Following Karachi strikes, Pakistan must take decisive steps to destroy terror infrastructure
Going by a letter written by Nawaz Sharif to Narendra Modi, that he was ‘much satisfied’ with their meeting in New Delhi, the two prime ministers have succeeded in striking up a working relationship. But Sharif faces critical challenges at home. Taliban insurgents managed to close Karachi’s international airport twice within three days, with audacious back-to-back assaults. Karachi is Pakistan’s largest and richest city and its main gateway to the outside world. But Taliban has demonstrated that it is not just confined to northern tribal areas, but can attack at will and cut Pakistan off from the world.
Moreover, simultaneous events in Iraq demonstrate what can happen when the state fails and jihadis triumph. Islamists have captured Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city after Baghdad. This raises doubts about Iraq’s survival as a nation. But Iraq is not a nuclear power, Pakistan is. If Pakistan’s jihadis overrun one of its nuclear installations, the situation would be truly catastrophic.
It’s essential, therefore, that Pakistan’s state establishment as well as civil society realise the true enemy they are confronting. Even short of the nuclear scenario, spectacular attacks such as the ones on Karachi will deter foreign investors and persuade domestic ones to flee. The so-called peace talks between Taliban and the government haven’t yielded tangible results, with Islamists using sham ceasefires as opportunity to regroup and rearm. Merely attempting to hold off terror strikes on Pakistan’s vital installations won’t succeed, as some of them will inevitably get through.
Sharif has held emergency meetings with the army, but he must go beyond air strikes and take the decisive step to put boots on the ground in Taliban’s North Waziristan strongholds. Sustained counter-insurgency operations in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border regions will be bloody, but military success there will effectively cut off the Pakistani Taliban from its Afghan counterpart and the dreaded Haqqani network. If Sharif and the Pakistani establishment take down the country’s terror infrastructure it will find Pakistan’s isolation effectively broken as the whole world will help. Modi too should leverage his relationship with Sharif to assist India’s embattled western neighbour in terms other than military. The Karachi strikes should be a sobering reminder to the Pakistani establishment that the enemy is not to the country’s east but within.
The Inevitable
Going by a letter written by Nawaz Sharif to Narendra Modi, that he was ‘much satisfied’ with their meeting in New Delhi, the two prime ministers have succeeded in striking up a working relationship. But Sharif faces critical challenges at home. Taliban insurgents managed to close Karachi’s international airport twice within three days, with audacious back-to-back assaults. Karachi is Pakistan’s largest and richest city and its main gateway to the outside world. But Taliban has demonstrated that it is not just confined to northern tribal areas, but can attack at will and cut Pakistan off from the world.
Moreover, simultaneous events in Iraq demonstrate what can happen when the state fails and jihadis triumph. Islamists have captured Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city after Baghdad. This raises doubts about Iraq’s survival as a nation. But Iraq is not a nuclear power, Pakistan is. If Pakistan’s jihadis overrun one of its nuclear installations, the situation would be truly catastrophic.
It’s essential, therefore, that Pakistan’s state establishment as well as civil society realise the true enemy they are confronting. Even short of the nuclear scenario, spectacular attacks such as the ones on Karachi will deter foreign investors and persuade domestic ones to flee. The so-called peace talks between Taliban and the government haven’t yielded tangible results, with Islamists using sham ceasefires as opportunity to regroup and rearm. Merely attempting to hold off terror strikes on Pakistan’s vital installations won’t succeed, as some of them will inevitably get through.
Sharif has held emergency meetings with the army, but he must go beyond air strikes and take the decisive step to put boots on the ground in Taliban’s North Waziristan strongholds. Sustained counter-insurgency operations in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border regions will be bloody, but military success there will effectively cut off the Pakistani Taliban from its Afghan counterpart and the dreaded Haqqani network. If Sharif and the Pakistani establishment take down the country’s terror infrastructure it will find Pakistan’s isolation effectively broken as the whole world will help. Modi too should leverage his relationship with Sharif to assist India’s embattled western neighbour in terms other than military. The Karachi strikes should be a sobering reminder to the Pakistani establishment that the enemy is not to the country’s east but within.
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