Poets and philosophers have often dreamt of a happy land where there would be

everlasting peace and plenty. It is the desire of all men to live peacefully. So much
of the human conception of heaven, for instance, is the result of the desire of a
world where perfect peace reigns. But these dreams have remained dreams.
Mankind today seems to be very little nearer achieving eternal peace, then
centuries ago.
As the poet described,
And each dweller, panic -stricken,
Felt his heart with terror sicken…
Terrorism either by the state or by the non-state actors, it is cruelest of crime
which kills fewer criminals but more innocent citizens. It is a psychological state,
which combines the physical and mental efforts to create dread and insecurity.
However on a broader view one can say,
“Acts committed with
the aim of seriously intimidating a population, forcing a government or international
organization to abstain from performing any act, or seriously destabilizing or
destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of
country or an international organization.
When the whole world is in the cruel jaws of it, this reality can not be curtailed
through the more terrorism by the state, as many countries of the present are
trying to do it in this way. The obvious examples of Kashmir and Palestine speak
horrors of inhuman acts. If we take the political disputes like Iraq, Afghanistan, the
interior motives of war on terrorism are:
To get hold of natural resources of Muslim countries, either by the policy of
friendship or confrontation.
To malign Muslim freedom struggles like movements going on such as in Kashmir,
Chechnya, Palestine.
To damage the ideology of Islam specially Jihad.
Terrorism in Pakistan is strongly associated with suicide bombing.
Suicide bombing is a sociological problem for the Muslim world. It evolved over the
last 17 years. The first suicide attack ascribed to the Palestinian cause occurred on
April 16, 1993.The soviet Afghanistan war was the most critical event responsible
for spreading militancy and intolerance in Pakistan. The aftermath of Soviet
withdrawal exposed the damage, transformation of violence and weaponisation into
Pakistani society. It ultimately plagued Pakistan with a new trend commonly
referred as “Kalashnikov Culture” and Talibanization”.
Pakistan has never had any problem with the way the tribals lived
their lives. The government of Pakistan had never interfered with their rituals which
they called “Shariat”.However when Nato and U.S troops, in the wake of 9/11,
occupied Afghanistan, the tribals on the Pakistani side as has been their wont for
centuries came to the help of their kinsman across the border fighting the
occupying troops in the same way as they did when Afghanistan was being
occupied by the Soviet troops.
Supporters of the Afghan Taliban in the tribal areas transitioned
into a mainstream Taliban force of their own as a reaction to the Pakistani’s army’s
incursion into the tribal areas, which began in 2002, to hunt down the militants. In
December,2007,about thirteen disparate militant groups coalesced under the
umbrella of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).These terrorist groups are also joined by
the several fighters which were not accepted by their countries after Soviet-Afghan
war.TTP has announced a defensive Jihad against the Pakistan army. It is involved
in many terrorist activities in Pakistan.
There are several causes of terrorism in Pakistan such as:

