New wave of terror

The string of terrorist attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) after the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) called off a fragile ceasefire with the government last month laid bare the truth behind Pakistan’s incessant grandstanding over defeating terrorism. The war against terrorism is very much on, and last Sunday’s frightening events in Bannu show that terrorists have all the capacity to challenge the state’s writ. The manner in which nearly three dozen detained terrorists managed to overcome officials of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and hold them hostage raises several questions about how these ‘dangerous men’ are being kept, handled, and interrogated. The flaws and weaknesses in the working of the CTD cannot be simply brushed under the carpet. However, the 48 hour-long siege of the CTD was ended by the Pakistan Army personnel in a swift and effective crackdown on the terrorists, killing 25 of them and arresting the remaining 10. Three security officials were also martyred.

Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Maj-Gen Ahmad Sharif said that the operation was launched after the terrorists refused to surrender and pressed on with their demand of a safe passage to Afghanistan. While it is good news that most of the hostages were freed unharmed, the fact that the incident happened is the last thing that the luckless citizens of Pakistan could have asked for under these testing political and economic times. After successful military operations, including Zarb-e-Azb and Radd-ul Fasaad, the country appears to be going back to square one.

Pakistan had come down to an average of 15 attacks per month from the highs of 150 as a result of the two military operations in which the country’s security personnel and civilians rendered tremendous sacrifices. However, the terror attacks started picking up pace in 2019. And in the last one year, the country has recorded at least a 30 per cent spike in the number of attacks and a 35 per cent increase in casualties. This is an alarming reversal of gains in the war against terrorism. But for many experts it was an expected outcome of the country’s continued political instability. In many rugged regions of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa bordering Afghanistan, the local population has repeatedly been raising red-flags as gun-toting militants staged a comeback. They even tried to get the attention of the national leadership and the media by staging protests and sharing photographs and videos of the militants on social media. But these voices were ignored, shut down, and dismissed under the pretext that some miscreants were creating unnecessary panic. The claims of there being a sizable presence of militants in the tribal belt as well as settled regions of KP were constantly denied. Despite several eye-opening events in Swat in August, there was only a subtle acceptance of the presence of a “small number of armed men on a few mountain tops between Swat and Dir”.

It was only after thousands marched in Swat to protest the attacks that the problem was acknowledged by the defence minister in an interview to foreign media, and the KP government also paid lip service to it, albeit blaming the Centre over its ‘failure’ to keep terrorism in check.

Why was the situation downplayed for so long? It is more telling that the increase in militant activities came at a time when Pakistan was involved in the so-called ‘peace talks’ with the TTP at the behest of the Afghan Taliban. But as these secretive talks failed to give any results, there was no debate at the national or the provincial level, including the assemblies, about their scope and premise.

Those making decisions need to seriously review the shortcomings and failures that have led to the return of the militants. The first and foremost being the incapability of the state to initiate a political and administrative reform process in the ex-FATA region when it had the window to do so. Funds, time and energy should have been invested in holding the local body polls and developing institutions, but instead, precious resources were wasted at the altar of parochial political interests. It is also unfortunate to see the current politicisation of the Bannu incident, with the federal and provincial governments blaming each other for failing to rein in militancy. While there remains a need for self-criticism and identifying the weaknesses, public mudslinging is not a good idea.

The only way Pakistan can win this war is when all its institutions stand united and develop a broader consensus that the days of appeasement and providing safe passages to militants are over.