By Sajjad Shaukat
Terrorism has caused massive damage to the prosperity of Pakistan. In
this context, the Parliamentary Secretary for Interior, Maryam Aurangzeb, while
informing the National Assembly on December 19, 2014 said, “Pakistan which
has been major victim of terrorism has suffered a loss of almost 80 billion
dollars including loss of 50,000 precious lives of civilians and security
agencies…huge collateral damage during the decade long war against terrorism.”
Afterwards, these losses increased.
Undoubtedly, in our country, the victims of terror attacks
and suicide bombings have been innocent men, women and children. Regrettably,
those militant entities like TTP, which try to justify terrorism and suicide
bombings in the name of Islam, are misguiding the people, while these brutal
acts are clearly against the teachings of Islam.
Although currently, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Syria and other
Muslim countries are in shambles due to
AI-Qaeda and ISIL terrorism, yet
all types of violent tactics, employed
by the militant organizations could not break Pakistan’s
resolve to defeat them.
Valiant security personnel are facing the brunt of
terrorist attacks, as they have stood up as the saviors of the Pakistani nation.
Pakistan Army consists of six million professional troops who
are highly motivated to root out
terrorism from the country.
In this regard, the capability of Pakistan’s
Armed Forces could be judged from the one year progress of the ongoing military
operation Zarb-e-Azb which started on Jun 15, 2014 against the militants in
North Waziristan Agency (NWA).
On June 10, this year, while showing the progress of the
Zarb-e-Azb, Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Raheel Sharif said, “Terrorists have been
cleared from their strongholds in North Waziristan
and Khyber Agency and fight now is moving into last few pockets close to Afghan
border.” He laid emphasis on “continuation of the operations till elimination
of the last expected and probable terrorists groups and sanctuaries.”
However, since June 15, 2014, the jets of Pakistan Air
Force have bombed militants’ hideouts in North Waziristan,
and killed thousands of insurgents including foreign militants, while Pak Army
has also killed several terrorists through ground offensive and many of them
surrendered before the Army. Thus, these forces destroyed their strongholds,
demolishing tunnels and factories producing IED (Explosives), while drying the
sources of their funds and sinking their public support.
In fact, the different war between Pakistan’s
Armed Forces and the insurgents is simply a ‘clash of wills’ between two
entities. Military thinkers agree that although the physical force will
determine the type and scale of war, yet it is the ‘will to fight’ or ‘moral
force’ that determines the outcome of war. Clausewitz puts it this way, “One
might say that the physical force seems little more than the wooden hilt, while
moral factors are the precious metal, the real weapon.”
In his book, “Fighting Power: German and U.S. Army
Performance, 1939-1945”, Creveld identifies the elements of ‘moral force’, whom
he calls “fighting power, the willingness to fight and the readiness, if
necessary, to die.” The greater these elements, the less vulnerable an armed
force will be to demoralization. ‘Moral force’, then, is the crucial factor in
determining the combat power of any belligerent.
During the successful military operation, Zarb-e-Azb”
retreat of the Taliban from North Waziristan has proved that such elements like
‘will to fight’ and ‘moral force’ have been more found in Pakistan’s Armed
Forces then the Taliban militants. It is owing to this factor coupled with the
spirit of sacrificing their own lives that the Armed Forces demoralized the
militants of the TTP and their affiliated militant outfits.
However, Pakistan’s
security forces are also waging this different war against terrorists in other
parts of the country. In this respect,
every settled district has
operational policing system. Punjab and
Sindh Rangers are available to backup Army and
Police. Frontier Corps, Frontier Constabulary and
Levies personnel are providing additional enforcement
against the militant organizations. Intelligence
agencies of the country are working round
the clock to foil nefarious designs of terrorists
and their masters in hostile agencies.
It is notable that as terrorists had accelerated
anti-social, undemocratic and un-Islamic practices, while challenging the writ
of the state, and had frightened the entire nation by their terror-acts. Hence,
leaders of various political and religious parties including all segments of
society and media anchors—particularly commentators of TV channels, who wanted
that a handful of terrorist elements must not be allowed to dictate their
agenda and to impose their self-perceived ideology on the majority of
Pakistanis are admiring the successes of the security forces against these
insurgents. Now, the whole nation is united against terrorism and is backing
the military operations against these brutal militants.
Nevertheless, the success of the military operations and
defeat of the terrorists will become assured, if the ruling and the opposition
parties including all the segments of society display practical unity not only
with one another, but also with the Armed Forces including other security
agencies, which is also necessary to maintain order at this sensitive moment
and to win this war against the militants.
So, the right hour has come that Pakistan’s media, politicians,
leaders of religious parties and the general masses must not only show
solidarity with the security forces and other law-enforcing and intelligence
agencies, but must also cooperate with them against these zealots, and to take
this war to its logical end.
Therefore, collective wisdom demands that the victory of
people of Pakistan is inevitable in this different war, as
few thousand militants occupying a part of FATA can
neither capture whole Pakistan nor subjugate its 200 million
people. While the state of Pakistan
has the capacity to sustain counterterrorism operations, the militant
organizations are already in disaster. Our salvation lay in final victory,
each and every citizen must own this
war against terrorism and we must
put our full trust in Government and Army.
Everyone should play his part and remain united against terrorists by
showing Pakistan’s
strong determination to win this war against terrorism.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author
of the book: US
vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in
International Relations
Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com
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