SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
PRIME Minister has vowed to take the fight against militants to cities and villages across the country, pledging to stamp out terrorism wherever it exists.
In clear and unequivocal words, Mr Sharif has not only accepted that urban Pakistan has a significant militant problem, his statement is a vast improvement on the old formulation that whatever the terrorist and militant presence in urban Pakistan, it is a function of individuals and small splinter groups, and not a systematic, organised presence across the provinces.
Yet, there is much more clarity that the government needs to bring to the issue publicly. In condemning specific atrocities and vowing that those responsible will not be allowed to repeat their crimes, the prime minister left out a significant part of the explanation: identifying the groups involved.
Without identities revealed, groups named, organisations described and methods exposed, the prime minister’s vow will amount to little more than a seemingly firm but in reality nebulous promise to stamp out terrorism wherever it is found.
Terrorism has a face. It has an identity. The militant groups that organise in the cities have physical networks and infrastructure. It is not just nameless men killed in alleged encounters with the police, as happened in the Sohrab Goth area of Karachi again this week.
If terrorism is to be defeated, it has to first be identified. Names have to be named, networks have to be publicly declared and the full spectrum of extremism and militancy laid bare.
But none of that has occurred so far. Why, for example, does the government not state which groups are active in Punjab, name the leadership, explain the connection between extremist religious centres and terrorist recruiting, and, more to the point, make clear the measures the state is taking to progressively shut down the terrorist and militant organisations that have been identified?
The same applies to the other provinces. Is the federal government able to do more than simply talk about cooperating with the province in counterterrorism efforts? As ever, few details were given by the prime minister.
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the state’s, particularly the political government’s, approach to counterterrorism is to co-opt certain sections of the police and civilian-run intelligence to fight a dirty, clandestine war against unnamed terrorists.
All that the public is ever told is that militants and terrorists are killed in encounters where independent witnesses are nearly never present. But that has not and cannot prove to be a successful strategy — let alone a remotely ethical or legal one — because it is simply about cracking down on visible sides of militancy, not the roots that help grow new cells, more fighters and fresh ideologues.
The prime minister needed to speak firmly and a worried nation needed to hear of the government’s resolve. But what is the plan?
Taking part in the discussion in the Senate PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar proposed a six point way forward to eliminate the monster of terrorism and militancy.
Immediately chuck out Moulana Aziz from Lal Masjid and reclaim the mosque, declare TTP as state enemy and expose and hold accountable its supporters and apologists, implement the 2013 legislation to banish the re-incarnation of banned outfits like LeT behind the façade of humanitarian work, swiftly move for the cancellation of Lakhavi’s bail and addressing the Mumbai attack concerns, demolish the jehadi infrastructure lock stock and barrel and do not fall to the temptation of hot pursuit in Afghanistan, he said explaining his six points.
Senator Babar warned that if bold and imaginative measures were not taken now to reverse the TTP the future historian will, God forbid, say that Pakistan created in the name of religion was also destroyed in the name of religion.
He said that the barbaric incident in Peshawar had for the first time created genuine hopes of national unity across the political divided to fight to the finish the militants. To honor the memory of the martyrs it was necessary to seize this momentous opportunity, he said.
He said that if there were any doubts in the mind of anyone about the identity and agenda of the militants, these should be dispelled by the Peshawar carnage and the admission by TTP. The TTP monsters were Pakistani nationals proclaiming to be Muslims and seeking to destroy the state to install a caliphate.
These barbarians are neither foreigners nor infidels and their agenda is the same as that of Boko Haram in Nigeria, Daesh in Syria and Iraq and Al Shabbab in Kenya.
He said the people like Moulana Aziz who promote militancy and violence against the state must be exposed and prosecuted.
He also called for a clean break with the past and stop allowing the use of our soil for forays into other countries with a view to inflicting what is billed as ‘a thousand cuts’ for dubious strategic objectives.
It is not possible to keep snakes in your backyard and instruct them to bite only the neighbors, he said. Today unfortunately we are reaping what we sowed in the past, he said.
Warning against hot pursuit in Afghanistan he said it will not only spoil relations with Afghanistan which were on an upward trajectory but also gave India a justification to do the same.
Referring to Sartaj Aziz’s recent remarks about sparing ‘militants not harmful to Pakistan’ he said that although it had been denied by the Advisor it was an unwitting admission of the unacknowledged policy in the past.
He said that since the start of the operation in June there have been daily reports of dozens of militants killed but not one militant had been identified. For the sake of transparency and credibility it is important that the identity of at least some of the militants was disclosed.
Farhatullah Babar also called for the listing of seminaries that were engaged in promoting extremism and militancy and taking appropriate action against them.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
