Campus extremism

National Counter-Terrorism Authority and the Higher Education Commission to start campaign

After much delay, the National Counter-Terrorism Authority and the Higher Education Commission, which oversees all universities in the country, will start a campaign to counter extremism on campus. A national strategy is expected to be put into place after interactions with faculty members and students from universities all over the country. The move to counter extremism on campus is a step in the right direction given the incidents in the past five years or so where university students have directly or indirectly been implicated in acts of terrorism across the country. Needless to say, the involvement in militancy of young individuals from universities is an alarming phenomenon. Several such cases surfaced in the country in the recent past. They included an attack on Sindh MPA Khawaja Izharul Hassan last year by a former student of the University of Karachi, the involvement of an ex-student of the Institute of Business Administration Karachi, Saad Aziz, in the Safoora Goth carnage, the alleged link of an MBBS student of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Hyderabad, Naureen Leghari, with a militant group and the lynching of Mashal Khan by his fellow students at Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan.

Extremism, however, cannot be eliminated overnight. A strategy to fight this menace has to be long term and must be inclusive. The views of all quarters have to be taken and an even-handed approach must be adopted when implementing the strategy. Staff and students should not get the impression that this initiative is a witch-hunt being undertaken to identify and eliminate from campus those who are not following the official line. The focus should remain on extremism and a holistic approach — which includes examining the activities of different religious and political groups on campus, to reviewing the literature students are being exposed to both within and outside classrooms, must be adopted. More importantly, positive and progressive messages must be given to both staff and students to encourage a more tolerant atmosphere on campus. Only such an approach will work.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2018.

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