Grappling with extremism

President General Pervez Musharraf continues to reiterate, and rightly so, that the government's efforts to "root out extremism and all kinds of terrorism from Pakistan's soil will continue," and that the country would not allow its soil to be used for any terrorist activity.
These assertions he makes at every forum and opportunity to drive home the point that Pakistan is committed to undertaking anti-terrorism measures, yet the perception and demands that Pakistan should do more does not abate.
Hence it is only appropriate that the government leaders keep on reminding themselves as well as all concerned agencies and departments to do the needful.
Extremism in this country, the kind of which manifests itself every now and then in bloody sectarian and communal violence, first raised its ugly head nearly two decades ago. And the sad truth is that various groups that promoted religious fanaticism and self-serving agendas of their leaders, flourished with government patronage.
It was only after extremism erupted into senseless sectarian killings that successive governments tried to do something about it. Even so, all they did was to try and appease sectarian leaders. Some of them with known track records of violence were inducted into ministerial positions.
Little wonder these people felt confident enough to go on carrying out their bloody hate campaigns while publicly paying lip-service to the need of establishing sectarian harmony.
All good and bad things have to come to an end at some point. So is the case with extremism in this country. Both internal and external compulsions have driven the government to act in all seriousness to root out this menace. Now that such a strong resolve is there, it should not be difficult for the concerned agencies to undertake necessary action.
In fact, it is commonly believed that our generally inefficient police force and intelligence agencies do not remain that inefficient when they are intent on tracking down a suspect. Recently, they have acquired some state-of-the-art forensic and other technologies, which should enable them to perform even better. What they will need is the right kind of push by the powers that be to nab suspected terrorists without fear or favour.
It is reasonable to expect that this time the security agencies will have no list of 'untouchables' as they go about looking for terrorists or those suspected of having links with terrorist groups.
It goes without saying though that they must be careful not to do anything that violates legal rights of the suspects. Also, the government should not act only to punish the activists who have been led astray by their leaders, but also to adopt a well thought-out strategy to bring the less fanatical among them around to reconciling with the idea of creating peace and tolerance in society.