After the dismemberment of
Pakistan on 16 December 1971, the Peshawar carnage on the same date after forty
years leaves another indelible black mark in the history of Pakistan. Political
response to the tragedy of 1971 was the formation of Hamood-ur-Rehman
Commission. Beside this report, there was no effort by the state to understand
the social, political, economic and institutional factors, which led to the
dismemberment. Every state institution and people at the helms of affairs
carries on the business as usual. Everyone accepted it as a fait accompli.
State fails to recognise that Pakistan’s dismemberment was not a chance event
but it was the culmination of a systematic failure of social, political and
economic policies. Similarly, the Peshawar tragedy is also the pinnacle of
piecemeal and incoherent state policies to eliminate and overcome the menace of
terrorism.
By drawing a parallel from the state’s response to 1971 tragedy one can easily
observes that the state’s response to the Peshawar tragedy is more or less
similar in its nature and only differs in the form. Government rehearsed usual
political responses and repeated the same old jingoistic rhetoric without
showing any real effort to give an effective and comprehensive policy response.
The calling of All Parties Conference by the government and a common declaration
signed by the all parties was the swift response of the government. It becomes a
government’s “standard operating procedure response” to every major national
tragedy and crisis. After the conference government usually takes some cosmetic
and populist decisions to placate the citizens’ anger.
Among other hackneyed government response approaches is to announce the
formation of the committees and sub-committees. The glaring example of this
approach is the formation of 15 sub-working groups by the government for the
National Action Plan against terrorism. These sub-working groups will give their
recommendations on the elimination of terrorism. It is not less than a shock to
know, that a state which is at war with terrorism for almost last fifteen years,
starts its homework now. Moreover, there is no sub-working group that can bring
a new effective dimension to the fight against terrorism. However, by forming a
sub-working group on Punjab, PML (N) officially accepted the presence of
terrorist networks in Punjab, which the party previously denied vehemently. The
government’s response to Peshawar tragedy once again exhibited the piecemeal
approach of the government to the solution of a complex problem like terrorism,
which requires a coherent, consistent and comprehensive policy response.
From the very beginning in the fight against the terrorism state just focused on
the elimination of the human force and face of the terrorism. However, the
physical elimination of terrorists is just one pillar of the “resources” on
which the terrorist organisations build their empire. Like any other
organisation, terrorist organisations possess three critical resources i.e.
human resources, financial resources and social resources.
Human resource, in the form of economically, politically, or socially
disenfranchised youth, is the resource which is readily and abundantly available
to the terrorist organisations. Poverty, inculcation of certain ideologies by
state and non-state actors, lack of democracy, lack of justice and unemployment
provides all the ideal constituents for the making of a potential terrorist.
These constituents provide all the personality attributes which gives an impetus
to engage in a terrorist activity. Currently, government’s focus is only on
punishing and physically eliminating a terrorist which had already added its
“terror value” to the terrorist organisation. There is negligible effort to
eliminate the physical and non-physical infrastructure which is providing the
ideal environment for the making of terrorism-inclined human resources.
Punishment or physical elimination will remain least effective as long as the
new cohorts of terrorism- inclined human resources are abundantly available.
One step in order to minimise the inclination of the youth towards terrorism is
that government shall fulfil its fundamental constitutional responsibility to
provide the basic education to every citizen. Non-fulfilment of this
responsibility forces the poor parents to send their four or five year children
to a madrasah which prepares a child according to a certain strict sect ideology
and more importantly, without a future career. These conditions lead to a
disenfranchised and frustrated youth which requires an outlet to outpour their
frustration. In the current scenario, terrorist organisations provide an ideal
outlet. Hence, a socially and financially disenfranchised output of the
madrasahs becomes an input for the terrorist organisations in the form of
valuable human resource. Government shall not only regulate and control the
traditional madrasahs but also the so-called modern schools many of which are
propagating religious thoughts of a certain sect in the garb of modern
education.
Financial resources acts like a fuel which makes the terrorist machinery to
move. Countering terrorism requires drying out all the financial resources of
the terrorist organisations. Terrorist organisations are funded from various and
different sources. The major sources include international sponsorship in the
form of state and non-state sponsorship, criminal activities and collection of
funds in the garb of NGOs. It will be wise on the part of government to not just
concentrate on the money laundering, which is now least preferable way by
terrorists, but to stop all the financial resources by adopting other
pre-emptive measures. At the international level government may approach the
countries diplomatically for stop funding the terrorists. At the national scene
government shall stop the criminal activities of the terrorists such as ransom
and extortions by improving and strengthening the police force. Moreover,
government now shall stop terrorist organisations from collecting funds under
the umbrella of dubious NGOs.
Social resources in the form of social networks and trust provide the social
lubricants which enables the terrorist organisations to recruit, move and
operate efficiently and effectively. Social networks are intangible asset of
terrorists which in some aspects are more important for them than financial
resources. Development of social networks and gaining the trust of local people
through marriages and friendships in tribal areas by different terrorist groups
highlights the critical role of social resources for the flourishing of a
terrorist organisation.
Social networks provide the terrorists the reach, ability to prey on and groom
vulnerable individuals and use them into becoming involved with terrorism.
Further, through their networks they gain the trust and sympathies which enables
them to embed in a community. This social embeddedness enables the terrorists to
coordinate complex military-like activities, as well as to sustain a high level
of ideological commitment among members.
Through their social embeddedness terrorists knitted a group of people which are
usually isolated and alienated from family, friends, and other members of
society. Their sense of belonging, sense of purpose, perhaps even their sense of
identity, is derived from the relationships within the group. For such people,
providing an alternative support structure may be a way of preventing
involvement in a terror group.
Terrorists also take advantage of a strong social narrative to gain the
sympathies. In Pakistan’s case, because of no effective counter narrative from
the government or from any social and religious organization it’s very easy for
the terrorists to gain the sympathies and trust of vulnerable individuals. It’s
imperative on the part of government to present a forceful counter narrative
which bring forth the true horrible face of terrorism. Terrorism is a dynamic
process, which involves the human, social and financial aspects. The
effectiveness of the government’s policy against terrorism will be minimal if
policymakers do not adopt a comprehensive and coherent policy to countering
terrorism, with a particular focus on the human, social and financial aspects of
the terrorism.