Political Instability
a. Since coming into being, in Pakistan people’s interests have never been concerns
of ruling elite, except for brief early years. As a result different institutions could not
be built on solid footing and competent individuals were gradually replaced by
incompetent and corrupt ones. Resultantly, nations’ interests were thrown to back
stage and individuals/elite groups’ interests took prominence. It is also a fact that
during British rule the Muslims either themselves remained away from modern
education or they were kept away by British-Hindu nexus. So, whereas India’s
populace was already following a correct path w.r.t education and they just had to
put in place a system which suited them. On the other hand problem faced by
Pakistan was a misdirected population and off course no good education system.
With loss of capable and sincere leadership very early, we transcended into a long
never ending period of intrigues. No system could be devised and we had to wait
for long 26 years to have our first comprehensive constitution. Since masses’ voice
were not hard and were misrepresented, they found other avenues to vent their
anger. Unfortunately, most the time such a\venues were non-state entities. This
self-amputation resulted in loss of one arm, but we did not learn our lessons.
Resultantly sense of deprivation amongst wider populace kept growing.
Socio-Economic deprivation
b. Natural outcome of instability discussed in preceding paragraph was absence of
any system to address peoples’ problems. Consequently economic problems of
common man have been on the rise since 1947, each coming day brings more
problems than solutions. Resulting poverty and deprivation is having a toll on their
social structure, causing nothing but total frustration.
Lack of quality education
c. The biggest cause of our today’s problems is lack of quality education for
common man. Since we have not been able to configure best education system for
the nation, we have reached a stage where no body wants to send his child in Govt
schools and good private schools are out of reach. So a common man has been
deprived of his birth right to get education. We are at the lowest levels in the world
for Human development index. Once our PM said that there are jobs in industry but
no body to claim it. He was absolutely right, because unfortunately labor with the
requisite skills is not available. We are neither doing any value addition to our raw
export products nor we doing it for human capital. We are exporting raw materials
and others after doing value addition are earning much more than us. The gap left
by govt in the field of education is then filled by charity organization. This is where
the whole problem starts.
Role of religious Medressas
d. Religious Medressa is not something new for the Islam or this particular region.
This education is being imparted since last 1400 years, and even in most tumulus
periods of history medressas were not blamed for inciting violence. The picture in
our country changed when in 1979 Russia, and then USSR attacked Afghanistan.
World in large and Pakistan in particular were made to believe that Russia was
vying for direct access to warm waters of Indian Ocean. We had much more at
stake in the presumed scenario than any body else in the world. So we decided to
play the role of frontline state in efforts to push Russia back for Afghanistan.
e. The Afghan people had risen in rebellion as it was their natural instinct. World
superpowers led by USA and aided by Arab countries decided to pour in a lot of
money needed fund such a resistance, called Jihad against to Russia. A large
portion of money received went into already functioning and to establish new
medressas. The number of medressas grew enormously in this period as we had
plenty of poor population who could not send their children to schools; in this case
they were also promised paradise in life hereafter. US and Allies got able,
committed and cheap recruits and heads of religious seminaries got their kitties
overflowing with dollars-who was worried.
f. A large number of students went for Jihad to Afghanistan and by grace of Allah
defeated the godless people. But after Russia’s eviction, US and allies left them in
lurch and moved away quickly. Whatever happened in Afghanistan after that is a
long story, but there were two remarkable changes in our society. First religious
leaders were no poorer and secondly we had large population of people with just
religious education. Such people with religious education had been taught to view
life from one angle and any other angle was not acceptable to them. Religious
leaders had become part of elite and had vested interests. From here the story
takes a new turn when these people started looking inwards for non-conformities to
true Islam. This was perhaps an end to our long established pluralistic culture and
values. Result was a wave of vicious cycle of Sectarian and Inter-sect and Interfaith
violence/terrorism.
Geo-political settings
g. Pakistan is located in a region which world powers cannot afford to ignore and is
surrounded by an enemy always looking for an opportunity. Unfortunately we have
been very generous in providing them with ample of opportunities to damage us.
We had a longstanding Kashmir issue with India fueling our desire for Jihad and
then everything changed after 9/11. After the fateful incident we had to abandon
our support for Taliban and support US policies against very people nurtured for
Jihad by US and Allies. Pakistan’s position became precarious on three accounts; we
had to ditch staunch Pakistan supporter Taliban regime and the new regime was
extremely hostile to us, the people we turned against new our systems very well so
they knew how and where to hit, new regime and Afghanistan allowed India to fulfill
their malicious agenda against Pakistan form our backyard.
h. The war on terror which we subsequently joined resulted in collateral damage on
many instances within our territory and in Afghanistan. The collateral damage
resulted in hatred for Pak-Gov and a cycle of revenge against state started. These
people filled with such hatred and sense of revenge’ were ready made recipe for
suicide bombers. They just needed the someone to provide them right kind of
training and material. This requirement was fulfilled by various sources, including
our enemies operating from Afghanistan. But again the finger is only pointed
towards local religious extremist. It is true they ma have their own share of
responsibility, but again someone in guise of religious motivator could have been
involved.
Use of Army/Law enforcement agencies
j. No other issue requires so much attention I this struggle as the use of force
requires. Use of force in such issues is not very effective as a multifaceted problem
requires a comprehensive and well thought out multi pronged solution. Since this
problem is deeply rooted and even dates back to decades, use of force would be of
little help. We would first have to address underlying causes; we are rather
concentrating on acute symptoms. We should first attempt to address the basic
issues to convert the problem from limit this endemic. Finally we can carry out
accurately planned surgical attacks to finish off the real culprits.
Remedial Measures
4. A cursory look at the root causes of terrorism indicates that in Pakistan his
phenomenon has not come to fore overnight. It has taken decades to flourish and
involves many factors. Since terrorism is a multifaceted, the solution has to be
multi pronged. In view of the root causes described in above paragraphs, the
possible remedies could include:
a. Strengthening state institutions and devise system whereby peoples’ interests
are safeguarded and not of elite’s.
b. Revamp the whole education system with a view to have common system of
education through out the country. The standard of education imparted in Gov
schools be improved to level comparable with developing countries. Right kind of
technical and vocational training should be provided to youth, which is compatible
with requirements of today’s industry needs. This would also add value to our
human capital.
c. Poverty is said to act like “Magnifying Glass”. It magnifies every thing, poor’s’
happiness and also sorrows. The sense of deprivation when increases manifold, it
drives masses towards violent ways. It may be manifested in our changing social
behaviors and extreme cases can be people resorting to terrorist activities to
satiate the sense of deprivation. Govt must make concerted efforts towards poverty
alleviation. In presence of poorly educated masses stricken by abject poverty,
people with heinous desires would keep getting recruits for terrorist activities.
d. We should resort to aggressive diplomatic campaign to expose regional and
international players who by creating problems for us, are actually hampering our
efforts for war against terror. Despite making most of the sacrifices and
contribution in this war, we are only being posed as part of problem rather than
solution.
e. We should also advocate the solution of long standing political issue involving
Muslims, eg. Palestine and Kashmir issue. Because these issue are part of
motivational strategy for hiring recruits. However, if sincere efforts are not made in
this regard, in all likelihood, the conflict will go on.
f. All efforts must be made through different means to isolate innocent people lured
by malicious elements. The use of force against such elements will then prove to be
of tremendous help.
5. The war against terrorism is going to be a long drawn war and not a battle. And
winning wars involves wisdom to make politic choices, meticulous planning and
execution, character to learn lessons, strategic retreats and even shaking hands
with arch adversaries. Our first aim should be to move this battle ground away from
our motherland and ensure peace and security. Then we should make a sincere
effort to remedy the underlying causes which beget conducive environment for
voilent attitudes to flourish. Only then we can fulfill our dream of providing decent
living to our populace and at the same time, serve as a good neighbour.

