Killing of aid workers

Afresh wave of terrorist activity in North Waziristan near the Afghan border has taken the lives of four women reportedly working with a local NGO as sewing teachers. The local police confirmed the incident to be a terrorist attack, making it another reminder of how vulnerable soft targets remain. The attack, incidentally, took place on the anniversary of 2017’s Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad. That operation was aimed at fishing terrorists out of urban areas after previous operations, most notably Zarb-e-Azb, dismantled their infrastructure in the tribal belt. The military says that some 300,000 IBOs have been conducted since that time as part of a strategy involving counter-terrorism and counter-extremism.

Pakistan’s strategy in the war against terrorism has been to “clear, hold, build and transfer”. Once an area is cleared of terrorists and secured, the state will build and uplift it, hoping to make all gains irreversible. There is nothing wrong with this approach. In fact, it is generally accepted as a good one. But as long as terrorist attacks keep occurring, it will be impossible to make any gains, no matter how hard-fought, genuinely irreversible.

While attacks have dramatically decreased when compared to their peak before the military operations in the region, but they still occur with worrying frequency. The contributing factors may have changed, but that is no consolation for the victims and their families. Whether a terrorist is homegrown or foreign, whether the plot was hatched on Pakistani soil or across our borders, the victims will still be mourned the same way. The protection of citizens’ lives is not an optimistic ideal, but a requirement for the state. Thus, if peace and security are the goals, then even one attack is too many.

That being said, the uptick in attacks along the border with Afghanistan must be brought up with the government in Kabul. The country continues to show little desire to lose its reputation as a world-leading exporter of terrorists, nor is it taking the necessary steps to help its neighbours secure their own borders.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2021.

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