NEARLY two months after militants staged a deadly attack targeting Bacha Khan University in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Charsadda district, the area once again witnessed terrorist violence on Monday.

A suicide bomber targeted a court building in the Shabqadar locality, resulting in a high number of fatalities. The Jamaatul Ahrar faction of the banned TTP has claimed responsibility for the atrocity; among the ‘justifications’ for the attack is revenge for the execution of Mumtaz Qadri last week, as well as criticism of the country’s justice system.

The unfortunate incident indicates two things: firstly, despite all the supposed successes of the fight against militancy and the National Action Plan, gaping holes still exist which allow insurgents to unleash horrific violence.

Secondly, the rhetoric of mainstream religious groups in the aftermath of Qadri’s execution is now being employed by banned outfits to further their agenda. Both these aspects need to be addressed to further hone the counterterrorism effort in this country.

The area attacked on Monday is quite close to Fata’s Mohmand Agency. This agency happens to be the stronghold of the Jamaatul Ahrar, which was known in its earlier avatar as TTP Mohmand.

Despite the state’s actions militants remain active in the area and are involved in various illegal and terrorist activities, including extortion and targeted killings, affecting the surrounding regions — even up till Peshawar.

The attack on the court building, as well as the earlier BKU assault, reiterates the vulnerability of areas located close to zones where militants have harboured influence, or continue to do so.

The state must do a better job of not only protecting such regions, but getting to the root of the problem and disrupting what remains of militant networks. Where the ‘justification’ of the attack is concerned, the militants have picked the very same issue that most of Pakistan’s religious parties are currently agitating about: the execution of Mumtaz Qadri for the murder of Salmaan Taseer.

Whatever the religious right’s feelings about Qadri, they must realise that by threatening to launch a protest movement in memory of the executed convict, they are only strengthening the militant right’s hand.

This presents a very dangerous, unpredictable scenario. Those with cooler heads within the parties of the religious right — and there are quite a few seasoned politicians in this group — should tone down the rhetoric so that it does not aggravate the situation to the point where radical elements use it to justify their unconscionable crimes.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2016