The bigger picture on terrorism

Speaking at a conference of regional nations in Tashkent, President Asif Ali Zardari has emphasised that the growing scourge of terrorism cannot possibly be tackled by one nation alone. He has called for far greater cooperation across the region to achieve this. The president’s words make sense. Although in recent years, Pakistan has faced the brunt of criticism and attack from the rest of the world as the heartland of terrorism – it must be conceded with some degree of justification – the fact is that the problem is one that fans out from beyond the borders of a single country. While the issue of the Uzbek and Chechen presence in our northern areas has been somewhat exaggerated, the fact is that nationals from these countries are indeed based there. They may at various points in time have also played a role as suicide bombers or been involved in other terrorist attacks, although of course they cannot be blamed for the problem as a whole as has been attempted from time to time as a means to deflect blame. The matter of how these persons entered Pakistan also needs to be explored as part of the wider security picture.

The scale of the terrorist issue is such that we need to take in the whole picture. In a variety of ways, terrorism has taken root in countries in many places. The fact that it exists in so many of the Central Asian countries but not all of them should offer up some lessons. Why for instance does it not exist at the same level in nations like Kyrgyzstan, whereas so many of its neighbouring republics have a major problem with militancy and the rise of Islamic extremism? Understanding these issues could take us a long way forward towards tackling the threat that endangers people living everywhere. The best way to do this is to sit together and jointly discuss the issues that have led up to the emergence of extremism.

As Mr  Zardari mentioned, we need to work towards a strategy aimed at addressing the problem as a whole and developing the cooperation necessary to do so. This is especially relevant in the context of Central Asia. The region after all has a long history of linkages with Afghanistan, and as we all know the militant menace there has had a major part to play in developments in our own country. Pakistan needs to persuade its allies to take up this matter. We need a regional conference to thrash out all the issues linked to the terrorist threat. We must adopt a variety of ways to tackle terrorism and all the many factors that underlie it. Measures of course need to be taken internally. But we must, as the country most severely affected by terror, look beyond our own shores and act as a global leader in forging the degree of cooperation needed to deal more fully with the menace and eradicate it from the region to prevent it moving across from one country to the next like an insidious growth of weed.

This can best be done, as is happening to a great extent, by going after the terrorists within our borders with full force.  To be more specific, we need to prosecute all those who we have already acknowledged were involved in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. If that is done, that will help improve ties with India to a great extent and show not to New Delhi but to the rest of the world as well that we do not hesitate to prosecute militant groups  regardless of our past associations and ties to them. The same could also be said – and given the regional context of where President Zardari was making the speech, this makes even more sense – of the presence of militants from several Central Asian nations in Pakistan. In fact, in recent years, even our otherwise excellent ties with China have been sometimes affected by complaints from Beijing that religious parties are proseltyzing in that country’s Xinjiang province or that militants from that province were being given shelter in parts of Fata where the government’s writ runs thin.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2010.