Pakistanis must learn the limits of military led counter-terrorism

[Naheed Janjua]

Ever since Pakistan’s participation in the so- called war on terror, the country has solely relied on a warfare approach to deal with terrorism. Operation Zarb-e-Azb was able to turn the tide, and seemingly restored calm. This is evident from a dramatic decrease in the incidence of violence in the country since 2015.

During this time, the civil leadership in the country also evolved two important strategic documents – National Internal Security Policy (NISP), and the National Action Plan (NAP), the latter conceived following massacre of school children at Peshawar in December 2014. The former was a continuation of a prior effort legislating the establishment of NACTA. Both of these articulations were legitimatized by the country’s legislative bodies. NAP was an extra-parliament development conceived under an all parties conference.

Why has the blood letting resurfaced in Pakistan?
All of it sounded cozy to the citizenry, and especially so when the military was ‘winning.’ If that were the case, the conditions that were created by Zarb-e-Azb under the command of General Sharif should have persisted.

Why then has the bloodletting resurfaced in the first place and with remarkable intensity, and why is there the wider perception about the army’s conceding its predominant role in its hitherto full blown prosecution of national counter-terrorism effort. Two aspects warrant attention; first, the reduction in violence which was misconstrued as a victory, is historically not a reliable indicator of terrorism

Two aspects warrant attention; first, the reduction in violence which was misconstrued as a victory, is historically not a reliable indicator of terrorism waning, let alone the decimation of perpetrator groups. Thus an uninformed sense of security was created, which resulted in the relaxing of guards specifically in the civil sphere. Secondly, the objectivity would reveal that the army is continually committed, as it was previously, and its lead role in supporting intelligence based operations throughout the country, within its capacity,

Secondly, objectivity reveals that the army is continually committed, as it was previously, and is still playing a leading role in supporting intelligence based operations throughout the country, within its capacity, and has not altered in direction and scale.

read more: Expanded remit of military operations in Punjab, no decision on PSL yet

Has the military reached limitation over what it can do
Why has the bloodletting resurfaced with remarkable intensity, and why is there this wider perception about the army’s conceding its predominant role in the hitherto full blown prosecution of national counter terrorism effort.

Significantly, where the realization is not understood is that the military system has some inherent limitations. It has reached its organizational and kinetic threshold, and cannot do beyond what it has already achieved. The military instrument by virtue of its structural implications is otherwise unsuited to undertake operations in hinterland. Radd-ul-Fasaad will validate this assertion.

read more: Pakistanis must learn the limits of military led counter-terrorism

This article makes a great point that we - Pakistanis - have left everything (terrorism in this case) for the army to deal with and are not understanding the social disease requires leadership to take the lead - Do you agree?

 

[X-Service Man]

I am agreed with the writer, army can do limmited action against terrorism but to completly get rid of this cancer we needs to do few things as a Pakistani civilians.
Don't hire Afghans, don't rent houses.
Don't do trade with them.
Make social boycott of refugees.
Stop sending u r children to madrassa instead arrange hifz e Quran at regular schools.
Discourage sectarian divides.
Report even minor suspision especially new persons in u r area.
Encourage others about above what I mentioned.

@RescueRanger @Windjammer @Doordie @BHarwana

 

[Windjammer]

The trouble is operations and executions should be across the board.
The violence returned because certain areas remained untouched.
You still have Lal Masjid in the middle of our capital giving us the two finger salute at will.

 

[X-Service Man]

The trouble is operations and executions should be across the board.
The violence returned because certain areas remained untouched.
You still have Lal Masjid in the middle of our capital giving us the two finger salute at will.

The crazy mullah should have been dispatched with his brother but Musharraf did the mistake.

 

[VCheng]

The real point to understand is that the terrorism is just the symptom. The real disease is the radicalism that has spread far and wide within broad swathes of society. Tackling symptoms piecemeal will never be successful unless the disease itself is treated, and thus far, nobody wants to pay attention to that.

 

[BHarwana]

I am agreed with the writer, army can do limmited action against terrorism but to completly get rid of this cancer we needs to do few things as a Pakistani civilians.
Don't hire Afghans, don't rent houses.
Don't do trade with them.
Make social boycott of refugees.
Stop sending u r children to madrassa instead arrange hifz e Quran at regular schools.
Discourage sectarian divides.
Report even minor suspision especially new persons in u r area.
Encourage others about above what I mentioned.

