America is busy devising ways and means to further tighten the screws on Pakistan. During his latest visit to Pakistan, Marc Grossman demonstrated his remarkable tenacity to avoid the real issues. The political environment is so confusing that a traditionally non-interventionist Texas Congressman Ron Paul fears an American occupation of Pakistan. I see the whole thing as a mess and I think that we are going to be in Pakistan.I think thats the next occupation, and I fear it.It will probably be very unsuccessful, he said. In the footsteps of the sole superpower of the world, India made it public last week that it had handed over a list of 50 most wanted fugitives to Islamabad, which it believes are hiding in Pakistan. The list included the names of Wazhul Qamar Khan and Feroz Abdul Khan, who have since been found living in Mumbai forcing Home Minister Chidambaram to withdraw the list Nevertheless, during these trying times, Pakistans true friends are coming forth to express their solidarity with Pakistan. After the equivocal support by China, there has been a refreshing breeze from Tehran as well. Recently, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad showed immense empathy with Pakistan. He expressed his sympathies with Pakistan in the wake of recent spree of terrorist attacks. We have precise information that the person they [Americans] have recently killed has long been in the hands of the US militaries. He reminded that bin Laden served as a precious pretext for the US to invade our region and we witness the murder of 150 people in Pakistan, each day. He said the Al-Qaeda leader was killed as part of an effort to attract voters in the upcoming US presidential election. Ahmadinejad made these remarks during the concluding session of a two-day international conference on 'Global Alliance against Terrorism for a Just Peace. This seminar was attended by participants from over 60 countries cutting across religious, ethnic and geographic divides. It was opined that only just peace ends terrorism; peace achieved through the use of brute force and by suppressing the voice of the people does not end terrorism; it only postpones it for another day. There was a consensus in the seminar that Islam is a religion of peace, and it does not subscribe to terrorism. Hence, terrorism cannot be linked with Islam and the Muslims cannot be stereotyped as terrorists. Historically, a number of countries have gone through the spells of homegrown terrorism; most of these states have come out of this menace. Sri Lanka is a recent example where decades long terrorism has been effectively tamed in. Likewise, many other countries, like Lebanon, Italy, Ireland, Indonesia, India and Egypt, have been through this agony; all these countries have overcome the problem through national resolve and innovative strategies suiting their local conditions. In case of political deprivation as an underlying cause, reconciliatory accommodation has helped in ending terrorism. Many, once terrorists, now form a part of the current political leadership in Ireland. However, wherever foreign intervention has been the underlying cause of terrorism, it only ends when the occupation forces leave the country. The current wave of terrorism in Pakistan is also one of the fallouts of the occupation of Afghanistan by the US/NATO forces. There is no likelihood of a sustained respite till the withdrawal of the forces from our neighbourhood. The people of Afghanistan are indeed striving for peace in their country. In case of domestic as well as trans-border terrorism, the eradication of extremism is a tall order; it requires a mammoth effort, involving wholesome participation by the state and society for domestic terrorism and conjoint effort by neighbouring countries in case of trans-border terrorism. Within the overall broad counterterrorism strategy, four phases operate in an overlapping and mutually complementary way; these are prevention, containment, elimination and consolidation phases. The preventive phase is an all-pervasive and perpetual phase. It requires an institutional and structural support at the local, national and international levels. This phase continues to make supplementary contributions even when other phases are functional. Prevention comprises monitoring the factors that could contribute towards extremism. This requires an elaborate monitoring and intervention system, including control over the trans-border movement of men and material. State intelligence systems alone cannot perform these actions until societies also join hands. The containment phase comes into play when preventive measures are unable to keep the things under control. The mainstay of this phase is positive engagement through constructive dialogue. Here also, public-private cooperation is essential to generate synergy to accrue the desired credibility of the containment measures. More so, the stringent scrutiny of the trans-border movement is an essential component of this phase. The elimination phase carries forth the effort of curtailment phase and eliminates the positively identified hardened cells of extremists through a proportionate use of military power and judicial accountability. Here caution is due; use of excessive military power causes unwarranted collateral damage and breeds sympathisers for extremists. Military personnel should be appropriately trained for this job and provided with low-yield weapons to keep the collateral damage at the lowest possible level. Military component of elimination phase must run alongside a meaningful political process. This phase should not end up in a stalemate. The judicial process is another component of the elimination phase. This requires specially trained judges and comprehensive legislative cover. The judges and prosecution witnesses need to be protected against intimidation. Forensic skills need to be upgraded for developing all-encompassing circumstantial evidence. So far, this has proved to the weakest link in Pakistans counterterrorism effort. Hardly anyone has been punished meaningfully. Many on bail or those acquitted have been caught again for their involvement in fresh incidents of terrorism. The consolidation phase capitalises on the gains of elimination phase. Its prime objective is to convert an uneasy calm into permanent tranquillity. Through the political process, this phase focuses on establishing essential institutional checks to ensure that the elements which breakaway from the extremist gangs do not relapse. The end of this phase is marked by the benchmark that extremists lose public appeal and sympathy, they are reduced in capability and capacity to an extent that they are neither able to regroup nor reconstitute. Meanwhile, rehabilitation is an essential ingredient of this phase. During this phase, the military instrument goes into the background, while maintaining an effective deterrence. In our national context, the political process in some of the areas, which were reclaimed through combative effort, has been either slow or timid resulting in relapses. This indeed needs focused attention involving a multi-disciplinary effort. The Pakistani nation and leadership stands committed to deal with the menace of terrorism head on. We need to simultaneously handle domestic and foreign factors contributing towards the proliferation of terrorists activities. A wholesome and concentred effort would slowly show the results. Certainly, the process is painstakingly slow and we are in for a long haul. Under these circumstances, it would be appropriate to effectively network with Iran for a joint strategy to achieve peace in Afghanistan that could in turn provide an enabling environment for the sustained eradication of terrorism from our region. n The writer is a retired air commodore of Pakistan Air Force. Email: khalid3408@gmail.com