What now?

New security policy

The success, or otherwise, of Gen Raheel’s visit to Kabul will become apparent in a few days. President Ghani has assured of cooperation, but whether he can roll back the NDS’s (National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s security service) arrangement with the TTP remains to be seen. It has long supported the insurgency inside Pakistan. And now, with freshly squeezed information from Lateef Mehsud, coupled with the finding that Peshawar attackers were in contact with ‘handlers’ in Afghanistan, Kabul faces a tough choice. It can be part of a joint strategy to contain the Durand Line, or it can provoke further friction as the Afghan insurgency worsens also. Pakistan, for its part, has made clear it means business. It will go after Fazlullah, and it would be better if the Afghans helped.

While that might, finally, make the external problem more manageable, the problem inside remains unaddressed. True, Peshawar has unified the country against the Taliban like never before in this war. Even their supporters in the mainstream have been forced to distance themselves from this barbarity. However, there is little change in the attitudes of some of our well known hardliners. Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid, for example, continues to defend the Taliban, blaming government and military policy for the attack. The government must not allow such statements to go unanswered anymore, and the law must decide how to deal with apologists of the enemy; killers of our children. The military, too, must finally calculate how feasible it is for Hafiz Saeed and the like to go active in situations like these, and how the world sees this collusion and control.

Controlling the internal narrative will have to be a big part of any strategy aimed at winning this war. In fact, had authorities paid attention to loud warnings in the years and decades leading up to this tragedy, it might never have been allowed to happen at all. Yet, it was always the strategic depth that took precedence. Even through the years of the war on terror, the enemy controlled the narrative far more effectively than the government or the military. That Aziz and Saeed are still free to spread venom shows some of the more subtle lessons of the Mullah FM days were lost on those in charge. Gen Sharif has done the right thing by getting a handle on the exogenous factor. Islamabad must now come down hard on those doing the Taliban’s work at home. There can be no half-baked strategy anymore. The prime minister has the backing of the entire political spectrum. He must present a clear cut strategy of the way forward. And, like he said, he should remember the faces of our fallen children while deciding what to do with their killers.