What will it take?

Terrorism is destroying the country. How can it be brought to an end once and for all?

In light of the recent attack, four militants from the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) group were killed in a police raid on Thursday night. LeJ had earlier claimed responsibility for the attack — a faction of which claimed it had worked with the Islamic State to carry out the police academy attack

Once again the small city of Quetta became the target of a terrorist attack earlier this week. The attack on the Quetta Police Training Academy is another addition to Pakistan’s list of failures by being unable to eliminate terrorism despite its long history with it.

Quetta has witnessed two major terror attacks in less than four months, leaving about 100 people dead in total, and injuring a couple of hundred more.

Operation Zarb-e-Azb has led to a decline in terror attacks in the country, but it has not come full circle just yet; case in point the ‘Quetta tragedy’. The term has lost its meaning in just four months because of the dire situation in the city.

The phrase now needs to be followed by a place and date to specify which tragedy it is actually referring to.

Furthermore, the civil and military leadership have time and again promised to eliminate terrorism, fight the terrorist bodies until the very last one of them has been defeated; but no quantifiable measure has been taken as ofyet.

Attack after attack, the leadership hold ‘high-level’ meetings to discuss the tragedy. In addition to that, the lack of counterterrorism strategy is usually discussed, followed by the necessary steps that need to be taken to curb extremism.

Similar was the case with the recent Quetta attack which left 61 dead. A high-level meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and a high-level inquiry commission was formed to investigate into the matter.

In light of the recent attack, four militants from the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) group were killed in a police raid on Thursday night. LeJ had earlier claimed responsibility for the attack — a faction of which claimed it had worked with the Islamic State to carry out the police academy attack. However, killing the militants is not the solution to the problem unless the root cause has been removed itself — the militant training camps which have been a safe haven for these people.

Therefore, the need for increased coordination among all the law enforcement agencies in order to avert such attacks in the future was highlighted.

Furthermore, courses are to be held for the police force and the police would be trained by the Pakistan army to boost their capability.

As for now, the top concern for the state should be to assess what it will take for an attack like this to not happen again.

Militants who have moved out have enough money, weapons and training and it’s a long haul before terrorism is completely finished from the country. This is because the militant elements are so strong and they have a support via their networks

Additionally, National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) was formed in 2013 to curb terrorism, however, it was ruled out due to lack of funds; the 20-point National Action Plan (NAP) was formed in 2015 after the Army Public School attack has also not yet been fully implemented.

The state cannot win the war against terror by solely eliminating the terrorists. Despite the ongoing Zarb-e-Azb Operation, the terrorism war is not even close to an end. The problem will only stop when the roots of extremism are pulled out. In order for the counter-narrative strategy to work, the state must stop generating more militants.

Furthermore, radicalisation needs to be eliminated in order for the war on terror to be a success.

Hence, the ideology of Ibn Taymiyyah, a conservative scholar comes into the picture. He started the ‘first jihad-inspired’ movement against the ones who do not follow the Islamic Law.

“Big terror attacks on civilians is the consequence of justifying acts of militant groups in the name of religion,” said political analyst Mehdi Hassan, while talking to DNA.

“Quaid-e-Azam’s vision was clear that religion and politics should be dealt with separately.”

The vision of the Quaid was completely different from that of Zia ul Haq. But, what is evident is the use of Zia policies.

According to Mehdi Hassan, the role of media is very important. “Media should step into the matter smartly, making sure the beliefs of the mullahs aren’t forced on the youth through electronic, print and social media,” he added.

However, after previous attacks, the increased security in specific areas, barbed wire, the people should stand up against terrorism and their courage will speak for themselves.

“The counterterrorism strategy we need is to eliminate the name of religion and extremism from our narrative.”

It should be exactly how the how the Quaid saw it. No group, politics, weapons, surveillance will end terrorism unless the involvement of religion isn’t eliminated from the roots, he continued.

Also, civilian justice structures like NACTA and Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) and their incapability to convict terrorists, despite many laws which are passed, but never implemented is a reflection of poor governance. Not only that, the failure to train the security personnel is an example of the failure to properly eradicate terrorism.

“Police are ill-equipped to maintain law and order properly, and force the army to fill the vacuum,” said former head of NACTA and former IGP Punjab Khawaja Khalid Farooq in an interview with DNA.

Because of this, the civilians are not trained enough to deal with real emergencies. Additionally, the civilian units are busy professionalising themselves. Thus, seeking help from the army seems like the best idea for NACTA and PCNS for now.

“A threat assessment mechanism should be adapted to identify and evaluate the elements of the terrorist threat to Pakistan,” Khalid said.

Similarly, Nasim Zehra, a senior analyst said that a continuous pattern was observed in the previous attacks in terms of the comprehensive discipline of details. The government before and now kept making huge claims.

The attacks in Quetta have been in places where high-level security should have been maintained, but the attacks took the lives of many. While giving an example of Iraq, Nasim Zehra said the security maintained there is the kind of security Pakistan needs in order to curb terrorism.

“What we need to do is pressurise the government into stepping up the security game in the country, in order to avoid such attacks in future,” she added.

“Politicians don’t really seem to understand the depth of the challenge, which is why army is seen playing the dominant role in eradicating terrorism.”

With a similar opinion, analyst Ayaz Amir said that the lack of security, especially in the case of recent Quetta Police Academy attack is evidence that there are people who still resort to the extremist ideology.

“The anti-terror operations have been successful to a point, reducing the number of terror attacks,” he said.

Terrorism in Waziristan has been eradicated completely because of the army operations that were carried out, Amir added.

Militants who have moved out have enough money, weapons and training and it’s a long haul before terrorism is completely finished from the country. This is because the militant elements are so strong and they have a support via their networks.

“This will be a constant war unless in the next 5-10 years the army and the state completely focus on eliminating these terror organisations,” Amir said.

“If the army or the state weakens, in that case, terrorism will not see its end in the country.”

Lastly, these militant organisations have used the distorted image of Islam as a tool to justify such violent acts that have destroyed the lives of thousands of people.