News of the surrender of former spokesperson for the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Ehsanullah Ehsan is certainly a positive development. The arrest would bolster Pakistan’s claim of taking effective action against terrorist individuals and entities. If Pakistan succeeds in taking action against the many armed groups that have tormented it for so long, it would be able to achieve the peace and prosperity which that brings.
Time and again, Pakistani security forces have reiterated their commitment to strike at the root of the terrorist violence shaking the country since a decade or more. Nevertheless, claims have not always been equalled by action. The civilian government led by PM Nawaz Sharif seems to be at best a junior partner when it comes to framing security policy in the country. In Pakistan, it has become a common perception that the security agencies are handling foreign policy and taking action against militants on something of a ‘pick-and-choose’ basis.
It took the horror of the APS school massacre — and the deaths of so many of our innocent children in that attack in Peshawar — to prompt a policy review regarding Pakistan’s stance towards the terrorists that plague its territory. Currently, the Pakistan Army is conducting Operation Radd-ul-Fasad against various security threats and it has achieved some success. But a consistent policy is the need of the hour. Pakistan needs to continue the operation against all sorts of extremist groups. So far, Pakistan has been facing the accusation of indulging in proxy wars and carrying out a selective operation against militants. It is high time that the civil and military leaders addressed all these allegations in a satisfactory manner.
The idea of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban, which unfortunately informed Pakistani security policy for far too long a time, has no space in today’s world. Pakistan has already suffered a great deal in terms of human and economic losses. It is still not too late for us to engage in some introspection — so that state and society can reconfigure their attitude to armed militants and religious extremism in general.
We in Pakistan must ask ourselves, with the utmost urgency, what we have achieved by our use of armed Islamist proxies over the past few decades — especially considering the difficult strategic and security situation that it now leaves us in. Perhaps in the past, proxy wars provided temporary successes to various un-democratic regimes in Pakistan. But now such non-state actors have emerged as a threat to the very existence of our state and our way of life.
A uniform policy needs to be adopted against all ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban. From the perspective of Pakistan’s security and future, all Taliban are bad. There is a need to accelerate intelligence-based operations against the terrorists. Due to the ongoing military operation, the deadly menace of terrorism has been rolled back. But it has not ended yet. We need to be yet more consistent in this fight for our future. *
