Terrorists won’t let up, so should we
If terror attacks are anything to go by, it is quite clear the terrorists have no intention of letting go of their arms and violent ways, peace talks offer accepted or not. They didn’t stop their attacks even when they had put the offer of talks for peace on the table. However, with time they have changed their tactics knowing fully well that the public won’t support their cause if they kept targeting the innocent. So a change of target was deemed necessary and what better target than security forces who fit their idea of an enemy or friend of an enemy.
The recent suicide attack on security personnel has left 22 dead and scores of injured with some in critical condition, raising fears of more casualties. How the troubled region has become a particularly favourite area for the terrorists to attack the security forces, can easily be inferred from the number of attacks on security personnel, security establishments and check posts during the past few years. Only last year, a number of soldiers were beheaded in a gruesome manner. The searing question is not about the ability of the terrorists to strike where or who they want, but how come after every drone strike Islamabad claims that that many foreign terrorists were killed and yet it has failed to launch a military operation in NWA to clean the area of all terrorists once an all.
The badlands on Pakistan’s western border have long been associated with providing safe havens to the terrorists, both of domestic and international variety. An operation in the South Waziristan had cleared the area of many militants, who then sought sanctuaries in the North Waziristan, the home of the Haqqani Network, a terror network with vast resources both in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the one suspected of having links with Pakistan’s agencies, thus putting the standing of the country right at the edge of a precipice. With the international media portraying, and rightly so, the North Waziristan as a hub of international terrorism, Pakistan cannot afford to go easy on the militants and turn its head away, believing there is nothing wrong. That time is way past, and with the US and NATO winding up its operations by the end of next year, it would in no way justify having this monster grow up in our backyard as it would ultimately turn its attention inwards and tear apart the society and leave the country reeling under some deeper wounds, wounds that might make it impossible to heal in time. One stitch in time saves nine, or so they say. Military operation in NWA should be priority number one.
