WHILE having an intellectual discourse with the Harvard Group of students at GHQ, Rawalpindi (25 August), Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir has sent a clear message to the international community that for years endless, Pakistan has been acting as a bulwark against terrorism and the international community must realise the immense sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in order to promote international peace, security and stability. Ironically, Pakistan has dependably censured ‘terror-based oppression’ by having faith in peace and serenity all through the global efforts against terrorism. The world community must take a serious note of Pakistan being a victim of cross-border terrorism perpetrated by the external agents.
Convincingly, terrorism is a bi-product of extremism. According to Schmid, extremism is “a process characterised by increased commitment to and use of violent means and strategies in the political conflicts.” While extremism is characterised by commitment to violent means and strategies, terrorism consists of actually committing violent acts in pursuit of ends in political conflicts. Pakistan’s Counter-Terrorism mix represents a fine combination of kinetic and non- kinetic means. The use of military, intelligence, and police force notwithstanding, the state has also employed de-radicalization, rehabilitation and counter-narrative campaigns to counter extremism in its violent and non-violent manifestations. Pakistan has taken prompt legal, social and administrate initiatives to counter violent terrorism (CVE) in Pakistan. Though vigorous efforts to defeat terrorism have been taken up by the Government, Pakistan yet remains the victim of cross- border terrorism.
Role of Pak armed forces: For almost 16 years (2001-2017), Pakistan forces took heroic initiatives via its meaningful and pivotal military operations to counter terrorism in Pakistan. The operations launched against terrorism include Operation Rah-e-Haq, Operation Black Thunderstorm, Operation SherDil, Operation Koh-e-Safaid, Operation Al-Mizan, Operation Zalzala, Operation Rah-e-Nijat, Operation Raah-e-Raast, and Operation Zarb-e-Azb (Yusuf, 2014). The army leadership’s remarkable success in practically wiping out terrorism from Pakistan is no ordinary feat. It has been achieved through a remarkable combination of well-thought-out policies, sound intelligence and efficient execution.
Subsequently, operation Raddul Fasaad was launched on February 22, 2017 to wipe out terrorists, their abettors and sleeper cells of terrorists that had spread their network in several areas of the country. It was intelligence-based operations meant to neutralize terrorist groups before they could be in a position to inflict any damage. It successfully eliminated terrorist elements in Karachi, Lahore and other cities of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in many other cities and towns across entire country. Operation Raad-ul-Fasaad has brought about a significant decline in terrorist activity throughout the country.
The surge in terrorism via TTP: First and foremost, credit is due to Pakistan’s security forces for terminating the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) reign of terror (2007-2015) through its effective Operation Zarb-e-Azb launched in June 2014. Though the US drone campaign was succeeded in decapitating the TTP leadership , TTP splintered thereafter, and its surviving leaders escaped to Afghanistan. Some of its splinter factions either merged into ISK or pledged allegiance to it. The TTP’s most lethal splinter Jamaatul Ahrar (JuA), in collaboration with TTP’s Tariq Gidar Group, was responsible for major terrorist attacks, including on Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014. It survived energized Pakistani counterterrorism operations and has continued its terror operations from its new base in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar area.
The Post 2021 Afghanistan: The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan directly precipitated the TTP’s resurgence. Under Afghanistan’s previous government, President Ashraf Ghani, with the help of the United States, imprisoned numerous TTP fighters and its senior leadership as part of a collective drive against terrorism. However, the Afghan Taliban’s rise to power resulted in multiple prison breaks across Afghanistan, allowing the TTP members to flee. These fugitive groups are the main source of making cross-border terrorism inside the Pakistani territory.
RAW and TTP collaboration: “As enemies of the Pakistani state, the freed TTP fighters regrouped and planned a return to their former strongholds in the tribal areas of Pakistan. The fighters initially returned to Swat and Dir, with the state of Pakistan unaware of this development. However, the uneasiness of residents and the resumption of terrorist attacks in the region awakened the state to the gravity of the situation.
In 2020,the government of Pakistan handed over a dossier to the UN Secretary General regarding India-state sponsored terrorism in Pakistan. ‘’The [specific] evidence presented by Pakistan provides a concrete proof of Indian financial and material sponsorship of multiple terrorist organisations, including UN-designated terrorist organisations Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Balochistan Liberation Army and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.’’ The dossier exposing India’s real face before the international community was being shared with the United Nations (UN), Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) as well as other influential world capitals, which endorsed military and intelligence officials of India had been working with the Pakistan-centric terrorist groups based in Afghanistan.
And yet, there is growing trust deficit between Kabul and Islamabad .Moreover, the new Afghan rulers are grappling with numerous governance challenges in terms of international recognition, humanitarian aid, basic healthcare, women’s education, and infrastructure development, as well as countering the terrorism threat from ISIS-Khorasan Province (ISKP). According to the investigative agencies, the Jarawalan terrorism incident has its links with the RAW- TTP-NDS nexus. And importantly, in recent months, the nexus between TTP and PTM is becoming very clear as both are working towards the same ends ie, discredit and target Pakistan’s military. .
Nevertheless, the latest surge of terrorism in Pakistan has a clear indication of the fact that there are covert forces acting behind this terrorist resurgence in Pakistan. The history of terrorism is highly suggestive of the fact that India-TTP-NDS collaboration has propelled this trajectory. Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir vowed that terrorists, their affiliates and abettors working on the behest of hostile agenda to destabilise Pakistan will be hunted down until their surrender to the state. Thus, Pakistan is prepared to the hilt to combat against the evil forces of terrorism and militancy.
—The writer, an independent ‘IR’ researcher-cum-international law analyst based in Pakistan, is member of European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group on IR, Critical Peace & Conflict Studies, also a member of Washington Foreign Law Society and European Society of International Law. He deals with the strategic and nuclear issues.
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