Terrorism! Time to Get Rid of It

By: Maha khizar

At present, our country and security forces are facing suicide attacks, bomb blasts, sectarian violence and targeted-killings coupled with intermittent battles with the militants.

Besides civilian casualties, more than three thousand military soldiers and police men have become martyrs in war against terrorism, while maintaining the integrity of the federation.

It is on record that Pakistan is the only country which has sacrificed more than NATO and USA including other countries in war against terrorism. At this critical juncture, when our country has continuously been facing political instability, economic crisis and social strife, the question, how to fight terrorism in Pakistan needs special attention.

Terrorism in Pakistan took origin owing to various inter-related problems such as poverty, political and economic injustices which created regional disparities. In wake of these problems, after 9/11 tragedy, Islamabad joined American war on terror as the country had no other option as Pakistan was also facing hostile factor of India.

As regards Pakistan, terrorism can be fought on two fronts? By eliminating poverty and by using force where necessity arises.

Regarding poverty, political experts agree that poverty is the root cause of terrorism. And it is said that “a hunger man is an angry man.” Notably, majority of people in Pakistan are living below poverty line, and have no clean drinking water. While especially for the youngsters, unemployment has made the matter worse. In these adverse circumstances, some people go to the level of extremism and even commit suicide. These are the people whose services are hired by the terrorist groups and foreign secret agencies such as Indian RAW, American CIA and Israeli Mossad as they become vulnerable to terrorism.

It is of particular attention that Pakistan’s tribal areas have become focus of terrorism as their people are more vulnerable to extremism. Hence, joint efforts of the government as well as the moderates are needed so as to fight terrorism. But billions of dollars are required to develop these under-developed regions. In this context, although America has pledged to spend money for the development of Pakistan’s tribal areas, yet the same is not enough. So the US and other western countries must give maximum aid which could be used in the tribal regions for providing infrastructure, education and employment.

It is mentionable that there are two types of terrorists, extremists and moderates. In order to cope with terrorism, our government should neuteralise the moderate terrorists through reconciliation by offering them general pardon and asking them to renounce terrorism. Even extremist insurgents can be offered mediation. Nevertheless, those militants who reject the offer could be fought through military operations.

Military paradigm is another element to fight terrorism. In this respect, Pakistan’s armed forces have already broken the backbone of the Taliban militants through successful military operations which have been conducted in Buner, Dir, Swat and South Waziristan. These operations still keep ongoing in some tribal areas. In this context, it is worth-mentioning that public support to military operations is very essential, and without people’s backing no army can win this ‘different war’ against terrorism.

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Another notable point is that most of the Taliban militants have been destabilizing Pakistan with the help of external elements. In this connection, secret agencies like CIA, RAW and Mossad are well-established in Afghanistan from where; their secret agents have been regularly supplying arms and money to the militants including their other Pakistani agents with a view to weakening Pakistan which is the only nuclear country in the Islamic World. They have been using various covert tactics in conducting suicide attacks, targeted killings and inciting sectarian violence in Pakistan in general and Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa in particular. They also support separatism in Balochistan where similar sort of violence continues unabated. In this connection, first of all US must itself abandon the double game which it has been playing with Islamabad. Then Washington must pressurize India including Israel to wind up their anti-Pakistan terror-network from Afghanistan.

In order to fight terrorism, Pakistan’s media should play a key role. It must point out the criminal activities of the militants like hostage-taking, killing of the innocent people? torching the government buildings including girl schools and car-snatching. It should also indicate that Islam is a religion of peace and does not allow suicide attacks.

As Pakistan is already facing various crises of grave nature in wake of terrorism, so our politicians must stop manipulating the same for their own self-interests. By setting aside their differences and by showing power of tolerance, both our rulers and opposition parties need to act upon a policy of national reconciliation to cope with the problem of terrorism and to stand before external pressure. In this respect, all the opposition parties must participate in the round table conference, called by the president of Pakistan.

Finally, our politicians, general masses and security forces must show a strong sense of unity to fight terrorism.

Posted in: posted by Maha khizar