Hit again

Put things in order, or else…

Just a little over one year after the Army Public School attack, terrorists struck Bacha Khan University in Charsadda. Four attackers mowed down 20 people. Will it get federal and provincial governments out of their criminal slumber? No one is certain of the response.

The attack breeds the usual refrains: A day after the bloodbath, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif claimed having ‘broken the backbone’ of terrorists. Mullah Mansoor, the TTP commander, issued a video of the attackers, enough to laugh off Mr Sharif’s claims.

Only two weeks back, Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif had also made a hasty statement: “2016 would be the year of eliminating terrorism from the country”. Excuse us, sires. These statements reflect that either we are aloof of the lurking terror or we have buried our heads in the sand.

It also seems that our military and political leadership is either adamant to perceive the threat posed by ‘hardened’ and ‘jet-black’ terrorists or they are trying to hoodwink the masses by misleading and fallacious statements. Even if Raw or TTP are unleashing havoc in Pakistan, we need to preempt such vicious conspiracies.

Our failure to act in time and prevent the enemy from attacking the civilian and military installations reflects as if we, as a nation, are struggling to wake up to the challenge posed by the terrorist threat.

It also proves that we have refused to learn from the crumbling regimes in the Middle East where savage fanatics are writing a new history of barbarity and ferocity.

Perhaps the assumption by the military and civilian leadership that they’ve defeated terrorism is based on the sharp decline in terrorism incidents in 2015. It seems that the successes of Zarb-e-Azb have been interpreted erroneously by the top elite — be it military or political.

Countering hate speech and literature promoting religious hatred has yet to grab the government’s attention

However, they have failed to understand that the nurseries of terrorism, discrimination, sectarian hatred and fanaticism are still working unscratched. Thousands of (un)religious seminaries are still teaching the same literature which spreads sectarian hate and bigotry. These hate-mills need to be stopped once and for all. But who would do it? The interior minister claims he has no case against burqa-fame Maulana Abdul Aziz. Can he be trusted with our lives and our children’s?

One might understand the flawed mindset of the top political leadership by a recent example. As the worthy interior minister time and again has claimed that there is no existence of Islamic State or Dai’ish in the country, his comrade in the Punjab, Rana Sanaullah – the man with a tainted past of strong links with the terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi — admitted that around 100 people having ties with the Islamic State had been captured only in Punjab in recent days. But the two are not ready to reconcile.

The federal and provincial governments have been napping over the 20-point National Action Plan (NAP), agreed among the top civilian and military leadership of the country last year.

Data provided by violence monitoring groups reflects that the only areas where significant developments have been made are under the domain of security forces. Areas either falling under the ambit of provincial or federal governments have shown little or no progress.

The National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA) still remains a non-starter though the finance ministry has released Rs1.06 billion for its operations after a delay of around nine months. NACTA still functions from a temporary premises.

According to the data, a major improvement in law and order was observed in Karachi as targeted killing went down by 53 percent while the number of murders has also been brought down by 50 percent. Terrorism incidents also went down by 80 percent while the general crime rate is also on the decline.

However, crime again is picking pace in the port city in first two weeks of January this year. The military leadership believes there is a need to check corrupt practices in Karachi.

Experts believe that checking the flow of illicit money is key to stopping violence. If we can plug this flow, it can dry terrorism cells which can’t work without money. But politicians have ganged up to defy such plans of the military establishment. They are adamant to carry on corrupt practices which provide fuel to violence.

Action against Hawala/Hundi business also lacks luster as only 214 cases were registered during 2015 while 322 people were arrested for involvement in the illegal business. The government agencies seized Rs356.56 million during the raids. And that’s all. No action has been taken against political bigwigs despite the fact that their homes were raided, cash amounting to billions of rupees recovered and no case was registered.

But it would be wrong to blame only the Sindh government. Punjab government is resisting efforts by military to carry out limited and targeted operations against terrorists.

After initial success, the Balochistan reconciliation process has entered a stagnant phase. Under the amnesty programme, around 625 farraris/outlaws surrendered arms and joined the reconciliation/rehabilitation process.

Perhaps the assumption by the military and civilian leadership that they’ve defeated terrorism is based on the sharp decline in terrorism incidents in 2015

However, terrorist incidents have again picked pace in and around Quetta. Perhaps, the perpetrators want to send a message to the world that they still have capacity to threaten the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Though the interior ministry claims that a national narrative has been drafted to counter the ideology of the terrorists, nothing has yet been shared with media or civil society.

Madrassa reforms is the area which requires immediate focus. The government has failed in making any headway in this area. Despite having dialogue with sectarian groups, the government has failed in getting hate literature removed from syllabus.

A Uniform Registration and Data Form has been developed by NACTA and ITMP and shared with provinces and intelligence agencies for input. The ICT and Punjab claim to have completed 100 percent mapping on agreed parameters.

But there is no progress on streamlining or plugging the foreign funds for madrassas. Out of 190 foreign funded seminaries, 147 are in Punjab, six in Sindh, seven in KP, and 30 in Balochistan. Most of the foreign funds come from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates.

This is why Punjab witnesses strong Wahabi sentiments and minorities come under attack. But by the way, who cares about minorities anymore?

Countering hate speech and literature promoting religious hatred has yet to grab the government’s attention. So far, 2,333 cases have been registered against 2,163 persons while 73 shops have been sealed for selling provocative material. Cases registered for misuse of loudspeakers are 9,005 while persons arrested are 9,142. Around 2,452 pieces of equipment have also been confiscated. In Punjab, 1,132 hardcore extremists have been identified of whom 405 persons have been put under Schedule IV. But this is all and nothing more.

Progress on Counter-Terrorism Force (CTF), including establishment of a Joint Task Force, and giving due role to provincial police departments, is also underway but at snail’s pace. While we move so slowly, the enemy within would continue striking at will. It is about time that we set our house in order. Else, the future generations would never forgive us.