- Successes against terrorism should be made irreversible
The nation has undergone horrific experiences and witnessed bad times during the protracted war on terror, but the resilience of the people and unstinted sacrifices of its military have successfully seen it through the hard times. The overall regional security situation, however, still remains in a state of flux, and it would be naïve and even dangerous to relax our vigilance or lower our guard at this stage. On the contrary, what is required is closing of ranks and harmoniously carrying forward the recent hard won gains to their logical conclusion, that is, on the path of peace, stability and prosperity. Parts of KP and FATA region in particular have borne the brunt of the fighting, the affected people have suffered upheaval, dislocation and the most terrible deprivations, and deserve to be treated with the utmost respect, kindness and sympathy. However, some recent disturbing trends have made the COAS speak his mind about the army viewpoint and how things are panning out in the tribal areas.
The COAS highlighted the mainstreaming of FATA and ongoing efforts towards unexploded ordnance clearance. He vowed to protect innocent citizens and the motherland, and expressed his optimism that Pakistan was now out of the woods. But he also warned of engineered protests.
What remains intriguing is that while one type of protests are being considered engineered, there is no mention of others by certain religious zealots who had been blocking traffic arteries in Lahore for days through recourse to violent means and had brought inter-provincial traffic to a virtual standstill on Thursday through recourse to force. As before the TLYR was placated instead of being branded. There is a need to realise that there cannot be good extremists as there cannot be good terrorists. All types of terrorists and extremists have to be dealt with an iron hand but there should be talks with protestors who remain peaceful. This alone can bring about national unity required to deal with the plans of the country’s enemies.
