Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Unrealistic Conceptions

Any longer disputes over whether the Taliban's main sanctuaries are in Pakistan or in Afghanistan will cause digression from the core objective in fight against terrorism. Afghanistan and Pakistan have long been making accusations and counteraccusations on cross-border attacks. Few years after the inception of war against terrorism, Afghan government could prove to the world countries that militants were enjoying safe havens in Pakistan.

Following that, Pakistani officials admitted strong and uncontrolled presence of the multinational terrorist groups in Pakistani tribal areas who are increasingly spreading to the main Pakistani cities.Of course, Pakistan has paid huge costs because of their presence in the country's federally administered tribal areas. The same as Afghans, Pakistani citizens have suffered from terrorist offensives, suicide attacks and extremist moves. And hundreds of Pakistani soldiers have been killed in the fight against militancy. The question, however, is why the activities have not helped curbing religious extremism and terrorism.

The question will be answered by a short review of strategies applied by world countries involved in fight against terror. Clearly, the international community has blundered over the past decade because of their naïve understanding of the reality in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Solid reasons suggest that only curbing terrorism sources in Pakistan can help overcome violence, fanaticism and terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The fact has been, to a great extent, neglected by all parties. Nonetheless, this doesn't contradict presence of terrorists in increasingly wider parts of Afghanistan. It hosts various groups of terrorists who have been pushing to spread violence to the previously peaceful areas. But this should never account for negligence of terrorism hotbeds in Pakistan.

The world needs to purge extremism roots in Pakistan. Not much has been achieved through sporadic and tactical operations by Pakistani army as a result of which the terrorists have been shifting to the neighboring areas. In his two-day visit to Afghanistan, British Prime Minister David Cameron asserted his unrealistic conception of terrorism status in Pakistan. He said that terror threats from Pakistan had reduced while Afghanistan will have to work to purge the terrorists. Yes, Afghanistan will have to work harder to eliminate the scourge of terrorism. But the terror threats have never reduced from Pakistan. Also on the other hand, ineffective measures are taken to control cross-border attacks from both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Unrealistic conceptions lead to formation of impractical strategies which ultimately fritter away current achievements.