Terror continues

On the night of December 20 and 21, another 16 brave lives were martyred in Pakistan’s seemingly never-ending war on terror. A group of TTP members (Khawari) attempted to attack a security forces check-post in the general area Makeen, South Waziristan district, leading to an exchange of fire in which 16 soldiers of the Pakistan Army were martyred while eight terrorists were killed. While there can be no doubting the resolve of the country’s security forces, it is becoming increasingly clear that the fight against terrorism is heading in the wrong direction. Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) data shows that total militant attacks have risen from 645 in 2023 to 856 this year, an over 32 per cent rise, not counting the month of December. Deaths due to militant attacks have now soared well past the 1000 mark. Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been the most affected, with the latter also experiencing deadly tribal clashes in the Kurram district that have claimed over a hundred lives.

This level of terror and instability are simply unsustainable and the country needs to urgently fine-tune its anti-terror strategy in order to restore peace and safety. This will be hard to achieve without a broad-based political consensus and a security atmosphere where one does not have to worry about the capital being under siege every few weeks. Sadly, these are exactly the things that the country appears to be short of right now. Pakistan’s political crisis continues to linger with seemingly no end in sight and the chief minister of the province most affected by terrorism is busier planning protests against the very government he needs to be working with to solve the terror problem. But the political fracas is more of a recent development, beginning with the fall of the PTI government in 2022 and reaching its current intensity after the events of May 9, 2023.

Pakistan’s ongoing terror resurgence predates these events by almost, going back to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. The US departure appears to have resulted in anti-Pakistan terror outfits like the TTP being able to find a safe haven in neighbouring Afghanistan, increasing their ability to menace Pakistan. The PTI government’s reconciliatory approach towards militants during its tenure also did not help. It is hoped that current and future governments will now finally close the book on that failed tactic and that more will be done to convince the interim-Afghan Taliban government in Afghanistan to counter the presence of anti-Pakistan terrorists on their soil. Other long-term issues that need to be addressed include the preparedness of Pakistan’s police to deal with terror threats. While this is something that is not expected of police in most countries, Pakistan’s unique situation demands otherwise. The police are the first line of defence against the terror threat and they cannot continue to be as underfunded, undertrained and under equipped as they still are. Pakistan has beaten back the terror threat before but both regional and local developments have gone in an unfavourable direction and caused a setback. While things are not as bad as they were ten years ago, the current terror resurgence needs to be ended well before that even becomes a possibility.