The Dec. 22 suicide attack on Peshawar Press Club that brutally killed at least three people was not the first heinous act of terrorism that targeted journalists in the conflict-hit AfPak region, many talented and brave reporters have lost their lives during the past several-year long wave of the ruthless insurgency, but it was unique in many ways: it was the first attack that directly targeted the profession of journalism as a whole instead of the target killing of an individual and was unique because the target was a group that can be described as the long-time eloquent ‘admirers’ of the terrorism and insurgency in the region, at least in Afghanistan and Kashmir.
The targeted Peshawar Press Club had been the place where a majority of reporters, columnists and feature writers (except its current president Shamim Shahid and few others) of the jingoist Urdu and English media of Peshawar, the capital of Pashtunkhwa or North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, and correspondents of the media outfits in the rest of the country, sat on comfortable tables and wrote lengthy propaganda news stories and eulogizing feature articles in which the terrorists were being described as freedom fighters and the true sons of their motherland. These heavily romanticized and extremely exaggerated stories encouraged the ignorant youths from Peshawar to the tribal areas to take up arms and volunteer to be used as fodder by the ISI-backed terrorist campaign.
The terrorist campaign was then limited only to Afghanistan and Kashmir. But when the terrorists increased in number and grew in strength, thanks to the all-out support of Pakistan or some powerful elements within the Pakistani government and intelligence, they had to expand their presence and authority beyond Afghanistan and Kashmir. The Pakistani media, however, still did not realize the magnitude of the threat and continued to support terrorism with attractive words and terms like ‘freedom fighters,’ ‘reformers of the society’ etc. Unfortunately, it is still the case though thousands of innocent people have lost their lives in the most condemnable and despicable suicide attacks and bomb blasts that take place every other day across Pakistan. But Pakistani media, like Pakistani officials and politicians, is still in the state of denial. Just recently, when a Canada-based Pakistani mullah, Tahir-ul-Qaderi, issued a 150-page fatwa in which he condemned the terrorist attacks in Pakistan while justified them in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kashmir, I had a discussion with a journalist who was member of the Peshawar Press Club. This journalist defended the fatwa and argued that there was a big difference between the Pakistani and Afghan militants.
‘What is that difference?’ I asked.
‘The Pakistani militants are very cruel, they don’t believe in any religion, they get support from foreign countries and they kill innocent people. While the Afghan militants are very good people, they want to free Afghanistan and they don’t kill innocent people.’
I told him that both the militants have safe havens in the same tribal areas, both operate under the same name, both follow the same ideology, both have the same shuras, both use the same tactics, both support one another, and both have the same goal. He had this curt reply: ‘whatever they do, I will condemn the Pakistani militants and support the Afghan militants.’ Before him, I got the same answer to one of my questions from a former Pakistani official during a conference. (Also, the Pakistani government had immediately welcomed Tahir-ul-Qaderi’s fatwa). With having that mentality from the top ranks to the common people, from the intellectuals to the reporters, I don’t think if Pakistan will ever be able to get rid of the menace of terrorism.
Now the question is that why will the terrorists want to kill their admirers. The answer is a verse from the popular classic Pashtun poet, Hamid Baba:
Mahroyan kala khpalegi tol da cha?
Tar spogmey chapera kegi shpol da cha?
It means that you cannot keep all your lovers happy all the time.
The same with the terrorists! As long as you keep them happy, they are okay, but the moment you did something that went against their mood, they will turn against you and target you. Pakistan has yet not learned from the example of its army and state institutions which are being targeted by the same people who were trained and equipped by it. The United States is also a good example: the 9/11 was planned by the people who were trained and equipped by the CIA 20 years ago.
While the fresh terrorist attack in Dera Ghazi Khan district of Pakistan has killed at least 34 people and wounded another dozens, the President of the country, Asif Ali Zardari, according to Washington Post, resisted to expand the operation against the militants. The Post 
