EDITORIAL: Military spokesman Major General Iftikhar Babar was right to remind everybody of just how much the country’s security situation has improved in the last four years of Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad. Launched in 2017 as a follow-up to Operation Zarb-e-Azb, which was a direct attack on terrorist infrastructure in the tribal area, Radd-ul-Fasaad extended the scope of the assault by employing intelligence-based operations (IBOs) that rounded up bad guys and busted sleeper cells in urban centres. That is why Gen Babar made special mention of intelligence and law enforcement agencies (LEAs) whose contribution was no doubt invaluable in tracking and isolating terrorist groups scattered across the country so the military could zero in on them. All this is welcome news since one of the main sticking points in the National Action Plan (NAP) that was adopted after the terrorist attack on Army Public School in Peshawar in 2014 was getting the dozens of intelligence outfits and LEAs that litter our security landscape to work together and share information promptly.
Gen Babar’s comments were timely because they also answered questions about the recent spike in attacks in North Waziristan, especially the case of the four women NGO workers that were target-killed. These are precisely the kind of incidents that show, just as the military said, that while a lot of progress has been made, the job is still not complete. Therefore, it is important to concentrate on the bigger picture and make sure that complacency is not allowed to set in. The enemy has been scattered and is on a desperate last run. It will do what it can to regroup and hit soft targets; just like women and unprotected aid workers. And it will try to spread its venom as far as possible through the outreach made available by the internet.
Hence it is also quite reassuring that the military is keeping abreast of new, emerging challenges, especially in the cyber domain and social media. Fighting terrorists and terrorism on the ground, with all its sacrifices, is one thing but the problem is not going to completely go away till the matter of people’s indoctrination is addressed. And Pakistan’s problem would never have become so bad if so many embittered youth hadn’t been brainwashed into terrorism as if it were some sort of a spiritual, jihadist journey. It is also very important to remember that just as crucial as firing bombs and bullets and picking up intelligence chatter is going to be mainstreaming the worst affected areas. Therefore, “improved policing and socio-economic development” in the former tribal area, as it is absorbed into the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, is going to slowly improve the overall security situation as well.
We are clearly headed in the right direction in the war against terrorism but we must never forget the tens of thousands of innocent lives, both civilian and military, that have been lost in this fight, nor forgive those responsible for it. The Pakistani armed forces have done a remarkable job of bringing the country back from the brink of collapse. No longer does the world falsely accuse us of being the hotbed of international terrorism nor do investors avoid our markets like the plague anymore. In fact, not only is Pakistan much more secure and far stronger today than when Zarb-e-Azb and Radd-ul-Fasaad were all the rage, it is also on a relatively better economic footing despite the Covid-19 challenge. None of this would have been possible if the cult of suicide bombing had not been smashed so effectively.
The days when terrorists randomly, and quite regularly, blew themselves up in crowded public places are hopefully behind us forever. And in future nobody would be able to entertain the idea of revolting against the state of Pakistan for too long. While the last four years of Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad have no doubt been the turning point for Pakistan, people know that a lot still remains to be done and that neither the government nor the military will ever take its eye off the ball.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021