State of terror

Addressing the SCO Council of Heads of State Summit on Thursday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that state terrorism should be condemned unambiguously and that rooting out militancy is a precondition for economic development. PM Shehbaz said that terrorism, “whether committed by individuals, groups, or states, must be fought collectively in a comprehensive fashion”. The SCO summit was also attended by Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar. Let’s not forget that the Pakistani government has repeatedly said that the neighbouring nation sponsors terrorism in the country. So the prime minister’s statement can be seen as also a categorical message to India and other states that sponsor and support terrorism. In a recent breakthrough for the security forces, two high-value Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) members were arrested, one of whom confessed that India provides financial support to the militants in Pakistan. India harps on and on about cross-border terrorism but cannot provide any evidence to this effect when it is itself involved in supporting cross-border terrorism in Pakistan.

Pakistan has given evidence to the international community. And now that it has been clear how India has carried out assassinations on foreign soil, including in Canada and Pakistan, and how an Indian government official directed a failed plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist on US soil, there is little doubt of how India operates as a state. It is important that PM Shehbaz’s statement is taken seriously, and attempts made to rein in India. Over the years, Pakistan has raised questions on who is behind the killings of Chinese nationals on Pakistani soil in terrorist attacks and whose purpose such attacks serve. Hostile countries like India do not want Pakistan to economically prosper and would do anything in their power to stop our progress. CPEC, being a crucial component of Pakistan’s economic progress, has suffered due to recent terrorist attacks. This is why, for regional development and progress, state terrorism must come to an end. The likes of the TTP and other terrorist organizations need financial support to carry out attacks. If India is giving them financial support and the Afghan Taliban regime is providing them safe havens, then collusion between the Afghan Taliban and India is also not entirely unlikely.

The rise of the TTP after the Afghan Taliban regime’s takeover in Kabul is no secret. In 2022, a year after the fall of Kabul, Pakistan witnessed 380 militant attacks. According to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) database, Pakistan witnessed at least 645 militant attacks across the country in 2023. There was an unprecedented surged in such attacks as Pakistan saw “a staggering 70 per cent rise in attacks, an 81 per cent increase in resultant deaths, and a 62 per cent surge in the number of wounded”. Former senator Hidayatullah Khan and his four companions were killed when Khan’s vehicle was targeted with a remote-controlled device Bajaur tribal district on Wednesday. The increase in such attacks targeting security forces, politicians and others is a cause of serious concern for Pakistan. It took us years to eliminate terrorism from our soil and it will take another concerted effort along with political consensus to do so now. But apart from this, Pakistan also needs the support of the international community in rooting out terrorism on its soil. This cannot happen without both India and Afghanistan being told in categorical terms that their role in terror has got to stop.