Daily Times

Ever since the 16/12 Peshawar massacre, a general consensus among Pakistani civil and military leadership and civil society emerged for a decisive blow to the menace of terrorism. The moratorium on executions for convicts has been lifted, a National Action Plan has been formulated and military courts have been set up to conduct speedy trials of terrorist suspects. For a viable and coherent counterterrorism strategy, it is fundamentally important to know the root causes of terrorism.

Religious extremism is globally considered one of the basic reasons behind terrorism. In Pakistan, the military-mullah nexus created at the height of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, under the ideological patronage of Saudi Arabia and financial support of the US, is the basic cause of religious extremism. The huge investment in the Muslim clergy and mushrooming growth of religious seminaries all across the country enhanced the influence and power of the clergy. Since religious terrorism stems from extremism a successful counterterrorism strategy must coincide, curbing extremism and fundamentalism.

Madrassas (religious seminaries) are considered a major source of religious extremism in Pakistan. It is very difficult to ascertain the exact number of madrassas in Pakistan since there are no foolproof arrangements on the government level for proper registration of madrassas. The government of Pakistan conducted a survey in the beginning of 2009 according to which there were 16,662 madrassas all over the country out of which 4,509 did not provide information to the survey teams. The survey revealed that there were 1.549 million students (both sexes) enrolled in these institutions. It also recoded the number of students in inaccessible madrassas as 0.450 million. These madrassas spend Rs 2.7235 billion annually. Only 11,305 madrassas provided their financial expenditure statements but they declined to disclose sources of income. On October 5, 2009, Pakistan’s then interior minister, Rahman Malik, disclosed that there were 20,000 religious seminaries in the country. He told the lower house of parliament that an umbrella organisation namely the Ittehad Tanzeemat-e-Madaris Pakistan (ITMP) embodies five madrassa boards. Of them, Wifaqul Madaris controls over 12,000 institutions while the remaining 8,000 are controlled by other boards. The percentage of madrassas belonging to different schools of thought is: Deobandis 70 percent, Barelvis 25 percent, Ahle hadiths 2.3 percent and Shia 2.7 percent of the total number.

These schools are excellent welfare setups where the poor get free board and lodge but there are some negative aspects too. Most of them impart only religious education that produces semi-literate religious scholars. Some of them promote negative thinking and propagate hatred and violence. As per Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhdry Nisar, 10 percent of madrassas are involved in terrorism.

The above madrassa figures are very alarming and need wisdom and vigilance on the government’s part to formulate a madrassa reforms strategy to ensure proper regulation over these madrassas. The government should work closely with all madrassa boards to bring about changes to their syllabi to incorporate modern day education. To bridge the gap between religious students and mainstream society, at least 10 years of broad-based modern education must be made mandatory to get admission in madrassas. The government must immediately undertake a survey to ascertain the exact number of madrassas and number of religious students in Pakistan including in FATA, All madrassas should be registered and nobody should be allowed to establish a madrassa without a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the government. If any madrassa is found indulging in extremism, militant activity or possessing any type of weapons, it must be closed immediately and the administration of the madrassa should be prosecuted under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The government must conduct an annual financial audit of all madrassas to get their complete financial details, including sources of income, expenditure and charities. Foreign students and teachers in madrassas, not having proper documents, must be forced to comply with these formalities, otherwise face deportation. The government should facilitate a madrassa teachers’ training programme.

Poverty, deprivation, illiteracy and unemployment breed extremism. Empirical data reveals that most terrorists belong to the deprived and less privileged class. Therefore, poverty alleviation, unemployment reduction, promotion of education, sports and other recreational activities, and uplifting the overall socio-economic condition of the people can surely reduce extremism and terrorism.

An effective counterterrorism and anti-extremism strategy must focus on the extremist outfits disseminating hatred and religious bigotry. Extremist organisations provide ideological foundations to the terrorists and also facilitate them in recruiting more terrorists. They indoctrinate the youth with fanatic ideology. Later, terrorists recruit and provide them with lethal weapons to carry out terrorist activities. Many terrorist organisations are actually the militant wings of extremist organisations. Effective and vigilant human intelligence on extremist organisations can lead to the apprehension of top terrorists. Extremist organisations must not be allowed to propagate hatred and must be dealt with severely according to the law of the land. The same should be done with mosques and other places of worship.

Pakistan also needs to reform its law enforcing agencies, especially the police. Equipped with state of the art technology, weapons, training and a high motivation level, the police can become the first line of defence against terror in the cities and towns of the country. Depoliticising the Police is inevitable. Effective measures must be taken at the federal level to ensure effective communication and real time intelligence sharing among the civil and military intelligence apparatus and the other law enforcing agencies. The existing institutions must be made more vigilant and proactive for effective counterterrorism. The government must put systems and procedures in place to prevent illegal border entering, deport all Afghan refugees back to Afghanistan, place effective vigilance on the foreign missions in Pakistan, make a complete and comprehensive system and procedures to monitor all trusts, NGOs, madrassas, mosques and other charitable organisations, develop information systems to give real time information and alerts about terror suspects and deploy it at the border crossings, cities’ entrances, airports, railway stations and bus stands and, first and foremost, at key civil and military installations. The government must embark upon cyber regulation, legislation and policy, and effective cyber surveillance to counter terrorism. The media must black out coverage of terrorists and spread the message of love, fraternity, tranquility and brotherhood.

The road towards de-radicalising Pakistan is opposite to what has been followed in the last four decades. As the first and foremost measure, the security establishment must take the principal decision to part ways with the clergy and extremists. Secondly, after addressing the genuine concerns of the Pakistani military, the old doctrine of strategic depth must be revisited. Due to internal turmoil, a considerable policy shift is visible in Pakistan’s policies but still a very strong narrative exists regarding the presence of the establishment’s blue-eyed militants and religious seminaries.

If the government, law enforcing and intelligence agencies could successfully confront the terror ideology, dry up their financing pools, stem militant recruitment, dismantle and destroy training facilities and apprehend, convict and execute terrorists, triumph is bound to come.

The writer is an IT professional and passionate writer and speaker. He can be contacted at meetkashi514@gmail.com