Pakistan should be pleased with the new US president. The latter has shown that he is taking seriously allegations of Afghanistan harbouring anti-state militant groups. That it was the newly ‘deregulated’ CIA drone programme that took out Pakistan’s most wanted terrorist should put Islamabad on notice. Qari Yaseen was until this week the country’s most wanted militant. A senior Al Qaeda commander with close ties to the Pakistan Taliban and at least one sectarian outfit, he was involved in the attack on GHQ as well as that on the visiting Sir Lankan cricket team. For the Obama Administration, drones remained a core tool to eliminate terror threats originating from certain countries including Pakistan. However, since the programme remained controversial and international humanitarian law was being disregarded, the government regulated it from 2013 onwards for minimal civilian casualties. Now that the Trump Administration has taken over, there has been a whopping 432% increase in the strikes. Between 2014 and 2016, drones largely remained in the backburner but for Trump, they seem to be the perfect option for targeting the so-called terror sanctuaries. Strikes conducted at certain times remained controversial, especially when Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was eliminated just last May. On the other hand, certain strikes were conducted in coordination with intelligence and military officials of the target country such as those in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is still unclear if drones can fix the terrorism problem. The changed nature of war, the reaction in places where drones hit and the civilian casualties create more problems than they solve. Media reports suggest that the CIA has been empowered just last week for carrying out strikes at its own discretion. The strike which killed Qari Yaseen may have been conducted upon Pakistan’s request due to its apprehensions with US CENTCOM over anti-state terror groups operating out of Afghanistan. A senior unnamed Pakistan Army official’s interview with The Telegraph, a London-based paper, also highlighted such views in which the US was asked to ‘do more’. Pakistan must now think about what President Trump wants in return, namely that, it crackdown on the Islamic State. Reports suggest that Afghanistan may be the new breeding ground for Islamic State network. Counter terrorism and counter-insurgency operations have become vital in an increasingly unpredictable environment across the world. A more calibrated policy is necessary to address the root causes of terrorism. Economic and political exclusion of groups, sense of injustice and most importantly ideological factors need to be addressed rather than the ‘elimination’ of targets. Pakistan cannot do it alone. It needs to work with its neighbours such as Afghanistan and Iran to tackle the threat ahead. For the United States, sixteen years of war in Afghanistan should furnish some lessons. Drone strikes are not the way forward. *