@RescueRanger @Windjammer @Doordie @BHarwana

Thank you for tagging in first.
The terrorism and it reality.
My friend all you have said are good things and I will agree with you if the world was a simple and straight place but unfortunately it is not.

First of all; Why was Pakistan attacked by terrorists?

Pakistan announced PLS final will be played in Pakistan Lahore and suddenly there it goes Boom Boom Boom all the sudden in all provinces there are suicide blasts and every thing goes in the state of chaos. Okay lets keep this in mind and move on.

What is happening around the world and in Afghanistan. ISIS is being crushed in Syria and Iraq. One superpower which is USA and accompanied by Iraqi forces and pounding ISIS in Iraq. The other superpower Russia and Syria are pounding ISIS in Raqqa. Now ISIS is fighting two superpowers at two fronts. ISIS is losing ground in their strong holds and are being eliminated so what will be the best escape for ISIS from this situation? They need to find another country where they will be safe in the hiding and can redevelop and live with what they have looted from Iraq and Syria so which country comes to mind well in this case they have few options 1. Yemen but in Yemen they have competition from Al-Qaida so Yemen is a bad choice. Okay then where Africa, but Africa is deeply rooted by AL-shabab and other groups and is already in civil war and there will be no benefits for ISIS, so what! return the fighter to the countries they have come from and develop from a land occupying force to a simple terrorist organization, maybe! but this is what they can do at any time and they have this as a last resort so what ? Afghanistan a newly born nation divided into many groups and also have many ISIS roots there but in Afghanistan there are Taliban already there but there is also a loop in the form of north eastern Afghanistan a perfect place to hide and redevelop but how to get there ? simple cut a deal with India and Afghan Gov ask them to help in settling there and in return ISIS will protect Afghan Gov from Taliban and Help India destroy Pakistan so an of shoot group of TTP and new addition in ISIS Jamaat ul Ahrar was asked to show Indians what they are capable of and Pakistan goes Boom Boom Boom, Well this made India happy and they started to support JUA but here come the interests of a third emerging superpower China and Pakistan so what now ?
The word terrorism died when USA attacked Afghanistan after 9/11. Now we have a new name it is called Proxy war and it can be only stopped by negotiations but if both side have equal leverage over each other make few blasts in India they will come to the table and thing will come to rest.

 

[Verve]

I am agreed with the writer, army can do limmited action against terrorism but to completly get rid of this cancer we needs to do few things as a Pakistani civilians.
Don't hire Afghans, don't rent houses.
Don't do trade with them.
Make social boycott of refugees.
Stop sending u r children to madrassa instead arrange hifz e Quran at regular schools.
Discourage sectarian divides.
Report even minor suspision especially new persons in u r area.
Encourage others about above what I mentioned.

@RescueRanger @Windjammer @Doordie @BHarwana

Agreed, plus:

National narrative needs to change to change the mindset and get rid of this menace therefore all media houses should fully align with (or be forced to push) that narrative. Not long ago, we had media houses interviewing and glorifying these killers, that kind of stuff should be completely eradicated from media. There needs to a line drawn and any media house overstepping should be muted.

Civilian government needs to get their act together and push the new narrative. Until that happens, forget about winning this war completely.

 

[X-Service Man]

Agreed, plus:

National narrative needs to change to change the mindset and get rid of this menace therefore all media houses should fully align with (or be forced to push) that narrative. Not long ago, we had media houses interviewing and glorifying these killers, that kind of stuff should be completely eradicated from media. There needs to a line drawn and any media house overstepping should be muted.

Civilian government needs to get their act together and push the new narrative. Until that happens, forget about winning this war completely.

Nice, agreed.
Nice to hear ur piece of mind.

 

[The Eagle]

Complete Article:

Pakistanis must learn the limits of military led counter-terrorism
By News Desk

February 27, 2017



Muhammad Feyyaz|

Back to square one: terrorism has ‘reared again.’ There is a general unease about inaction by the army in the general populace and social media is trending with despairing tweets urging the former army Chief General Raheel Sharif to return to nip the violent monster in the bud.

The inference is obvious, that is, the resurgence in violence has a nexus with the change in army’s command, implying possibly that the new army chief – General Qamar Javed Bajwa – is less assertive if not less concerned about the raging perpetrations by non-state actors. Given the traditional primacy of the army in national security affairs, the prevailing mindset is indeed not without rational. The reality is however complex and different.


