While I was in Cardiff, studying law, around half a decade ago, I had the opportunity to visit home during the Christmas holidays. I accompanied my mother to a dental surgeon in Peshawar where my family resided.
The doctor asked me the reason I was doing law in Britain rather than in Pakistan. Among many other reasons, I mentioned the security lapses in Peshawar, where every now and then a bomb is going off. I said that the life of Peshawaris was akin to ants that are trampled by humans. The doctor disagreed and narrated the story of a couple that had left for the US because of security only to lose their life there.
Such is the case of Sabika Sheikh, a 17-year old Pakistani girl who recently lost her life in the US. The parents must not have even imagined such a fate could befall their child – who thinks about security when sending their children to another country for their education?
Sabika lost her life in senseless violence, shattering the illusion that she was safe in the so-called developed world. This is not to suggest that parents should not send their children abroad for higher education, rather that it should be the sole reason. Because the notion of security is only psychological, it is never real.
We do not realise that our pursuit for security is the very reason we all feel insecure. People stock up on weapons to keep themselves safe, without realising that it is those weapons that are putting them at risk. One man gets a weapon, then another gets one more to defend himself against the first, and so on. It’s a virtuous cycle of risk.
Instead of killing terrorists and filling oneself with a temporary yet false sense of security, we should look to end the causes due to which a person becomes a terrorist in the first place
This pursuit does not end here, as the false sense of security is only temporary. Apply this example to the love-hate relationship shared by India and Pakistan. After small and big guns, the two countries began focusing on acquiring nuclear power to feel safe. The question is, are the two any safer after spending billions?
So what is one to do? Pursuing security is definitely not the answer. What we need to do instead is address the causes that are breeding insecurity. Instead of killing terrorists and filling oneself with a temporary yet false sense of security, we should look to end the causes due to which a person becomes a terrorist in the first place.
It is almost impossible to stop a suicide bomber from pressing the button. The police and army are not some divine creatures who have some translucent ability to see through people, and find the person wearing a bomb. Fine, we may have hung some of them by catching them off guard but can we stop more from coming, by merely killing them?
In fact, these punishments only reinforce their beliefs. The theory of deterrence has even stopped working on children these days so how could we expect it to work on fully trained brainwashed person.
According to a 2016 publication titled ‘Five Things About Deterrence’ by the National Institute of Justice, a project of the U.S. Department of Justice, “research on the deterrent effect of capital punishment is uninformative about whether capital punishment increases, decreases, or has no effect on homicide rates”.
Of course, action needs to be taken when the threat is imminent. In the long run, a mixed strategy is needed so that terrorism can be addressed and simultaneously people can be rehabilitated. No state can ensure that none of its soldiers die in war but what the state can do is avoid the war, or at least try to.
In the end, we must ask ourselves this: do we really want to live in a state where we endlessly have to carry our identify cards to prove to the police and military at dozens of check posts that we are not terrorists?
If yes, then let us carry on with this fiasco. If not, then let us all join to sort this problem out once and for all, because leaving the country will do nothing to make us secure.
The writer is a graduate of Cardiff University, UK and is a member of The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn. He is currently practicing law at Peshawar and Islamabad High Court and the District Courts. E-mail: [email protected]
Published in Daily Times, June 9th 2018.