"I [don't] see anything in his article that he compared our liberation war of 1971 with recent terrorists attacks in Bangladesh. I think it would be myopic to say that Farhad Mazhar has compared, although it's incomparable, apples with oranges. The problem lies with the linear way of thinking and analysing Farhad's perspectives."

I wish our friend were right.

Ironically, our friend represents one of many who, in my view, fail to see the obvious in that Mr. Mazhar does compare the incomparable apples and oranges, i.e., in his case the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971 and the recent terrorist bomb attacks in Bangladesh. One needs not to be a linguist, Marxists or anthropologist to understand the underlying worldview and assumption of Mazhar's remarks, and his strategy is that Mazhar tries de-constructing/gelatinising the meaning of terrorism, pointing to the example of the then Pakistani state calling the freedom fighters of 1971 as terrorists.

Let us take out Mazhar's speech from our friend's quotation, and find out what Mazhar means by saying: 'Pakistan tried to tag the freedom fighters or our people as terrorists. Are we terrorists?'

And, this is one of the reasons why I strongly disagree with Mazhar's remark about 1971, and especially thank all those who have unmasked "the monster in the belly" by sharing their provocative and scholarly thoughts.