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| How should India respond to global 'Jihadi' upsurge ? | | | M.M.Khajooria | 2/7/2015 11:13:39 PM |
| The 16 December, 2014 horrendous Tehreek-e-Taliban attack on the Peshawar Army Public School and tar- -geted slaughter of 166 school boys sent massive shock waves across that country . An all pervading sense of outrage gripped the entire nation. According to Prime minister Nawaz "The Peshawar atrocity has changed Pakistan.This horrendous attack has shaken the nation as the terrorists attacked the future of this country". "We need to eradicate the mindset of terrorism to defeat extremism and sectarianism," he declared
The deeply wounded army was furious and determined to hit back massively and decisively. The pain and anger generated by the most inhuman and deadliest strike in Pakistan's history unified all mainstream political and religious parties. Even parties which had cosy relations with terrorists and made no secret of their opposition to military operations against them felt compelled to extend their unequivocal support for anti-terrorist measures. Nawaz Sharif described the coming together of country's political leadership on 24 December, 2014 in Islamabad as a 'defining moment' in the fight against terrorism. The marathon meeting approved a comprehensive plan of action against terrorism . The meeting was attended by chief ministers of Punjab, Sindh, and KP, Interior Minister Choudary Nisar Ali Khan and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and KP Governor Sardar Mehtab Abbasi,. Pakistan army was represented by COAS Gen Raheel Sharif, Director General Inter-Services Intelligence and Major Rizwan Akhtar .
The army demanded and had the National Assembly unanimously amend country's constitution authorising Military Courts to try cases of terrorists. The concept of the military courts was justified on the ground that the Taliban and other militant groups had intensified attacks not just against security and military targets but also civilian institutions such as schools and other private facilities. Significantly, terrorist acts or sectarian violence against minorities was added in the list of offenses to be tried by military courts.
The Prime minister lifted the moratorium on executions under which 500 convicted terrorists were enjoying comfortable life in prisons. Ever since terror convicts were being executions on regular basis. As may be seen ,the response by the Pakistan government was structured, focused ,participatory and national in character . The National Action Plan provided effective and comprehensive response to the fall out o of the Peshawar school massacre. The NAP was billed as " a foreign policy doctrine andanti -terrorism program launched by the Pakistan government to launch crackdown on proscribed organizations. The Plan authorized the Foreign, Finance, and other ministries to reach out to the friendly Muslim countries to clamp down on financiers of sectarian and terrorist networks operating against Pakistan" . All this was accomplished in a just one week .It. however needed to be emphasized that Peshawar Army Public School massacre provided the trigger to the focused and unified national response which estimated loss of 50,000 Pakistanis, including more than 5,000 security personnel, and cost more than $1 billion in financial losses in North Waziristan Considered as the epicenter of terrorism, could not do. These developments had to be viewed in the context of emergence of the Caliphate of ISIS and global 'Jihadist' upsurge. As it is, the Tehrek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was operating in conjunction with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), Al-Qaeda and other terrorist outfits. Contrast this with what was our response to the terror in Jammu and Kashmir, call it proxy war , low intensity war by Pakistan or more importantly terrorism promoted and conducted by international Pan Islamist terror machines as you will. Don't forget it had by now taken almost entire country in its deadly embrace. The political class, the media and the strategic and intellectual communities in this country peddle varying, different and not infrequently conflicting perspectives generating confusion in public mind. The absence of informed, comprehensive and focused public perception and dearth of adequate and abiding public sensitivity denied the required public pressure and yielded space for lobbies that were not only soft on Terrorism and its promoters but even went to the extent of finding alibis for them. They not only managed to operate openly and shamelessly but were even at times able to influence the government policies. Tragically, for governments of India past or present crafting of a bi-partisan , national and unified counter to the on-going quarter century old grave assault on our country's integrity and national unity was not a priority. This had to change. The rise of Abu Bakar Bagdadi led Islamic caliphate of Syria and Iraq and the magnetic pull that Bagdadi was proving for disgruntled and brainwashed Muslim youth the world over, certainly not excluding India could be ignored at grave national peril. The stark truth was that the entire ball game had changed and there was neither scope for complacency nor option of neutrality. Significantly, Pakistan had equated 'Jihadi' terror with sectarian violence. We need to do the same substituting communal violence for sectarian violence.
What should be the Indian response to the global 'Jihadist' upsurge? The one and only one option for India was to forthwith institute a comprehensive national policy to eliminate terrorism root and branch internally, repel attacks from across its borders and take all necessary conventional and non-conventional measures ,diplomatic and strategic to ensue security of its citizens, preserve national unity and guarantee integrity of country's frontiers. It must be recognized that wagging and winning the battle of ideas was the most crucial part of battling terrorism. This could be achieved by forging a comprehensive power packed national narrative capable of countering the regressive and intolerant narrative of the Jihadis. Only in this manner could the public support for counter-terrorism operations be ensured. |
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