Daily Times

Terrorists killed more than 100 people inside Pakistan within last one week. All recent attacks show, threats of terrorism and mass violence are all too real. But could fear of such attacks be more deadly than the unlikely chance of getting physically hurt by terror? Generally people are struggling with the psychological and physical effects of fear both at work and daily life. Vulnerability to fear cannot exactly quantify their fear of terror including worries about personal safety, heightened tension while in crowded places and fear of a terror strike harming them or their families. Pakistanis are more afraid of fearof terrorism than they are of terrorism.

Life on earth is fraught with natural and manmade disasters. Preparedness between events has steadily improved over the years, but the response is considered, compassionate, and generally focused on recover and rebuild. War, a manmade disaster, leaves more scars, but in time it too devolves into recover and rebuild. What then is so unique about terrorism that people respond to it so differently?

People fear terrorism because they see examples of it, and imagine themselves in that situation, and the imagination then generates emotional responses, which then can dominate their thinking. One reason fears do not line up with actual risks is that our brains are wired by evolution to make fast judgements which are not always backed up by logical reasoning. Our emotions push us to make snap judgments that once were sensible — but may not be anymore. Also, fear strengthens memory, so that catastrophes like plane crashes or terrorist attacks embed in our memories, while we blank the horrible accidents we see daily on the roads. As a result, we overestimate the odds of dreadful but infrequent events and underestimate how risky ordinary events are.

With terrorism, as it advances its agenda, fear begins to dominate society. People start to suspect strangers and anyone who seems out of place. That fear of strangers is probably instinctive, but it rises in prominence. One of the most harmful aspects of terrorism is that it hides among the innocent, which then causes, when terrorism is fought, collateral damage. In war, there will be collateral damage, but responsible actors will attempt to avoid this. Terrorists not only don’t care, but all casualties serve the purpose. That is the function of the fear aroused, to motivate that response.

Since last week whole of the country has been on conditional alert against a possible terrorist attack. Before this new wave of terrorist attacks people were conscious of the possibility of terrorist attacks and have fitted that risk into a spectrum of perils that ranged from slipping on a bar of soap in the bathtub to being on a plane when it was blown out of the sky; a broad, random, dour, but not readily personalized set of risks. They took it that way and learned to live with it. Carefully assessed, the reality still looks much the same, but people are behaving differently now and fear is over powering gradually.

People have entered the fear market, where mainly ignorance and mere perception drive our thoughts, emotions and responses. This place demands our close attention, because we are seldom given enough information to make specific defensive moves credible or useful. Terrorists seldom announce their moves in advance; quite often the announcement is the attack. They cynically scare us and move on. Governments are compelled politically to say they are well informed about the matter and are on top of it, but in reality they are seldom either. The next real attack is likely to catch everyone by surprise, and no amount of warlike preparation significantly alters that prospect. Public argue that not telling them about threats is a bad policy. The net effect of current terrorism information policy, notably the national alert system, keeps us apprehensive, and gives the terrorists one of their best tools: fear.

The second most pervasive fear mechanism is media reporting, often inspired by government leaks or press conferences about possible terrorist threat situations. Few media appear interested in talking about the chronic problems that generate terrorism in many countries, because those tales do not make good headlines. A story about people who blow things away is more likely to make headlines than one about millions of people who suffer in silence, even if their suffering is among the main roots of terrorism.

We need a policy that is based on knowledge and understanding of those facts, not one that relies on fear and uncertainty. Fear of an exaggerated enemy and uncertainty about when, where and how a terrorist attack may occur are the only arguments about the situation?

Little to no effort is being mounted to deal with the psychological problems of terrorism. The causes like radicalisation, poverty, hunger, disease, political and economic repression are well known to many in security agencies and Government. Trying to reduce or eliminate terrorist attacks without doing anything about the psychological harm of terrorism is like trying to eliminate drunk driving without doing anything about alcohol abuse.

That logic would appeal to someone who wants to strike a coin that has a head but no tail. Of course the same logic works for someone who insists on increasing government spending while reducing government revenue. But worse still, this logic works for present policy advocates who appear to believe that terrorists can be hounded or beaten into giving up their grievances.

Operation Radd-ul-Fasad has been announced as a continuation of the National Action Plan (NAP). In the competition for resources, Counter terrorist department (CTD),National Counter Terrorism Authority Pakistan(NACTA) and military security agencies are all fighting for priority. Level of coordination and information sharing among agencies is not robust. Mitigating or eliminating the causes of terrorism would not take away the fear unless addressed as well.

Our best prospects for making another severe terrorist attack on Pakistan soil less likely are contained in better intelligence and closer attention to analysis. Devote needed human and material resources to mitigating and implementing programmes to tackle those problems and promote actual delivery of those human and material resources. We must accept that perfection is impossible and that uncertainties of the types that commonly beset our lives every day are unavoidable. Terrorism at worst is one of those, but it is less likely than many others. This is the antidote to fear.

The writer is a professor of psychiatry and consultant forensic psychiatrist in the UK. He can be contacted at fawad_shifa@yahoo.com