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 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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