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.
According to the Finance Division’s statement, Pakistan’s economy suffered a
loss of more than Rs 2.1 trillion due to the ongoing war on terror. The economy
suffered direct and indirect losses in terms of exports, foreign investment,
privatization, industrial production and tax collection. Besides, Pakistan’s
economy has so far suffered irreparable loss of $68 billion due to turmoil in
Afghanistan, and Afghan refugees.
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 dinking
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 notable that Pakistan is an agricultural country; therefore, our
government should make efforts to develop this sector including cottage
industry. Our agriculture also provides raw material to the industrial sector.
Without any doubt, these efforts will play a crucial role not only in providing
employment to the millions of people but will also eliminate poverty in the
country.
In the modern era of technology and internet, technical education has become
necessity of every under-developed and developing country. So Pakistan’s
government should particularly emphasise the need of technical education by
promoting it. In this respect, more institutes should be opened in order to
promote technical education.
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.
Regarding public support, it was a good a sign that in the recent past, an
all-parties conference (APC) had vowed to unite the nation against insurgency in
Swat and Malakand, and to end terror, condemning all violent challenges to the
constitution and the state. Besides liberal groups?even religious scholars and
organizations all over the countries have strongly favoured the military
operations, while condemning the anti-Islamic activities and brutalities of the
Taliban. Nevertheless, this support to the military action against the
terrorists must continue.
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.
It is noteworthy that on January 27, this year an American employee of the US
Consulate in Lahore, identified as Raymond David, shot dead two Pakistani
youths, while a third was crushed by the driver of a Parado jeep, who was called
by him for help. Persons, sitting in the jeep were also carrying weapons. Police
arrested Raymond after a chase and registered a case against him on two counts,
while a case was also registered against unidentified people. While pressurizing
Islamabad, The United States has called for the immediate release of Raymond
David claiming that Pakistani authorities have detained the diplomat unlawfully
and in violation of international law. On the other side, investigators and
experts are of the opinion that Raymond is murderer and is a CIA agent who does
not qualify for immunity from prosecution. However, America should end its
coercive diplomacy as Pakistan is a frontline state for the US war against
terrorism.
Nonetheless, for their on global and regional interests, US-led western allies
must not only increase the military and economic aid of Pakistan but also
provide direct market access to Pak products on zero rate duty to help stabilise
the country’s bleak economy in the wake of the war against terror.
As Pakistan has been successfully coping with the menace of terrorism, US-led
some western countries including India should also give up their propaganda
campaign against Islamabad and blame game against its intelligence agency ISI.
Notably, earlier the US President Barrack Obama had recognised an
inter-relationship between war against terrorism in Afghanistan and issue of
Kashmir. He had repeatedly said that the US should help in resolving the Kashmir
dispute to deal with the problem of militancy in the region. Quite contrarily,
he backed out from his earlier statement. In this regard, US and other major
powers should help in resolving the Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India.
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.