Dialogue is not their course of action
Jets pounded six terrorist hideouts in North Waziristan killing 35, according to an unofficial tally. IED producing factories that have killed and maimed hundreds of security personnel and innocent civilians were also destroyed in the air attacks. Like the earlier targeted strikes last month, the attacks followed the killings of security personnel. This is likely to be interpreted as a significant shift in military policy after takeover by the new COAS. A message has thus been conveyed to the TTP that attacks on soldiers will henceforth not go unavenged. The army has also made it known that it not only possesses precise information about the whereabouts of the terrorists’ nests but also has the capacity to take them out without suffering casualties.
The much awaited action would dispel a pall of gloom that had set in due to the government’s fascination with unproductive talks. The terrorist outfits are seen by people as bands of violent zealots who are out to destroy the state in pursuit of their madcap agenda. In its preference for talks, the PML-N government failed to see what was visible even to the common man: the TTP and similar outfits were putting up demands that negated the ideals of the country’s founding father and conflicted with the moderate Islam practised by the overwhelming majority of Pakistanis. The idea to convince them through arguments alone was a non-starter from day one.
What happened after the APC resolution, adopted under the pressure of the PML-N and PTI, was simply massacre. The statistics given by a military spokesman are illustrative. During the period of five months 460 innocent people, including 308 civilians, 114 soldiers and 38 policemen, died in terrorist acts within the country. The figure for the injured in these attacks stood at 1,264, with 684 civilians, 531 military men and 49 policemen.
The TTP and its affiliates have all along treated the offer of talks as a sign of weakness. Their being treated as stakeholders and thus provided recognition by the state added to their intransigence. The tendency was further strengthened by those politicians who invented lame excuses for every bloody attack the terrorists conducted. Sometime it was a drone attack, another time the presence of US troops in Afghanistan. The only way to drive sense into the militant leadership’s head is speaking to them from a position of strength. The army has employed a language that they understand. What is needed now is to promptly respond to their attacks through effective military action irrespective of whether they target security personnel or common civilians.