Isn’t it shameful that there seems to have been little headway made on multiple fronts that the NAP had outlined?
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: As per the security assessment report released by the Pakistan Institute for Conflicts and Security Studies, there has been a worrisome rise in militant activities in the last few months. Last month saw around a 33 per cent increase in terrorist activities. As Operation Zarb-e-Azb has deprived the Taliban of a safe haven to plan and rehearse spectacular attacks on military installations, it is therefore now the general public which faces the wrath of terrorists. Former DG ISPR Athar Abbas was on spot when he commented that the army can kill terrorists but can’t eradicate terrorism. If one terrorist is killed, he is replaced by two, which means that only killing the terrorists is not the solution. We need to get to the bottom of the problem to find a way forward.
It is needless to repeat that all of this started in the 1980s when American proxies-cum-Mujahideen fought in Afghanistan against Soviet forces. That decade saw unprecedented changes in society when thousands of religious seminaries were established to produce fodder for a so-called jihad in Afghanistan. At the same time, school curricula were changed to promote the American war and history books were poisoned to create a wedge between Muslims and non-Muslims. With free access to weapons, sectarianism earned a new meaning in the 1980s. Sadly, all that didn’t stop with the exit of the Americans and Soviets from the region. The 1990s saw the use of militant outfits to wage proxy wars both inside and outside the country. But as it is said, you can’t fool all the people all the time; time changed and the same militants who were once created and milked for a certain purpose turned back to attack their very creators.
Unless we undo what was initiated in the 1980s, Athar Abbas’ comments will remain valid for the foreseeable future. It’s the Pakistani state which has to come back with an alternative narrative of tolerance and compassion in place of the present-day narrative of narrow-minded thinking. We must deny terrorists religious cover to justify their acts, bring a sharp change in all educational curricula, monitor the activities of seminaries, and let citizens take over mosques to stop sectarian outbursts by the occupiers.
After the December 16 incident, the government agreed to implement the National Action Plan (NAP). Isn’t it shameful that there seems to have been little headway made on multiple fronts that the NAP had outlined? One should be ready to be the next target of terrorists — every member of the public is on the terrorists’ hit-list.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, June 4th, 2015.
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