Putting our house in order

This refers to the news, ‘Politicians, media, traders won’t be tried in military courts’ (January 4). A terrorist is a terrorist and he does not belong to any category of people, has no religion and no sect. If this is the criteria then it will be difficult to grant exemptions to anyone involved in an act of terrorism. Terrorists move freely anywhere in the country. In such cases, the person who is aiding him, also falls in the category of terrorists and, in fact, should be tried in the military courts first.
The law has to be applied equally and there should not be any institutional distinction. The first and foremost task is to destroy the breeding ground, literature, media access and foreign and local sources of funding to terrorists. We need to put our house in order first. Military courts alone cannot eliminate terrorism. For this the terrorist mindset is to be crushed.
Lt-Col (r) Mukhtar Ahmed Butt
Karachi