An unfinished work

Zarb e Azab is only part of the solution

An unfinished work, as an old saying goes, is a devil’s work in that the evil which is targeted and  intended to be curbed, if left undefeated, will come back to haunt us with renewed vigor. This is true for nations as well as for individuals.

Let this thought marinates in your minds for a moment when we consider the unfinished, incomplete business of eliminating Taliban/Jihadi terrorism from our land through our military operations like Zarb e Azb.

Conceded that the Zarb e Azb operation to wipe out this menace of terrorism was successful to a large extent, however, its success was not nationwide, being limited to a specific geographic location of our country: North Wazirstan. Though the operation did result in a severely bruised- but not a completely destroyed- enemy, its remnant may be likened to a wounded cobra snake waiting to strike back.

And strike it did, from murdering our children in a park in Lahore, to the daylight kidnapping of the son of the Chief Justice of  Sindh High Court to the silencing of the voice of our great singing icon, Amjad Sabri. Of course this is not the end of enemy’s terror – far from it.

An inviting, palatable, smorgasbord of an almost endless variety of soft targets in our national landscape present themselves to our Taliban/Jihadi vultures – from which it can choose and cherry pick at will.

Our civilian targets include countless homes, mosques, schools, colleges, restaurants, shopping plazas, government buildings, bridges, infrastructure installations like power plants, factories, banks, and the list can go on and on. By sheers numbers alone they are impossible to defend from terror attacks. You’d need an army of a million guards just to protect our homes.

Add to the above physical structures our soft human targets, our teachers, professors, celebrities, icons, artists,  professional men and women, political and community leaders, noted businessmen and women, farmers, workers, students etc, and you get a picture of staggering vulnerabilities.

In other words, Taliban or Jihadi terrorists can attack or kill anyone, anything, anytime, anywhere at will.  Playing defense to stop and eliminate terrorism is thus not an option .The only effective and feasible strategy is offense: proactively going after and destroying the hideouts, bases and places of terrorists, wherever they may be. And if they are located in our midst, in our cities or villages, so be it.

Of course, discrediting the extremist ideology, good governance, effective and responsive rule, economic growth, job opportunities for youth, quality secular education etc would be required for the long-term fight against this menace of terrorism and Islamist radicalism. Ultimately the conditions, the breeding ground that give rise to terror recruitment must be addressed with implementation of sound counter-terrorism policies.

But in the meantime the curse of terrorism is upon us now and present, inflicting murder, mayhem and destruction upon us. As I’ve stated before, this is the second front in our war against Taliban/Jihadi enemy, the first front being the Wazirstan and Pak-Afghan border.

By its very nature the offensive in the urban cities and rural areas of our country would be more complicated, more nuanced, more challenging than Zar e Azb operation where we knew the enemy where the enemy was more or less. In the bigger landmass of our mainland the enemy is everywhere. The enemy has a massive network of civilian enablers, supporters, informants, suppliers, financiers and foot soldiers.

It would be a huge mistake to assume that this vile, sinister enemy in our cities and villages would just fritter and go away if we leave it to its own devices. Left unattended this cancerous tumor thus embedded would only grow more malignant, eventually eating away the very tissues of our body politic.

If we believe that Pakistan not only survives this brutal war imposed on it but also move forward towards progress, prosperity and rationality then an all-out , successful offensive in the population centers of our country is a must. If we believe in our future, if we cherish our destiny, if we are determined that our better days as a modern nation are yet to come, then this is the action our dreams and aspirations rest upon.

We must successfully and decicively finish what we started. A decisive offensive on the second front of mainland Pakistan is the call of the day lest our country perishes. Otherwise, all our sacrifices, in all our efforts to fight terrorism, including Zarb e Azb and other operations, with tens of thousands dead, would have been in vain.