Daily Times

There is unanimity among academia and practitioners that it is more difficult to deal with the enemy within than the enemy without. This phrase, “enemy within and enemy without” was crafted after being heavily inspired by Quaid-e-Azam’s famous dicta “Peace within and Peace without.”

This short article proposes one strategy that may help deal with the enemy within. Although various state agencies and elements responsible for internal security may already be practising this, it is necessary to reinforce the idea to ensure that it does not go unnoticed.

The first and foremost requirement to deal with the enemy within is its identification because he/she thrives on its ability to merge into society to hide its identity so that it can operate with immunity. Therefore, friends within must be cultivated in great numbers to uncover the truth behind a hidden identity. The defenders’ job, subsequently can be accomplished without any difficulty because no matter how smart and resourceful the enemy is, it cannot fight with the might that the state has.

One can learn from the 1971 events of erstwhile East Pakistan that activists of Mukti Bahni could not be identified because they were able to mix into the populace. Moreover, they had an organized external support of the Indian Intelligence Outfits, which made the job of the Pakistani agencies and the armed forces far more difficult.

Taliban are perhaps a good example of asymmetric warfare where the entire nation supported the freedom fighters against every foreign occupier.

Likewise, in Afghanistan, the biggest and strongest military and the world’s best intelligence agencies failed to correctly identify their enemies in the vast and rugged terrain and that too in a least developed country. The outcome was the same primarily because the US-led NATO did not have the friends within and therefore, the enemy within could not be defeated.

In Pakistan too, the resurgence of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is due to the presence of their friends who are the enemies of the state. This is one of the advantages that the guerrillas have over the regular forces. Therefore, it is incumbent upon any state agency to cultivate its friends in the areas infested by the enemies of the state.

Going back to Afghanistan, one can see a pattern of Afghan society, which does not accept foreign forces on its soil. Historically evident that no matter how strong the invaders were, they could not remain on Afghan soil for long and had to leave after suffering huge losses of life and property. In the bargain, Afghanistan was destroyed and its people suffered immensely over decades of Soviet and the US-led NATO occupation of their beloved country.

Taliban are perhaps a good example of asymmetric warfare where the entire nation supported the freedom fighters against every foreign occupier. The wars in Afghanistan made people suffer yet the people did not accept defeat and they stood rock behind the people who took up arms against the occupiers, no matter how strong and merciless they were. Hence, the barefooted and untrained people could not be defeated even by the history’s strongest military coalition of all times.

In my opinion, it is necessary to understand the efficacy of making friends in the infested areas to effectively deal with the enemies within. However, this could only be possible when the genuine concerns of the residents of the area have been effectively addressed. Most concerns usually relate to justice, fairness, equality, education, health, and poverty.

Over the years, the Pakistan Armed Forces have been instrumental in developing the conflict-ridden areas, however, the effort may not have been enough for now due to which the enemies of the state do find friends in the infected areas. Consequently, the enemies of the state can hurt the personnel of the security forces as and when they desire. This makes people under-confident about the state’s ability to deal with the Non-State Actors (NSAs) who are well supported by external forces and also have friends within.

There is little doubt that the counterterrorism (CT) strategies adopted by Pakistan in the erstwhile Tribal Areas need a review at all levels: policy, operational, and even tactical levels to reduce the number of casualties for the regular armed forces, and other Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA).

At the same time, there is no doubt that Pakistan’s armed forces have vast experience in dealing with the menace of terrorism in all the bordering areas in the West. Therefore, it will not be too difficult for them to deal with the resurgence of the same phenomenon in the same areas if they go back to the basics: make friends within to beat the enemies within.

I am confident that the people of the area will be able to identify the enemies within and become the friends of the LEAs to maintain and sustain the peace, stability, and security in the affected areas.

The writer of this article has authored three international books: “Nuclear Deterrence and Conflict Management Between India and Pakistan” “South Asia Needs Hybrid Peace” and “Understanding Sun Tzu and the Art of Hybrid War.”