Late Mohtrama Benazir Bhutto wrote a letter to Washington Post on September 20, 2007, one month before her arrival in Pakistan. She wrote: "I am returning to Pakistan on October 18 to bring change to my country. Pakistan's future viability and security lie in empowering its people and building political institutions. My goal is to prove that the fundamental battle for the hearts and minds of a generation can be accomplished only under democracy. "The central issue facing Pakistan is moderation vs. extremism. The resolution of this issue will affect the world, particularly South and Central Asia and all Muslim nations. Extremism can flourish only in an environment where a basic governmental social responsibility for the welfare of the people is neglected. Political dictatorship and social hopelessness create the desperation that fuels religious extremism...When I land in Pakistan, I don't know what awaits me... I pray for the best and prepare for the worst." It seems she had a premonition about her violent death which unfortunately happened in a terrorist attack on her in Rawalpindi. She had two major concerns as she returned to Pakistan; restoration of democracy and uprooting religious extremism and militancy. Her first wish materialised in the shape of a lame duck democracy, which has failed to fulfil her second wish of uprooting the scourge of religious militancy which has been raging in Pakistan for a number of years, but has particularly intensified ever since the democratic government came into power. Although over ten billion dollars of US aid have been pumped into the fight against terrorism during the past seven years and now Pakistan army is fighting a full fledged war against radical militants in Swat Valley and along the tribal belt on the Pak-Afghan border, bit it has not been able to achieve any substantial success so far. This shows how well armed and well funded the militants are who savagely fight the Pak Army in the rugged hills of NWFP. The ANP leader Asfandyar Wali Khan, whose party is in power in NWFP, was himself the target of a suicidal attack in his own backyard. He luckily survived, but has disappeared from the scene since then. The kingpins of militancy Soofi Mohammad in Swat and Baitullah Mehsud and Mangal Bagh operating from various locations in the tribal areas have appeared on TV off and on, are surprisingly at large and have not been located so far. However, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed who supported jihad in Afghanistan is currently in the news. When Lashkar-e-Taiba was banned by the Musharraf government, Hafiz Saeed went in the background and secretly formed another radical organisation - Jamat-ud-Dawa in 1990 which was clandestinely engaged in terrorist activities but surprisingly, our intelligence agencies took no notice of it as it spread its tentacles throughout the country with over 100 offices and a madrassa on a 75 acre campus at Muridke near Lahore. The Jamaat remained under wraps for many years till its activists - as claimed by India - made a daring attack on two 5-star Mumbai hotels and a railway station on November 26, 2008 killing over 160 people. This was the most daring suicidal attack in India which had been the target of several small attacks in the past. Due to a monumental security lapse ten militants entered India by sea, nine of whom died in the carnage except one who was captured alive by the Indian Commandos. According to Indian sources he has identified himself as Amir Imran Kasab from Faridkot village in Okara district of Punjab. India took the case to the UN Security Council which very promptly banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa through a unanimous vote. It has been reported that our ambassador at the UN was not aware of the move and was busy escorting PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who happened to be in New York. Complying with the UN resolution, Pakistan immediately sealed over one hundred offices of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, arrested 50 of its officials and froze its accounts. The US Congress also passed a strong resolution condemning in strongest terms the senseless and barbaric terrorist attack in Mumbai. The swift and strong reaction of the UN to Mumbai attacks is indeed surprising. The major world powers in the security council which generally sleeps over many urgent issues involving much more serious cases of terrorism such as continued killing of the Kashmiri people by the Indian armed forces, mass murder of more than 4000 Muslims by a militant Hindu government of Mr Modi in Gujrat and systematic murder of Christians by radical Hindus in some states of India, took such a prompt action in terrorist attack on Mumbai. There is no doubt that Mumbai carnage is unpardonable, but so are other cases of state terrorism and Hindu militancy in India. The security council might as well take notice of terrorism unleashed in India by the Indian government and Hindu radicals. Now that Pakistan has implemented all the demands made by the UN resolution; India should also hand over the terrorist to Pakistan, who it says, is a Pakistani national, so that he could be punished under the law of the land. Finally the most dangerous sabre rattling and war hysteria unleashed by certain political elements and media in both the countries should stop. The real issue is the scourge of terrorism, which both Pakistan and India should try to eliminate by all means at their disposal. The writer is former director news PTV E-mail: burhanhasan@hotmail.com