Repercussions of Past Policies - Newspaper - DAWN

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Repercussions of past policiesEDITORIAL UPDATED JAN 22, 2016 02:35AM

THE wave of terror unleashed in the first month of the newyear and the apparent links to militant safe havensalong the Pak-Afghan border triggered some reflectionin parliament on Wednesday.

Reacting to the Bacha Khan University attack, MahmoodAchakzai, chief of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party,drew a line connecting policies of the past with theterrorism the country faces today.

Agreeing with Mr Achakzai was Defence Minister KhawajaAsif, who had this to say: The fires that were lit in the1980s are now engulfing us. While the defence ministerpredictably also assailed the Musharraf-era cooperationwith the US-led war in Afghanistan, the broader point thatMr Asif and Mr Achakzai made is undeniable the fightagainst militancy is rooted in wrong choices made in thepast.

True as that may be, it is something of a victory that thepast can be so readily acknowledged in parliament. Someyears ago, to question the Afghan jihad of the 1980s wouldhave attracted angry denunciations and allegations ofunpatriotic behaviour.

Yet, how widespread is that view outside parliament oreven inside parliament? In some circles, there still appearsto be a great deal of denial.

Bacha Khan Universityteachers forced to go onbattlefront to savestudents futures



to be a great deal of denial.

Consider that Wednesdays attack in Charsaddaimmediately led to allegations of Indian perfidy or Afghaninvolvement. While there is certainly an urgent problem ofcross-border militancy, there is also another reality.

Each one of the attackers is likely to be proved a Pakistani.They are also likely to have been raised in Pakistan,embraced extremism inside Pakistan, joined militantgroups inside Pakistan and waged war against Pakistanfrom inside.

It is likely that only during the very last stages of theirlives would the attackers have relocated to Afghanistan.Similarly, the architects and planners of the attack areentirely likely to be citizens of this country.

What makes denial more dangerous is that it is oftenpaired with the belief that armed jihad has a role in themodern world that the war fought in Afghanistan in the1980s was a glorious religious victory and that the warbeing fought in Afghanistan today is a legitimate religiousstruggle against imperial invaders.

This country will struggle to defeat terrorism, militancyand extremism as long as such views prevail about theoutside world.

The debate in parliament on Wednesday fell short in oneregard: there were few ideas mooted about how to tacklethe internal militancy threat today.

Simply demanding NAP be implemented in full is not a



TODAY ON IMAGES

policy recommendation. The latest wave of militantviolence suggests that specific steps need to be taken tokeep so-called soft targets better protected.

It will require reallocating intelligence and law-enforcement resources to either prevent such attacks orrespond to them faster. The enemy is shadowy and tendsto adapt the state must learn to tailor its response tothat reality.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2016

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Repercussions of Past Policies - Newspaper - DAWN