TERRORISTS continue to test the fortitude of the public. The Easter Sunday violence in Lahore last month shook the entire nation. However, it also tested the resolve of the state, and its security apparatus, to take the fight to the militant heartland of Punjab.

The military took the lead yet again, and the civilian government was left with no choice but to avoid displaying any hesitation in taking the militants on. While the Punjab government was quick to gauge public opinion and go along with the military assault against terrorists on their home turf, the centre inexplicably chose to follow a policy of appeasement — vis-à-vis the mullah brigade who violently invaded the capital and brazenly breached public order.

People are wondering whose agenda the religious zealots tried to promote at such great cost to the writ and legitimacy of the state. The episode left a bitter taste in the mouth, besides eliciting expressions of pain. A bewildered populace, and the international community, witnessed the helplessness of the civilian law-enforcement apparatus. Yet again, a high-security red zone had proved a soft target for mullahs on a mission.

Bloody Sunday in Lahore, and aggressive behaviour by the mullahs in Islamabad, should be a game changer for state functionaries and weak political governments. If the APS tragedy was a wake-up call for the military, recent manifestations of violent extremism should galvanise civilian law-enforcement departments into confronting the challenge head-on.

It is time to focus on the non-kinetic aspects of militancy.

As a member of the working group of professionals who submitted a draft of the counter-terrorism National Action Plan on Dec 21, 2014, I have a confession to make. Most of us who went to Punjab House that day had security and law-enforcement backgrounds. We were grieved by the carnage in Peshawar on Dec 16 which had enraged the nation. We resolved to fight terrorism with the full might of the state. Who could be in a better position to fight a war than the army? Soldiers are trained to kill. It was only natural that the military took a lead role in fighting terrorists and insurgents in Fata, Karachi and Balochistan. It was a state of war. The civilians chose to aid the work of the military authorities, rather than the other way round.

The political and civilian leadership allowed their authority to be eroded at the altar of army anger, and public sentiment that fully supported the military against the militants. Saner voices, promoting the rule of law, were drowned out. I found myself part of the minority that advocated building the capacity of criminal justice institutions, while upholding due process of law, as well as fundamental rights (even of misguided militants). At no stage in this war should the state lose its moral authority.

Terrorists on a suicide mission succeeded in their agenda of drawing the state to the path of belligerence — thus becoming ‘martyrs’ for their cause, and recruiting more disgruntled and misguided youth. For them, losing their lives meant infusing their sordid cause with more life. The state failed to realise that even in fighting militants, one has to be just to criminals, who after all, are our own deviant citizens.

It is high time we prepared a comprehensive strategy to counter violent extremism (CVE), in addition to NAP, to defeat the militants’ ideology. It will be a long-term war of ideas to win hearts and minds. A CVE strategy should be based on the following three pillars, as recently spelled out by a former head of Nacta: neutralising militants’ ideology; reducing their strength; and dismantling their support network.

In order to neutralise militant ideology, it is imperative to develop and disseminate a counter-narrative to militancy, and to address factors that breed militancy in society. There is also a need to substantially criminalise acts and actors responsible for developing and disseminating the militants’ narrative and taking deterrent action against those who preach and promote violent extremism.

Militants’ strength can be reduced by preventing the recruitment of new volunteers to banned groups. Our intelligence agencies should focus their energies on neutralising existing members of militant outfits. The distinction between strategic assets and strategic threats should be abandoned for good. The time for proxies is over, if the state is to survive.

The militants’ support network­ — its facilitators and masterminds — are responsible for perpetuating violence against the state. Dismantling it requires choking the militants’ sources of funding. Our security institutions should disrupt the weapons’ supply chain to them. There is a need to disable their communications, whether from across the border, the periphery of Fata or the heartland. Finally, safe havens need to be identified and destroyed.

Any CVE strategy requires an effective partnership between the government, security agencies, the private sector, and with civil society’s mobilisation. Since the Lahore carnage, the government seems to recognise the need for a comprehensive CVE strategy. It is heartening that the Punjab government has decided, in principle, to establish a CVE centre in Lahore — to be the national focal institution which addresses non-kinetic aspects of the war against militancy. These aim at adopting a whole-of-nation approach as part of a long-term effort to root out religious extremism and violence.

The centre’s proposed mandate focuses on three core areas:

Initiate dialogue; by providing a dedicated platform to facilitate focused discussion and collaboration among national and local actors, civil society, researchers and community leaders involved in CVE.

Provide training and practical tools; to enhance the capacities of government and non-government stakeholders to design and implement effective programmes and policies to counter violent extremism.

Carry out CVE research; to gain a deeper understanding of the drivers of violent extremism and approaches that can effectively counter it.

We need a ‘think-and-do-tank’ to deal with extremism. The initiative, although belated, is worth launching — with the full commitment of our state and society. Better late than never!

The writer is a retired police officer.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2016