EDITORIAL: The interior ministry’s warning to the Senate, that continued influx of “TTP members” in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s merged districts is “a cause for concern, should and perhaps would have come a lot sooner – considering the obvious state of affairs.

Either way the state, especially its powerful security agencies, are guilty of leaving themselves fatally behind the curve. For, if it has taken this long to raise this matter in parliament then the delay is already unforgivable.

And if it has been discussed before and probably dismissed (as increasing terror attacks would suggest), then, too, those agencies are equally to blame for leaving such a grave threat to the country and its people unaddressed.

Either way, there’s no denying that TTP continues to recruit, train and place suicide members, according to the ministry’s own information, in the tribal area – right under the government’s nose.

The ministry also enlightened the upper house about the fact that much of this “organisation and operational expansion” occurred during the 2022 “peace talks”, which should be evidence enough, if any were still required, of how completely unrealistic and harmful the PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) government’s policy of negotiating with terrorists and relocating them in the merged districts really was.

Now it’s the ordinary people of Pakistan, especially front-line police and army personnel, who are paying for this terrible mistake with their blood. That ISIS was able to exploit this loophole and snake its way into tribal area is another great failure of the people running this country.

Their first and foremost responsibility is keeping everyone inside its borders safe, after all, and it seems that all the lessons learnt at the very high cost of 90,000 lives have been deliberately wasted.

To make matters worse, Islamabad is still clueless about solving the deadlock with Kabul. It’s been clear for a while that the latter is not going to honour its promise to rein in TTP, and some months have passed since the former’s threat of “decisive action”.

To still go round in the same circle betrays just the kind of weakness that allowed TTP to stage its second insurgency. Yet here we are, with the only certainty about tomorrow being more bombs and bullets and more needless deaths.

Let it be very clear that nothing is going to work if the terror threat is not crushed forcefully. The politics that has blinded everybody will become meaningless and investors whose support is crucial to avoiding sovereign default will turn the other way.

There could not possibly be a worse time for the government to be locked in the constitutional requirement of a caretaker setup. At such times, such compulsions only make the work of the enemy easier, just like political rallies before elections, like the one due in February, provide cannon fodder for terrorists.

All relevant organs of the state must realise that too much time has been lost. They need to bite this bullet immediately and do whatever is needed to exterminate TTP and all its affiliate networks and sleeper cells in the shortest possible time.

Last time the war on terror and its confusion triggered TTP’s war on the state. This time the state itself has allowed it to happen.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024