Daily Times

When the nation was still not over the pain caused by the terrorist attack on the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar in December last, this January has unfortunately seen another educational institution, namely Bacha Khan University, attacked by four religiously inspired terrorists well laced with modern weapons and supported with the required intelligence. The university administration was organising a poetry session in the memory of Bacha Khan who is considered a symbol of non-violence, communal harmony and struggle for knowledge and resistance against authoritarian forces. Indeed, the university’s logo reflects such values held deeply by his followers.

This terrorist attack has raised a number of questions. Are the attackers local or foreign? If intelligence had already been circulated about an imminent attack on educational institutions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, why were due measures not taken? Why were the police in particular and other law enforcement agencies not able to pre-empt such an attack? Why did the university administrator not take adequate measures to, for example, construct a proper boundary wall and enhance its physical and virtual security? And, above all, why was the federal government bragging about its self-proclaimed capability with respect to the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP)?

As per its tradition and habit, our media started covering the sad event with much hype and raised fingers at foreign forces bent upon annihilating the ‘land of the pure’. In this age of digital information, one wonders what mindset drives such elements and their owners to pursue such a line that has no relevance whatsoever in the legal and academic domain. How can you claim the terrorist attack was the work of, for example, Israel, India and the US without collecting, establishing and synthesising layers of evidence? The same is the mindset of the media in India that, right after the attack on Pathankot, started accusing Pakistan of being behind this unfortunate event. The national, regional and even global media needs to moralise its content and approach issues central to its scope of coverage and presentation.

The government of Pakistan showed some restraint in terms of labelling any particular organisation or country initially. Gradually, the former, after countering and eliminating the threat along with documenting initial evidence, hinted at foreign elements based in neighbouring Afghanistan who masterminded the attack in strategic collaboration with their cadre in western parts of Pakistan. Such a line of investigation led the head of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), General Bajwa, to share due evidence with the Afghan authorities. It is still to be seen how the Afghan state (re)acts in response to Pakistan’s concerns. What, however, cannot be condoned is the fact that the Pakistani state has, once again, failed to prevent and pre-empt such an attack on its intellectual cream, the faculty and students, who are our ultimate weapon against extremism and terrorism. One may agree with the official stance that the attack was conceived from inside Afghan territory where all sorts of militant forces are struggling for power but one will disagree with the official version of the country being cleaned and cleared of terrorists, their networks and operational capability. Indeed, the ideological side of terrorism is still intact for no institutional measures have been taken in this respect. Terrorism literature is easily available in the market with the effect that its online presence and accessibility have increased in recent years.

Furthermore, the Bacha Khan University attack has exposed the inherent hollowness of the NAP, which was highlighted by this writer in these pages almost a year ago. The NAP lacks a strategic and tactical vision. Nor is it implemented with the needed will and where it was required. Its selective application, for example in the tribal areas, has helped decrease the number of terror attacks but it could not reduce the strategic logic of (suicide) terrorism and has failed to hunt the beast across the board. This has, in other words, helped sustain an enabling environment for local and foreign terror organisations in terms of perpetuation of ideology, recruitment, training, fundraising and operationalisation.

In order to counter growing extremism and terrorism, the Pakistani state needs to do more. Foremost is for it to revisit and revise the NAP strategically. We no longer can afford to nourish and host militant organisations as force multipliers. In today’s satellite world, established facts cannot be kept obscured or hidden. Regardless of this, even if we keep breeding and maintaining such militant forces, the latter will always pursue their own ideological and corporate interests. From their logic, they use the Pakistani state as a tool to achieve their political and strategic objectives. Hence, any alliance with such forces is going to work against the state from the short to the long run. Second, Pakistani law enforcing agencies need to target all sorts of militants across the board. If Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh can be pursued, why not Punjab, which hosts a great number of such forces with their well-expanded infrastructure? In addition, the police are to be trained on modern lines to gather intelligence and counter such incidents effectively. It is nonsensical to train faculty and students in the use of weapons to fight terrorism. The faculty should be provided space to generate debate over social intolerance, religious extremism and terrorism, and the students should be encouraged to ask questions on such sensitive issues. In addition, there is an urgent need to deweaponise our society.

Last but not the least, Pakistan cannot win the war against terrorism until we generate and disseminate a counter-narrative at the state and societal levels. Does Islam allow terrorism? Can an individual or group wage jihad? Does the state have the legal and moral right to use military means? Is capital punishment permissible in religion? Is Islam not all about peace? These and other such questions are going to be central to any counter-narrative project that must be initiated and facilitated by the state. Schools, colleges and universities are the best places to take the lead. Remember, in the absence of a logical and moral counter-narrative, Pakistan’s fight against terrorism will only remain prolonged. Regional and extra-regional powers are required to do the same and support Pakistan in this endeavour.

The writer is a political scientist by training and professor by profession. He is a DAAD fellow and the author of Military Agency, Politics and the State in Pakistan.
He tweets @ejazbhatty