CTD joins forces with varsities to combat radicalisation

Officials meet university heads to discuss elimination of religious extremism amongst students

KARACHI: The state-backed systematic elimination of the progressive forces gave rise to religious militancy, which has now penetrated deep into society, a moot on countering the threat of terrorism in the province's educational institutions was told on Wednesday.

Dr Akhtar Baloch, vice-chancellor (VC) of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University, Lyari, said that that society was in dire need of restructuring and this could not be achieved without a proper counter-narrative to the prevalent religious extremism.

Baloch was speaking at a session convened by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) at the Central Police Office. Karachi University VC Dr Ajmal Khan, Hamdard University VC Dr Shabib ul Hasan, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Law University VC Justice (retired) Qazi Khalid, Khadim Ali Shah Bukhari Institute of Technology director Dr Rais Alvi and representatives of various private and public sector universities across the province attended the meeting and shared their thoughts.

Discussing Saad Aziz and Noreen Laghari, the two people who made headlines recently for their alleged affiliation with global terrorist group the so-called Islamic State, also referred to as the Da’ish, Baloch said that in the current norms, detecting a radical change within a person was difficult.



The stories of Aziz and Laghari, both young, educated members of society hailing from sober backgrounds, have put law enforcement agencies on alert over the penetration of radical militant organisations into the country's educational institutions, including ones deemed as prestigious such as the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and Karachi Grammar School (KGS).

According to Baloch, due to the complexity of the narratives viwed as normal in the society, radical changes sometimes get camouflaged.

Four senior officials of the CTD, Raja Umer Khattab, Omer Shahid Hamid, Munir Shaikh and Mazhar Mashwani were presiding over the meeting virtually. They shared their investigation-based information on terrorist organisations active in educational institutions and took input from the varsity officials on thwarting the looming threat.

CTD incharge Khattab asked the varsity officials to place the 4th schedule law on notice boards in their campuses in a bid to inform the students about the consequences of getting involved with radicalised people or organisations. "Each university should also have a secret focal person on board to report suspicious activities at the campus," he suggested.



Meanwhile, Hamid added that most of the young people who fall prey to the propaganda of radical organisations do not think of the long-term consequences of their actions. He discussed the case of another young member of the society, who was a graduate of LUMS and taught mathematics at KGS. Without naming the person, he said that the youth went to Waziristan to take part in a self-styled Jihad was injured in a drone attack.

"His whole career and his family business were ruined because of one wrong turn. Who would want to keep ties with such a person or with relatives of a person who has been involved with terrorist groups? No one would give him a job as well," Hamid said, adding that although the person was de-radicalised now, law enforcers still kept an eye on him.

Putting forward his suggestion, Commander (retd) Naveed Ahmed of Bahria University said that dedicated intelligence committees should be formed at varsities to observe the activities of students and their guests. Dr Noor Ahmed, pro-VC of Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, said that the services of psychologists should also be hired to devise a strategy to tackle the radicalised mind-set.