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and more videos have surfaced, each   Khan Abdul Ghaffar         people. I need not speak of West Asia
         carrying evidence of the cops’ brutali-                          or much else …All of this, however is
         ties and frightful communal biases, yet  Khan’s grandson,        barred from the annals of terrorism
         not one cop booked or sacked under   Asfandyar Wali Khan,        by a simple devise,the term ‘terrorism’
         terror charges!                                                  like most terms of political discourse
                                          has an apt explanation          has two meanings -a literal one and a
                e are destined to be living in   to the growing turmoil   propagandistic one. Needless to add
                these dark times where the                                that the propagandistic version is pre-
         Wpowerful can get anyone         in today’s world, ‘If you       ferred and pursued by the US… terror-
         killed and bumped off. And we aren’t   have two badmashes        ism is terrorism that is directed against
         even supposed to react, because we                               the US and its friends and allies.” Noam
         could be next in line. Any possible alibi   in a village it’s okay,   Chomsky also draws parallels between
         to be killed by those yielding brute   because the two will      US and the Nazis, “The Nazis, for exam-
         force. In fact, the in- vogue alibi is to                        ple, bitterly condemned terrorism and
         label the targeted a terrorist! Never   be busy settling scores   conducted what they called counter
         mind, if the killer is himself terror                            terrorism against terrorist partisans.
         striking, indulging in mass killings!  with each other. But      The US basically agreed and it organ-
           In fact, this brings me to ask –   there will be chaos if      ized and conducted similar counter
         why little reaction to the blatant US                            terrorism in the post war years.”
         airstrike that killed Iranian general   only one is left!’          In fact, each time I see television
         Qassem Soleimani …A targeted, well                               shots of the Middle East, of hun-
         planned killing! Murder of the top                               dreds killed in car explosions, bombs
         ranking Iranian general! Yet we   Reagan years alone the US-sponsored   strapped on the alive forms of teenag-
         weren’t supposed to react or mourn or   state terrorists in Central America left   ers, dying children and adults, homes
         cry out, because it was carried out by   hundreds of thousands of tortured and   and buildings bombarded, entire
         the super power of the world!    mutilated corpses, millions orphaned   settlements razed to the ground in the
           Who is a terrorist today in today’s   and four countries in ruins. In the   garb of ‘looking for terrorists’, I have
         world? Who is terrorising hundreds?   same year, Western-backed South   been asking myself –Who is behind
         To quote Noam Chomsky — “in the   African depredations killed 1.5 million   these mass scale destructions with


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