- Terrorism is far from overcome
The death of a total of 10 armed forces personnel in two widely separated attacks showed that all of the official crowing about victory in the war on terrorism is not justified. Our young men are still being butchered. The killing of a non-commissioned officer and five soldiers in Gurbaz, Waziristan, by firing from across the Durand Line was not less tragic than the death of a captain and three sepoys of the Frontier Corps when their patrol came under fire in Turbat, but it was perhaps less understandable. Terrorism continues in Baluchistan, both religious and nationalist, but Afghanistan is supposed to be undergoing a peace process, in which Pakistan is playing a due role.
It is facilitating talks by the Taliban with the Afghan government, and as part of that process has mended fences with the Afghan government. In principle, neither government nor resistance forces should have any motive to fire on Pakistani troops. In other words, Pakistan should already begin to benefit from a ‘peace dividend’. Unfortunately, the menace of terrorism has not been removed. That is probably because the government has not taken the problem seriously, and has not paid enough attention to implementing the National Action Plan (NAP).
The centrepiece of the NAP was the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA). Apparently, not only was the insufficient capacity building, but not enough was done to achieve the inter-departmental cooperation for which NACTA was set up in the first place, but also which was essential to winning the War on Terror. While the failure to achieve inter-departmental cooperation may not be the cause of the deaths in Waziristan and Turbat, it retards the progress towards the goal of a peaceful and secure country. The government must not delay pointing out to both the USA and Afghanistan the need for the peace process to show immediate results, at least for Pakistan.