Bloody month

Pakistan faces resurgence in terrorism; despite past sacrifices, civilian leadership fails to implement reforms.

Pakistan is facing resurgence of terror - and for quite some time. The anti-terror gains made over the past decade through multiple security operations are eroding - gains for which thousands of civilians and security personnel laid down their lives. A recent report by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) states that at least 245 people – including 127 terrorists – were killed in terrorist attacks and clashes across the country in the month of November alone. The tally also includes 68 martyrs of the security forces and 50 civilians. November is the second deadliest month after August, when 254 people - including 108 terrorists – were killed and 92 civilians and 54 security personnel were martyred. However, in terms of casualties involving security personnel, November was the deadliest month this year compared to October when 62 soldiers embraced martyrdom.

Although kinetic action in the shape of intelligence-based operations has continued since the rout of terrorists in Operation Zarb-e-Azb, successive civilian governments have failed to capitalise on the gains and initiate meaningful reforms as envisaged in the National Action Plan (NAP) formulated after the December 2014 massacre at Peshawar's Army Public School. The Plan had kinetic and non-kinetic components. While the security forces were assigned the kinetic component, the non-kinetic component was in the civilian domain. Call it a lack of will or inefficiency, the civilian leadership at the federal and the provincial levels failed to implement the non-kinetic component, which involved strengthening of counterterrorism legislation, ensuring speedy prosecution in terrorism-related cases, reforming education systems, and investing in local economic development. They also failed to form a cohesive national narrative to counter terrorist ideologies. If the country is to wage a war again to stem the tide of terrorism, a whole-of-nation approach will have to be adopted. The nation owes the hard-earned counterterror gains to the thousands who sacrificed their lives, and now it has to ensure that those sacrifices do not go to waste.