Success of Zarb-e-Azb
Given traditional primacy of the army in national security affairs, the prevailing concerned mindset about what it is doing or not, is not without reason

Ever since Pakistan’s participation in the so- called war on terror, the country has solely relied on a warfare approach to deal with terrorism. Operation Zarb-e-Azb was able to turn the tide, and seemingly restored calm. This is evident from a dramatic decrease in the incidence of violence in the country since 2015.

During this time, the civil leadership in the country also evolved two important strategic documents – National Internal Security Policy (NISP), and the National Action Plan (NAP), the latter conceived following massacre of school children at Peshawar in December 2014. The former was a continuation of a prior effort legislating the establishment of NACTA. Both of these articulations were legitimatized by the country’s legislative bodies. NAP was an extra-parliament development conceived under an all parties conference.


Why has the blood letting resurfaced in Pakistan?
All of it sounded cozy to the citizenry, and especially so when the military was ‘winning.’ If that were the case, the conditions that were created by Zarb-e-Azb under the command of General Sharif should have persisted.

Why then has the bloodletting resurfaced in the first place and with remarkable intensity, and why is there the wider perception about the army’s conceding its predominant role in its hitherto full blown prosecution of national counter-terrorism effort.

Two aspects warrant attention; first, the reduction in violence which was misconstrued as a victory, is historically not a reliable indicator of terrorism waning, let alone the decimation of perpetrator groups. Thus an uninformed sense of security was created, which resulted in the relaxing of guards specifically in the civil sphere.

Secondly, objectivity reveals that the army is continually committed, as it was previously, and is still playing a leading role in supporting intelligence based operations throughout the country, within its capacity, and has not altered in direction and scale.


Has the military reached limitation over what it can do
Why has the bloodletting resurfaced with remarkable intensity, and why is there this wider perception about the army’s conceding its predominant role in the hitherto full blown prosecution of national counter terrorism effort.

Significantly, where the realization is not understood is that the military system has some inherent limitations. It has reached its organizational and kinetic threshold, and cannot do beyond what it has already achieved. The military instrument by virtue of its structural implications is otherwise unsuited to undertake operations in hinterland. Radd-ul-Fasaad will validate this assertion.


Civilian leadership has failed to take mantle of counter-terrorism
Nonetheless, not only has this fact has not been reconciled with; popular expectations continue to consider the armed forces as its savior to counter terrorism. The corresponding need for an expanded role of civilian government and the bureaucracy, has not been forthcoming, indeed has dismally failed to creatively and perpetually engage with the remaining and broader segment of the actions that were required.

This would entail an array of political, legal, religious, cultural and socioeconomic measures needed to exploit the gains that had been made under zarb-e-azb, in order to contain the spate of violent extremism and prevention of incubation spaces to terrorists. More importantly, the pervasive mindset embedded in social structures and competing doctrinal landscapes in Pakistan, which is susceptible to inimical ideologies, has yet not been targeted.

military has reached its organizational and kinetic threshold, and cannot do beyond what it has already achieved.

For instance, the statecraft is totally lacking in the use of diplomacy for forging international cooperation to further the country’s stability. The role of foreign office is nigh absent for example, in developing mutually inclusive relationship with Afghanistan for joint operations else in formalizing parameters for hot pursuits, beyond the artillery shoots, which is direly warranted in the prevailing conditions.

The military being characteristically a coercive instrument, does not possess the diplomatic acumen to materialize aspects of foreign policy. Public diplomacy likewise requires articulation of a coherent, plausible and professionally devised narrative to challenge the militants’ radicalizing appeals, that has not happened.


No understanding of what is driving the terrorism even now
But, what is even more of concern is that there is no understanding that home-grown expertise needs to be developed drawing upon scientific knowledge, to address the menacing inspirations for these radicalized perpetrators of violence. In fact, the extremists’ clout has been aided by the government, enabling them to further encroach the public space, when the government has refused to equivalate sectarian and terror groups, with the former being declared by one of the key ministers, Chaudhury Nisar, as non-terrorist.

The military being characteristically a coercive instrument, does not possess the diplomatic acumen to materialize aspects of foreign policy.

Furthermore, the NAP which was more of a checklist than a wholesome strategy has gradually worn down more so due to realpolitik undermining it. Besides, it should have been considered a temporary measure, which it was given its out-of-parliament profile; to the contrary, it has been perceived as the panacea for all ills besetting Pakistan.