Introduction

The war is the dangerous inventions that the human ever created. Human minds are so powerful

that they crafted variations of the war. There came the scientific exploration like the massive
destroyer which includes the chemical weapons. The war inherited its powerful authority into its

younger version, the terrorism.

Unlike the war, terrorism is a kind of massive assault that is hidden and the agenda is hard to

decipher. But the terrorism act triggers a clue to start a war. There are always characters involved

when there is an attack like the one portrayed in the film. However, the film is just a creation of

the mind, and terrorism when happens in reality and meet the eyes is not a drama.

Pakistan and Terrorism

The 21st Century was welcomed with a bomb. The attack on World Trade Center opened

a new chapter in the modern history. Many scholars told that the attack was foretold in the

visions of Nostradamus; stating that the Twin Towers in the City of York is burned into a

demonic fire until it kissed the heaven.

The terrorism opened a business such as another form of capitalization. But it is hard to

swallow that a country has no choice in receiving the king of package and became a pre-requisite

for development. Pakistan is paying a heavy price due to war on terrorism. The country itself has

become a battle ground, which is fighting at economic, social and political fronts. Many theorists

think of terrorism as an unconventional warfare and a psychological warfare but 9/11 has given

terrorism a new definition and dimension.

Causes of Terrorism

In the world wide view, there can be several causes of terrorism: political oppression,

cultural domination, economic exploitation, ethnic discrimination, and religious persecution. In

Pakistan, it is primarily due to religious and economic factors. The religion became the first

trigger the terrorism when the concept of jihad is exploited.

The technology is another contributing factor in the spread of terrorism in Pakistan. Hi

tech and cheap technology is easily available. Hiring of terrorists, transfer of funds,

communication is done by the use of information communication technology (ICTs).

Technological based weapons are easily accessible given the lack of strong legislation to control

arms trading. With the access to the Internet makes it possible for anyone to have the know-how

of building bombs and executing attacks.

The increased danger of sectarian motivated acts of violence, have gained in power and

influence over the recent past. External as well as internal influences have impacted the sectarian

issues and have served to further intensify the magnitude and seriousness of the problem.

Sectarian violence, therefore, was an extremely rare and unheard of phenomenon in Pakistan

with sectarian disputes being very localized and confined rather than being frequent and

widespread.

Another factor is the fall of the Taleban that introduced a new dimension in terrorism

activities in Pakistan because a sizeable number of the Jehadi elements who returned to Pakistan

got involved in terrorist activities.

The recruitment of the terrorists is very alarming and somewhat growing fast. Some terrorists are

less than 20 years of age. The education has also serves as one of the impact in military potential.

It is said that secular or sectarian schools are a training ground for the future terrorists, which has
the main purpose is to teach Islamic education for the poor. These kinds of schools are supported

by the outside alliance, and not beyond the government knowledge.

Most of the sectarian terrorists in Pakistan obtained their military training abroad (in

Afghanistan) while the other sectarian militants were all trained within Pakistan. The

effectiveness of the propaganda and training material is not that strong if there is no will r

motivation. They use the vulnerability of the youth to become at least fearless and without any

remorse at their acts. Moreover, it is determined through series of studies that family background

also played a role in the recruitment of the militant sectarian groups. There’s only a little percent

of contribution that came from the poor families up to the middle class.

Conclusion

The terrorism really terrorized the country. The fact that the terrorists’ attacks their main target,

they also include the other supporting countries. The terror that they bring usually lasts in months

and the terrorists are willing to risks their life through their common attacks, suicide bombings.

The main cause is still blurred, although it is basically formed through the sectarian aspect and

other political adversities. Is the reason is to become united with the other religions or the war to

become the supremacy. There are many political issues that have to answer which includes the

position in the government. But is these reasons are truly reasonable enough to dilute a kind of

attacks and destroy the peace in other countries?

The Pakistan should stay intact in their common goal to raise a war against the terrorism and the

revolt among the terrorists that plans to kill just for personal interest.
References:

Salman, A., (2009) Pakistan in the War on Terrorism: A View Point From Pakistan, South Asian

Analysis Group [Online] Available at: http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/

%5Cpapers31%5Cpaper3026.html [Accessed 01 Sept 2009].

Ashraf, T., (2008) Terrorism in Pakistan: The Emerging Trends [Online] Available at:

http://www.grandestrategy.com/2008/01/terrorism-in-pakistan-emerging-trends.html [Accessed

01 Sept 2009]