Fighting the wrong war

Following the gruesome Army Public School massacre in Peshawar last year, the government and the military made a vow to fight terrorism within Pakistan till it was completely eradicated. What followed was the establishment of military courts, lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty, the initiation of the National Action Plan (NAP) and the escalation of Operation Zarb-e -Azb in North Waziristan Agency.

The top officials, finally having awoken from their deep slumber; even though a few years too late, did manage to ward off attacks for a short period of time. But a few months into the cleansing programme, Sabeen Mahmud was shot and the Safoora Goth carnage took place.

It was inevitable.

But why?

It had seemed that the government and the military did not leave any stone unturned in their crusade on wiping out extremism and terrorism.

Where did they go wrong?

We’re fighting the wrong war. We’re killing the perpetrators, but we’re not crushing the ideology behind these heinous acts.

The death toll of terrorists in Operation Zarb-e-Azb is published daily and names of terrorists hanged are printed in the news, but how many can we kill? Huge death tolls do not necessarily mean that terrorism is being eradicated fully, there’s much more to the story.

Terrorists can be linked to the likes of the Hydra, kill one and another will emerge. Fighting the war physically is only one piece in the puzzle, and unfortunately, we only tend to focus on one piece, rather than completing the entire picture.

What is truly required is to quash the extremist ideologies used to brainwash individuals. Poverty, illiteracy and mental health issues are amongst the top contributing factors towards extremism. Madrassas are not the only brainwashing machines around; the government needs to focus on economic and social factors as well.

When the government strategises correctly and targets the real core issues, only then will we win the war against extremism in a comprehensive manner.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2015.