MS Khan
The 9/11 attacks were the extreme manifestation of terrorism and militancy that jolted the world as it entirely changed the dynamics of underworld operations. In retaliation, the US landed in Afghanistan to chase down al-Qaeda operatives. Pakistan, being an ally to the US in the war on terror, had to bear the 'brunt of the anti-terror war in shape of militancy and terrorism spilling over to its soil from across Afghanistan. Pakistan has been successful in completely flushing out militants from its troubled tribal agencies especially North Waziristan, and the Swat region through the security forces' targeted operations. The militants did retaliate through suicide bombings, attacks on armed forces installations as well as personnel, government offices, explosions in public places, markets, hospitals, railway stations, airports and bus stands. Their attacks climaxed in December last when they attacked the Army Public School Peshawar, killing over 145 innocent students including teachers.
This gory incident, however, united the whole nation on one platform to crush militancy at any cost. The parliament was quick to pass the 21st constitutional amendment giving full mandate in shape of National Action Plan (NAP) to vanish militancy from the across the country.
Many states around the globe especially Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, France, United States and Nigeria are experiencing terrorism, however, Pakistan is the front row state which suffered a lot due to the terror groups' operations. Until last year, suicide bombings, terror hits; target killings, terror financing with black money, kidnappings of high profile personalities, sectarian killings, foreign involvement especially from India behind the Balochistan and Karachi unrest and communal violence have been the most painful features Pakistan confronted with.
Bases of armed follies, police stations, pipelines, railways, hotel and schools have been targeted. Even mosques, churches and religious shrines have not been spared. The latest statistics substantiate the fact that no country has suffered so much from terrorism as Pakistan. The loss of more than 60,000 innocent lives in various terror activities including bombings, shootings and attacks, etc. have no parallel in the modern history. Apart from all these huge losses, Pakistan's economy could not avoid fallout of the anti-terror war as it suffered $118 billion losses since 2001. The war against terrorism is still going on across the country especially in Sindh and troubled tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
The National Action Plan (NAP) came out of the All Parties Conference convened immediately after the APC attack, in fact, imbibed a new spirit in the incumbent government to crush militancy and terrorism from the country. At that time, the government was very much cognizant of the fact that members of certain political as well as religious groups would fall prey to the NAP implementation. Under the NAP, the activities of political forces are being monitored even today, raids were made on marked religious seminaries to net terrorist elements taking refuge there and froze transnational monetary transactions meant for terror funding.
Even some po1itical as well as religious groups also raised their concerns over, what they termed, witch-hunting and entire discrimination in shape of NAP implementation. However, the government squarely rejected those claims and minced no words in saying that the NAP implementation is against only militant and terror groups and would continue until its targets are achieved. Almost 11 months have passed to the NAP birth. The operations being conducted under this plan are still going on across the country with a sustained progress. PM Nawaz Sharif, being head of the committee constituted to implement the NAP, personally supervises the operations under the action plan. The results coming out of the NAP implementation are encouraging. The fresh data shows that under the NAP the security forces have so far carried out 54,376 combing operations and arrested ' 60,420 criminals. Similarly, 3,019 intelligence based operations were carried out and 1,388 intelligence reports were shared with intelligence agencies. The law enforcement agencies have sealed 102 religious seminaries for fanning extremism in the country in addition to freezing Rs 1 billion funds of proscribed militant groups.
Under the 21st amendment, the moratorium on executions was removed despite pressure from the outer world. The military courts, established as part of the NAP, have been quick to initiate judicial proceedings against those prisoners facing terror charges and are regularly .handing down death sentences to hard core militants. Besides, the names of 188 hardcore militants have been put on the Exit Control List; movement of 2,081 hardcore militants has also been restricted and 230 terror suspects have been arrested.
One of the areas the government has focused on under the NAP has been to curb dissemination of hate speech and material. In this regard, 1,961 suspects have been arrested and 1,893 cases were filed against clerics. Of these, 271 have been convicted while 826 cases are still pending before special courts. About 7,000 cases have been filed and 6,855 alleged hate-preachers arrested. As many as 97.9 million SIMs have been biometrically verified and 5.1 million SIMs have been blocked.
As part of the NAP, the Karachi operation was launched where the Rangers has so far arrested over 58.000 criminals including 9,570 absconders and 630 proclaimed offenders, 1,731 murderers, 713 terrorists, 517 extortionists and 118 kidnappers. Security forces also recovered 15,612 illegal weapons during the operation. Similarly, in Punjab, the Counter Terrorism Department arrested 40 hardcore activists. Due to the implementation on NAP, the heinous crime graph also decreased in the province as the data shows 27 percent decrease in murder cases.
The' NAP is still in progress with full force as the government completely committed to continue it till the NAP targets are achieved. It was also a fact that the NAP implementation has been slow in certain areas mainly due to social, religious and cultural sensitivities. Things cannot be changed overnight as it takes time especially when foreign involvement in destabilising Pakistan is an established fact. The only option is to continue the operations against militants and terror groups as any leniency at any stage would send the country back tp the clutches of those who do not want to see it prosper in real terms.