There was and has not been a sense of urgency among political elites to address the root causes of terrorism, which is essentially a long term commitment. Ironically, instead of inspiring reflection and self-correction, the Justice Isa Inquiry Report was subjected to aggressive charges by the government ministers, whose policy and cerebral inadequacies it has highlighted.


Military equipment cannot tackle a social disease
The basic question is can we liquidate and diminish terrorism and extremism from Pakistan. Indeed, we can bring the rebel violence to under acceptable levels, because it is unlikely to subside any time soon. Nevertheless, the militaries are not designed to deal with such ‘disease’ which is wholly a social phenomenon, and requires addressal in the public arena.

A starting point should be recourse to NISP, which despite some of its snags, can provide a guiding framework to develop a comprehensive counter terrorism strategy based more broadly on dealing with non-military aspects of the threat. It implies broadening the existing response approaches i.e., by shifting away from purely military injunctions to a largely civil led law enforcement articulation, with ‘prevention’ becoming a heightened priority through the application of non-lethal soft power innovations.

Along the path, a host of measures – argumentation, engagement, persuasion, counter/de-radicalization, development, emancipation etc – will need to be instituted through NACTA coupled with the cooption of other ministries including the civil society, academia, clergy, intellectuals, poets, activists, media, experts and entertainment industry.

The habit of customary reliance on the military for any and all eventualities has led to embedding higher expectations from this institution among the masses. This attitudinal demeanour is dangerous, and is prone to spawn aggressive tendencies if frustration is allowed to breed.

Now when the military is readjusting, so it appears, to democratic imperatives, political leadership should come forward to reclaim its writ though a wholesome and result oriented governance commitment among other things, to arrest violent persuasions in the society while retaining the military as an instrument of last resort only. In any way, reactive response to acts of terrorism is transitory and hence unlikely to yield any meaningful results.

 

[VCheng]

No understanding of what is driving the terrorism even now

Really? What we see now is the inevitable result of losing control of the jihad fee sabeel illah doctrine, but nobody wants to see that. Hence the blindness to the true cause of the social disease is voluntary.

 

[schoolboy]

A sadly neglected but accurate point. Soldiers are simply not trained for domestic operations, for behaving sensitively with civilians and for controlling use of force. Plus they tend to usually be non-locals and that aggravates the problem. The Romans recognised this problem as early as 100 BC and the Marian reforms put a strict bar on usage of legions for use within roman borders.

Sadly both Indian and Pakistani people place too much faith in the military and are thrilled when it is called out in support of counter-insurgency, elections, law & order, etc.

 

[X-Service Man]

Really? What we see now is the inevitable result of losing control of the jihad fee sabeel illah doctrine, but nobody wants to see that. Hence the blindness to the true cause of the social disease is voluntary.

Brother Pakistan army's moto is jihad fee sabeelilah be careful sarcasm should be at limit.
Their version of jihad written by CIA that is why it spreads like plague.

But I must admit our society is radicalised but thanks to Allah Almighty we are back on track and soon Inshallah we find peace and prosperity.

Be positive and don't act like mullah sitting in capital with the asheerbaad of hidden ameer ul momeneen.

I reject religious and libral extremism and quite vocal about it. I advice you to be mainstream be in boat brother we need u.

@RescueRanger

Would like to have ur opinion on this.

 

[Naheed Janjua]

The author raises valid points which are important for us as a country to address - the civilian leadership has to take control and leadership and resolve issues through non-military means --using military as a last resort. Removing sectarianism, mosques selling hatred, propaganda, de-religionizing society only way forward.

 

[VCheng]

de-religionizing society only way forward

But who will bell this particular 900-lb cat?

 

[BHarwana]

The author raises valid points which are important for us as a country to address - the civilian leadership has to take control and leadership and resolve issues through non-military means --using military as a last resort. Removing sectarianism, mosques selling hatred, propaganda, de-religionizing society only way forward.

hmm author has a valid point but it will just remove the cover there is much more to terrorism than just religion. Let me tell you something this thread below and the quoted blast happened in Bakhar the bomb was not religiously motivated the bomber was bought from a Madrasa that trained Suicide bomber to kill certain people present at the place at that time...? The suicide bomber was bought for 6 lakh rupees or something like that. So what will you say now.
https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/acts-of-terrorism-in-pakistan.7284/page-21#post-259056

Oct 6, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of people in Bakhar at the outhouse of Rashid Akbar Niwani, a Shia MNA from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, killing 25 people.