IF at times it appears that the state is not demonstrating enough seriousness in the fight against terrorism and militancy, there is also ample evidence that, notwithstanding this country’s battle-scarred landscape, the citizenry itself has the same mindset. Consider the 1717 helpline set up by the National Counter Terrorism Authority shortly after the December 2014 attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar. The government had appealed to citizens to remain vigilant and report any suspicious person or activity for which purpose this helpline was established. But a month later, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan complained that around 500 to 600 complaints made on the number had turned out to be hoax calls, and that only 15 to 20 genuine ones had been received. Since then, matters have only worsened. In Islamabad on Thursday, at a Nacta meeting, data provided showed that out of 8,305 calls received by the helpline in just the first 20 days of July, only 41 had turned out to be legitimate and actionable. This is no less than shocking.

Such a vast number of hoax calls is a serious abuse of the terrorism authority’s time and resources. The only action taken against the pranksters has been the identification of 75 of the most frequent callers, who had made more than 50 calls each, and whose SIMs were shut down after taking the matter up with the telecommunication authorities. This hardly goes far enough. So many people crying wolf would not only be demoralising in the extreme for the personnel whose job it is to counter the gravest of offences, it also increases the chances of genuine calls going unanswered. While citizens must rein in their worst impulses and be penalised where necessary, law-enforcement authorities must maintain the resolve to treat each call as communicating a potentially real and active threat, regardless of what the statistics say about the nature of the majority of calls. The guard must not be let down.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2016