Addressing core issues
Operation Zarb-e-Azb, initiated on June 15, 2014, was the first full scale attempt by the military establishment to confront head on the terrorist networks which were on the rampage in the country. Over the last two years the operation has made several outstanding gains though much more still remains to be done to attain its goals. The terrorists have been driven out of North Waziristan, which had been over the years turned into the epicenter of world terrorism. Most of the attacks conducted inside Pakistan were also being directed from the terrorist infested Agency. The operation has brought visible relief to the people of Pakistan. While intelligence based operations by the army and civilian law enforcement agencies against terrorists and their facilitators continue all over the country, combing operations have also been launched since last month. Meanwhile early settlement of all temporarily displaced persons from North Waziristan poses a big challenge.
Despite noteworthy successes during the Operation, there were also loopholes which allowed the terrorists to shift to the tribal areas across the Durand Line from where they continue to launch attacks now and then. Some of these have been major attacks, the most devastating being the attack on the APS Peshawar on December 2014, killing 141 including 132 school children. Other major attacks include the one on Wahga border leaving sixty dead, another on a Shikarapur imambargah killing sixty plus, 40 innocent people died in Safoora Goth bus attack, and Bacha Khan Universsity attack left over twenty dead. Unless there is improvement of relations with Afghanistan leading to joint operations against terrorist nests along the Durand Line, the goals of Zarb e Azb cannot be fully achieved.
As the terrorist attacks involving highly educated persons in Karachi indicate the core issue of replacing the extremist outlook with a tolerant one has yet to be addressed. It would be premature to declare victory when extremist thinking continues to provide a regular supply of recruits to terrorist outfits.
