More than 41,000 Pakistanis have been killed in terrorism related violence since 2003, including more than 2,000 casualties only in the first four months of 2012. Yet, apart from military operations in Swat and FATA, Pakistani state has not yet come up with a holistic counter-terrorism strategy; a strategy broad enough to include counter-extremism aspect in order to counter the dangerous narratives which motivate people to commit terrorist activities. Some government initiatives such as the inception of National Counter-Terrorism Authority could not be materialized probably because of the lack of political will from the state actors.
Khudi invited experts to discuss these issues and to make recommendations as to what role the government, international community, civil society, activists and the intelligentsia can play in dealing with the multi-faceted problem of terrorism.
Khudi team explained “The Blueprint for a National Counter-extremism Strategy”, highlighting five components of the strategy:
1) Counter-insurgency
2) Counter-terrorism
3) Counter-radicalization
4) De-radicalization
5) Integration
Lt General (R) Talat Masood, a renowned defence analyst, criticized Pakistan’s foreign policy from Afghan War onward in terms of patronizing jihad and harbingering international militants. Khawaja Khalid Farooq, the head of the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA), took a defensive stance about the failures of law-enforcement agencies, owing to the absence of a supporting legal framework.
Muhammad Amir Rana, the Executive Director of the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, took on the extremist narrative prevalent all over society as the primary cause of failure of counter-terrorism policy. He added that the state does not seem sincere in tackling with non-state actors and that there should be zero-tolerance for all sorts of militant organizations involved in terrorism.
Khalid Masud, former chairman of Council of Islamic Ideology, pointed to the responsibility of religious scholars in countering the spread of extremism. He said that religious scholars need to develop consensus on the justificatory paradigms behinds acts of terrorism which include issues of “Takfir” and “Khuruj”.
The talks were followed by intensive questions and answers session. But owing to complexity of the problems, great many questions are still unanswered.