PRIME Minister Nawaz Sharif has vowed to take the fight against militants to cities and villages across the country, pledging to stamp out terrorism wherever it exists.

In clear and unequivocal words, Mr Sharif has not only accepted that urban Pakistan has a significant militant problem, his statement is a vast improvement on the old formulation that whatever the terrorist and militant presence in urban Pakistan, it is a function of individuals and small splinter groups, and not a systematic, organised presence across the provinces.

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Yet, there is much more clarity that the government needs to bring to the issue publicly. In condemning specific atrocities and vowing that those responsible will not be allowed to repeat their crimes, the prime minister left out a significant part of the explanation: identifying the groups involved.

Without identities revealed, groups named, organisations described and methods exposed, the prime minister’s vow will amount to little more than a seemingly firm but in reality nebulous promise to stamp out terrorism wherever it is found.

Terrorism has a face. It has an identity. The militant groups that organise in the cities have physical networks and infrastructure. It is not just nameless men killed in alleged encounters with the police, as happened in the Sohrab Goth area of Karachi again this week.

If terrorism is to be defeated, it has to first be identified. Names have to be named, networks have to be publicly declared and the full spectrum of extremism and militancy laid bare.

But none of that has occurred so far. Why, for example, does the government not state which groups are active in Punjab, name the leadership, explain the connection between extremist religious centres and terrorist recruiting, and, more to the point, make clear the measures the state is taking to progressively shut down the terrorist and militant organisations that have been identified?

The same applies to the other provinces. Is the federal government able to do more than simply talk about cooperating with the province in counterterrorism efforts? As ever, few details were given by the prime minister.

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the state’s, particularly the political government’s, approach to counterterrorism is to co-opt certain sections of the police and civilian-run intelligence to fight a dirty, clandestine war against unnamed terrorists.

All that the public is ever told is that militants and terrorists are killed in encounters where independent witnesses are nearly never present. But that has not and cannot prove to be a successful strategy — let alone a remotely ethical or legal one — because it is simply about cracking down on visible sides of militancy, not the roots that help grow new cells, more fighters and fresh ideologues.

The prime minister needed to speak firmly and a worried nation needed to hear of the government’s resolve. But what is the plan?

Published in Dawn December 24th , 2014