The success of military operation requires government’s cooperation
The army has already removed the terrorists from Miranshah and Mirali and is pursuing them in areas bordering Afghanistan. The terrorists have lost the haven and their command and control structure is demolished. The factories where they prepared IEDs have been destroyed. In view of the determination shown by the army chief, the operation will hopefully soon achieve its aim of the elimination of terrorists from NWA.
But what about the rest of the country where extremist thinking permeates practically all sections of society? Extremist thinking provides a breeding ground for future terrorists. The thinking has already ratcheted up the graph of crimes against women and minorities. There are lobbies in the country which strongly oppose normalisation of relations with India. Again, there are people who believe that a bloody revolution rather than democracy can solve their problems.
Three acid attacks on women in a month, two by extremists who disapprove of women moving around without veil and one to avenge a family dispute, show how extremist thinking leads to crimes against women. A report in a national daily entitled “Sectarian targeted killings grip Rawalpindi, Islamabad” details how several people died in sectarian killings in the two districts recently. A Shia lawyer was shot in Karachi, four Ahmadis were killed in Gujranwala, while another shot dead in Shaheed Benazir Abad in Sindh.
The government has done nothing to remove the material from children’s textbooks that promotes extremism and hatred. It has taken no action against the seminaries found by the agencies to have been involved in collecting ransom money for TTP or harbouring terrorists. Nothing is being done to stop those preaching hatred through loudspeakers. The government’s continued dependence on countries involved in fanning sectarianism shows there is little likelihood of any action to wipe out extremism that provides a steady supply of terrorists to various networks. Unless the government fulfils its duties, the army alone cannot succeed in eliminating the threat of terrorism.
