Surge in terrorism

Pakistan has been experiencing a spike in terrorist attacks in recent months. In the first nine months of 2022, more than 450 people have been killed, including many belonging to the security forces.  As per their tradition, the terrorists are targeting both the soft and hard targets across Pakistan. However, security personnel are their prime focus.  Pakistan has endured wave after wave of terrorist violence for more than two decades now. From ethnic and sub-nationalist to sectarian and religious motivated violence – Pakistan has witnessed it all. But Pakistan’s partnership with the United States in its ‘War against Terrorism’, gave a new dimension to the terrorist threat for the country.

It is not just the pan-Islamist and regional militant groups, including Al Qaeda and now Daesh in recent years have been active in Pakistan, but their local partners have also been responsible for more than 70,000 deaths since Islamabad joined hands with the United States in its Afghan war. Although the US-led NATO forces have left the region, the scourge of terrorism continues to haunt the region, especially Pakistan.

The recent Quetta blast, claimed by the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is the latest example underlining the bitter fact that the war against terrorism is not yet over for Pakistan. In the latest terror attack, at least four people, including a police officer, were martyred. The blast took place a day after the TTP called off its ceasefire, asking its members to launch attacks on the security forces across the country.

To Islamabad’s disappointment, the Afghan Taliban’s capture of Kabul has not made the Afghan soil any less friendly for the anti-Pakistan forces. The anti-Pakistan militants continue to take refuge and plan and execute cross-border assaults from Afghanistan on Pakistan. According to the data from the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS), an Islamabad-based think-tank, the number of terrorist strikes increased by more than 50 percent in just one year after the Afghan Taliban took control of Afghanistan. In light of this, the United States has designated South Asian Al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban leaders as terrorists, pledging to take action against them as concerns about Afghanistan mount.

Condemning the attacks, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah vehemently denied the reports of peace talks with the TTP and vowed a crushing blow by the security forces to the militant group. At a news conference in Islamabad, the minister stated: “The involvement of the TTP militants in terror activities inside our country should be a matter of concern for Afghanistan, and it is dangerous for the regional peace.” He also gave the nation his word that things would remain under control.

Many defence analyst say that Pakistan lost its focus on the war against terrorism since early 2022 due to the continued political instability. With the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) at loggerheads with the Shehbaz Sharif government, it is not just the economy, but the overall governance has nosedived.

With the change of command in the Pakistan Army, there are expectations that there will be a renewed focus on the war against terrorism. But no army can completely defeat terrorism singlehandedly until it gets the support of the civilian institutions. On this front, successive governments have been found wanting.

There is a need to put the National Action Plan (NAP) of 2015 back on the front-burner and review which points need immediate action. With the passage of time, there is also a need to review and analyse the changing nature of terrorist threat and update the NAP accordingly.

Let’s hope that despite the lingering political uncertainty, those at the helm of affairs manage to come up with a comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy. But as political stability is seen as a prerequisite to revive the economy, it is also a must to counter the security challenges. An unpopular government, lacking the trust of the masses, cannot lead the country to absolute victory in this conflict.