Those hoping that military operations in the tribal areas combined with supposed improvements in the working of security agencies had put an end to the terrorists momentum are being forced to have second thoughts. In the last six days, the terrorists have launched deadly attacks almost on a daily basis. They have targeted police and civil armed forces personnel in Hangu and Bara, attacked a girls college near Mardan killing two students and injuring 40, and on Friday they bombed a mosque attached to a shrine in Nowshera, killing nine and injuring 38. On Saturday, three government schools were blown up by the militants in Khyber, Kohat and Swabi regions, taking the tally of the schools destroyed by terrorists so far to over 500. Meanwhile, there is no respite to the attacks on Nato trucks. The operations launched by the army look like attempts at squeezing a balloon. The terrorists simply relocated themselves by crossing over from the tribal areas to the adjoining settled districts to continue their activities. The wave of extremism, which is the mother of terrorism, also remains unchecked. Three days after the killing of Shahbaz Bhatti, a Muslim accused of blasphemy but released by the court for lack of evidence was shot dead in his village near Rawalpindi.
The terrorism, nourished for decades, cannot be brought to an end within a short period but there is a need to stay the course. Equally important is the need to continue to review the strategy to crush terrorism. The military strategy has to ensure that the terrorists are denied entry into the adjoining areas. It wont do to declare victory in a Fata Agency only to find the militants again occupying strategic positions, and a leader pronounced dead to be alive and kicking.
The civilian leadership has to play a vital role in crushing terrorism. Many had expected that the government would revamp the civilian agencies and evolve a better understanding among them. Many are dissatisfied with the Interior Minister, accusing him of relying more on rhetoric than performance. A section of the opposition, on the other hand, is out to prettify the Taliban. JUI(F) leader Fazlur Rehaman has refused to believe, despite the killers of Shabaz Bhatti identifying themselves with the Al-Qaeda and Taliban, that the TTP had anything to do with the murder. Mian Shahbaz Sharif denies the existence of Punjabi Taliban. It must be realised that a policy of appeasement can be dangerous for the country. The PM has promised to work out a new strategy in consultations with the civil and military bureaucracy and opposition. The exercise has to be undertaken post-haste to wrest the momentum from the terrorists.
