Much still needs to be done
After the 1990s Pakistan army is once again complaining of having been abandoned by the US. Despite the army’s outstanding role in the fight against terrorism, Washington accuses it of cherry-picking among the terrorist groups. Gen Asim Bajwa’s interview with Deutsche Welle Urdu summarises the complaints. The interview comes amidst fresh irritants like the US openly backing India’s membership of the NSG while ignoring Pakistan’s plea for membership support. A statement by Richard Olson meanwhile recognises the role of India and Iran in future efforts for peace in Afghanistan.
Operation Zarb-e-Azb was the need of the country. It routed several terrorist groups, killed over 3,000 militants and forced the rest to flee to other countries, mostly to Afghanistan. Had the operation not been conducted North Waziristan, which had already gained notoriety as the epicenter of world terrorism, might have been taken over by IS and turned into its capital instead of Raqqa. The operation has led to a significant reduction in terrorist attacks in the country. Despite this major acts of terrorism continue to take place here and there combined with at least one high profile abduction case and the killing of popular qawwal Amjad Sabri in Karachi. This shows much still needs to be done to fully control terrorism in the country.
It is intriguing however that the Haqqani network leadership relocated itself safely from North Waziristan to the other side of the Pak-Afghan border from where it continues to launch deadly attacks against US troops, Afghan security personnel and unarmed civilians. What is more the interior ministry declined to ban the Haqqani network. This strengthened the perception that the establishment was keen to preserve the network as a pan in Afghanistan. The interior ministry also defied pressure from a number of countries to ban two other organisations accused of terrorist activities inside India. In a world totally fed up with terrorism soft corner shown for any notorious terrorist network can wipe out the good reputation gained with numerous sacrifices.