A Grave Threat to Human Life and Stability
Terrorism is a heinous breach of human rights to be sure. However, when it is perpetuated deliberately by groups who target civilians by essentially acting as human shields, the level of moral wrongness rises significantly. It is even more grave when these groups harm innocents on purpose, elevating the moral wrongness to a higher notch. This is the focus of the strategy of the Khawarij in particular. They use innocent citizens as a shield, not just as a kind of protection, but also slaughtering civilians to advance their violent agenda. The strategy complicates pain and polarizes people, binds people to think otherwise, and incites fear as they move forward with their motives and interests.
Particularly, the Khawarij hide amongst the civilian population to decrease the risks to the fighting men. In this way, they set a lethal trap, and it becomes a mandatory duty of security forces to react, and it often turns out to cause collateral damage.
Nevertheless, they do not just hide behind civilians but deliberately kill innocent civilians at the maximum level of terrorizing others and minimizing danger to themselves. Such calculated exploitation of the civilian losses is aimed at causing indignation on the one hand, and to absolve the guilty on the other, presenting the state as the attacker of the situation.
Such a strategy enables them to wash their hands of their deeds, generating anti-state feeling out of the pain that they cause.
This can be illustrated in the case of Bajaur, where the Khawarij have denied the initiation of peace talks, opting to hide among civilians. They have persecuted and murdered innocent citizens, maiming peace-facilitating portfolios and worsening the burden on the community. The fact that they do not negotiate and concentrate on violence leads to an increase in the crisis and makes civilians have to live in fear all the time, it also destabilizes any peace efforts.
The Khawarij adds to the torment of civilians, and this will generate a long-term cycle of violence and turmoil. Based in civilian territory, they attract security to react, yet in the process, they end up killing (or injuring) the very people they purport to defend. This further aggravates the situation to create a culture of fear and advance their violent goals.
The Khawarij put little emphasis on their disregard for the lives of humans, considering that they have taken over 80,000 innocent lives in their attacks. It is not just an unavoidable by-product of war; however, a calculated move to rattle the citizens and gain traction.
Attacking civilians maliciously, by killing innocent people, they are seeking to sow terror in society and destabilize the region to advance their ideological interests by any means and ends.
Significantly, such acts are an infringement of not only Human rights but also of International law. The evil actions of the Khawarij in shielding themselves with the lives of civilians and purposely killing them should be denounced all over the world. The global society has the ties to turn against this behavior, assisting the victims and the justice to those who put their people through this.
To sum up, the use of civilians by the Khawarij is a tactical strength cruelty of power. They aim to attack innocent persons and use the suffering of those people, contribute to the state of fear, chaos, and violence. The tragic memory of their ideology is the massive loss of life, which reached an appalling figure of over 80,000 lives. The global community should team up in fighting these groups so that their reign of terror is put to a stop.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are exclusively those of the author and do not reflect the official stance, policies, or perspectives of the Platform.
