceful protests, demonstrations, and agitations have become futile.

The Pakistani Army, the real rulers of Pakistan, unleashed a fascist reign of terror following the events of May 9, 2023 (which many say were stage-managed by the army in collusion with Nawaz Sharif). They tortured and imprisoned over 14,000 people, including women and children, for over a year on flimsy charges and in inhumane conditions.

The generals are filled with glee at scoring a victory over their own people. But they forget the words of the great Indian freedom fighter, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, during British rule in India.

In 1908, Indian revolutionaries launched bomb attacks on British officials in Bengal, resulting in several British casualties. Tilak, critical of the moderate approach to the independence struggle, wrote in his newspaper Kesari: “Violence, however deplorable, becomes inevitable when rulers turn the nation into a prison, oppress the people, and commit horrendous atrocities against them. Then, the sound of the bomb spontaneously emerges as a warning to authorities that the people have reached the limit of their tolerance for oppression.”

The people’s bombs are soon coming in Pakistan, in a guerrilla war against the Pakistan Army, as in Vietnam and Afghanistan. This has already begun in Balochistan, where over 100 Pakistani soldiers have reportedly been killed recently.

The Pakistani judiciary was the last bulwark and bastion against the fascist reign of terror unleashed by the Pakistan Army on its own people. The army perceived the judiciary as an obstacle to their aim of trampling and crushing all dissent and opposition. So, at the army’s instigation, the servile Pakistani Parliament passed constitutional amendments, completely suppressing judicial independence.

Little did the boneheaded generals realize that an independent judiciary acted as a safety valve, ultimately protecting them as well. By suppressing judicial independence, they have signed the death warrant not only for themselves but also for their families. The generals may be safe with their security guards, but surely their wives will have to leave their homes sometimes (for shopping, social visits, etc.), and their children will have to go to school, college, or work. The guerrillas will strike at these family members using hit-and-run tactics.

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It is understandable that presently most Pakistanis are despondent, terrified, cowed down, and pessimistic. Many are afraid to step outside their houses and speak out against the current atrocities and horrors, lest they too be picked up and incarcerated by the security forces. Many believe that this state of affairs will continue indefinitely and have lost all hope for any change.

But, as the great Urdu poet Akbar Allahabadi said:

“Khabar deti hai tehreek-e-hawa tabdeel-e-mausam ki
Khilenge aur hi gul, zamzame bulbul ke kam honge.”

Some people argue that the army has the guns, so how can the people fight back? They forget that in guerrilla warfare, people often fight with the weapons of the enemy, snatching them from the latter.

Many rulers in the past had armies, yet they were overthrown by the people. For instance, King Louis XVI of France had an army armed with guns, yet he was overthrown by the people and guillotined in 1793. Czar Nicholas II of Russia also had an armed army, yet he was overthrown in 1917 and later shot by the Bolsheviks.

An army can fight another army, but it cannot fight the masses. A tiger can kill its prey, but it cannot kill a swarm of mosquitoes. The Pakistan Army has about 650,000 active-duty soldiers (plus 550,000 reservists), totalling approximately 1.2 million. In contrast, the population of Pakistan is about 240 million.

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Some people oppose violence, which is inevitable in guerrilla warfare. I, too, am not a bloodthirsty person. However, sometimes violence is unavoidable, as Bal Gangadhar Tilak pointed out. For instance, what else could Americans do when the British Parliament passed the ‘Intolerable Acts’ in 1774 except raise a Continental Army under George Washington and fight the British with guns? They surely could not have confronted the British with bouquets or lollipops.

It is true that many people are killed in guerrilla warfare, but that is the price people must pay to achieve freedom.

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