Once upon a time, war was declared with flags, armies, and formal uniforms. Enemies met on open battlefields. There were rules, codes, and even honor among foes. Today, those lines have vanished and so has the uniform.
The enemy of Pakistan no longer comes marching in military columns. He slips through mountains, hides behind religion, and uses ideology instead of identity. The attack on the Hussain Mila check post in Upper Kurram is not just another act of cross-border terrorism it’s a symbol of the modern battlefield where the combatant wears no flag, shows no face, and answers to no state.
The Khawarij-inspired militants who crossed over from Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province did not wear boots stamped by a foreign army, yet they carried arms provided by regimes we’re told to treat as allies. The contradiction is deadly. On one hand, Pakistan is asked to support regional peace. On the other, its soldiers are buried because of it.
Lance Naik Saleem was not killed in a declared war. He was murdered in a shadow war one fought by cowards in sandals, hiding behind the facade of faith. He did not face a uniformed enemy but a fanatic with no moral compass and no political boundary.
The confession of the captured militant says it all: the Taliban provided them weapons. So where does that place the Afghan interim government? Are they passive landlords of chaos, or active participants in the bleeding of Pakistan?
This new enemy wears no uniform because it wants no accountability. A state actor can be summoned, sanctioned, or shamed. But a proxy fighter? He disappears into a madrassa, a borderless ideology, a fog of deniability.
And yet, not all is bleak.
When the call went out from mosque loudspeakers, the villagers of Kurram responded not just with prayers but with their presence. They joined the hunt. In this modern war without uniforms, perhaps it is fitting that the defense came not only from soldiers but from civilians, not just from trained units but from awakened hearts.
Pakistan’s war is no longer with a country it is with an idea. An idea that hates peace, fears progress, and hides behind piety. It will not be defeated by traditional armies alone. It requires societal resistance, strategic recalibration, and the courage to name the enemy even when he wears no name tag.
Because the moment we stop recognizing the enemy without a uniform, we begin accepting defeat without a fight.
