There’s some mighty disconnect between what is happening in our cities today and what we are not doing to stop it, as one more landmark in what is now the blighted Rawalpindi Cantonment is targeted by terrorists.

The Shalimar Hotel, just off The Mall, is the more earthly twin of the glitzy Pearl Continental located across the road, which skirts off to the General Headquarters, the Combined Military Hospital, the fabled Lal Kurti Bazaar, and on to the once high-profile Harley Street. In the opposite direction, just across The Mall sits the old presidency building, now a women’s university, and as such another high-profile target. Going west on The Mall is also the Flashman’s Hotel, another city landmark, located at a stone’s throw from the Shalimar. If this heart of the garrison headquarter city is not safe from terror attacks, then you may well ask what is? And what is Pindi Cantonment coming to?

Amidst all the mayhem that is being wrought on this once peaceful and serene neighbourhood, it is pertinent to ask what the residents must be feeling. The cantonment is also home to a number of ace educational institutions, which now apparently lie in a war zone. How are the parents of schoolchildren coping with these spectacles of horror that are so wily menacing?

This is the fourth deadly assault on the twin cities since Oct 5 last month, when the UN-affiliated food organisation’s offices were attacked in Islamabad killing five people, including a foreign national. Then came the daring, 24-hour siege of the army headquarters in Pindi on Oct 10-11, which left 20 dead. Terrorists claimed another eight lives on Oct 20 when an Islamic university was attacked in Islamabad.

Peshawar has for long been in the bull’s eye because it is more accessible to terrorists emanating from the adjacent tribal areas. Lahore, too, has borne the brunt of suicide bombings and sieges by terrorists. Yet Pindi and Islamabad stand apart for their targeting. The twin cities are home to the government of Pakistan and the armed forces’ top brass. We must also not forget that the twin cities are also home to the slighted Lal Masjid brigade of the July 2007 military operation fame, and its avowed, young and brainwashed breed of suicide bombers, who were let go of rather nonchalantly, along with their burqa-clad mentor, the firebrand cleric Abdul Aziz. The killer cleric continues to enjoy the sympathy of the reasonably powerful in the capital and beyond.

Still, it would be unfair to point the finger at just one misguided madrassah and its brand of fanatics who have a history of nurturing extremists — and getting away with it. Blame should also be assigned to their known well-wishers who bailed them out in the aftermath of the Lal Masjid operation. Remember Chaudhry Shujaat offering the mullah and his supporters more than a shoulder to cry on? The PML-Q, then the ruling party, its chief and his cousin Pervaiz Elahi, who was then the chief minister of Punjab, gave what they called the ‘victims’ of Lal Masjid life-long scholarships and sustenance allowances, ostensibly from their own pockets. One of their deputies, Sheikh Rashid, the proud son of Rawalpindi, kept mum on the whole issue even though he bore his total allegiance to General Musharraf who had ordered the storming of Lal Masjid.

A few weeks and a number of court hearings later, even the cleric Abdul Aziz was released on bail, when he should have been tried under a military court and dispensed speedy justice on the basis of his hate-mongering and waging war against the state that resulted in the killing of many.

But not all rot lies in the bad past over which Musharraf presided. The media’s role by and large remains sympathetic towards an ideology which continues to bring death and destruction to our cities. Analysts and TV anchors don’t tire of voicing their favourite solution of offering the extremists dialogue instead of the bullet to end their killing spree. The media also continues to insist this is not our war — not even just yet. Their defiant heroes remain politicians like Imran Khan and leaders of the Jamaat-i-Islami who have now vowed to raise no less than a ‘lashkar’ to oppose the National Reconciliation Ordinance in the streets of Pakistan if extremists’ violence allows them to do so.

Then there is Nawaz Sharif and his PML-N lackeys on the other hand: no word of unqualified condemnation of terrorists ever crosses their lips. As for the PPP, there is now little to stop the ‘relief’ that its broad-based NRO in its existing, amended form, promises to all killers and crooks, including the terrorists, despite the fact that they have their booby traps and suicide bombers killing innocent people in our cities and hardcore, armed terrorists fighting the army in Fata. Is there any sense left anymore in what we are doing to ourselves?

As Rawlpindi, Islamabad, Peshawar, and Lahore simmer with fear and tension, and Karachi and Quetta watch in disgust, bracing themselves to be the next potential targets, internecine, petty politics is all our leaders have time for. The biggest culprit present among us today is the lingering and shocking state of denial, despite the presence of the evil amidst us that is killing and maiming as many as it can on a given day.

American aid, the NRO, the street protest, the call for a mid-term election, even the crippling power and economic crisis can wait. What cannot wait for the public backing expressed through their leaders is the war on terror that is being fought in our cities today. This is a war we cannot afford to lose; it’s time we owned and fought it with full power of the state and the people behind it. After all, lofty, elusive ideals like democracy and rule of law cannot be safeguarded or held dear by doing nothing to stop the death and destruction that is all around us today.

Murtaza Razvi is Editor, Magazines, of Dawn.