Sir: The recent deadly bomb blasts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have shown that clandestine terrorist networks are still operating in Pakistan’s western belt. A myriad of military operations have been conducted to rid the country of this disease. Victories have definitely been won by the state against the terrorists, but we still haven’t managed to solve the problem. The fact is that these organisations have very deep roots, so this will be a very long war. The terrorists have caused disruption and heinously attacked election campaigns to weaken Pakistani democracy. Huge sums of money are spent annually on the defence budget for the elimination of these non-state actors, and to end the hue and cry of the people of Pakistan for peace. Elections decide the fate of a country for the next five years. Peaceful elections are the basic right of every democratic state. Intrusions in elections by violent means points to hidden hands which want disrupt the democratic process for their own vested interests. High security should be allotted to polling booths in KP and Balochistan. TOOBA MUJTABA Bannu Published in Daily Times, July 25th 2018.