PESHAWAR: Two years after a terrorist attack on the Army Public School Peshawar took 144 lives, the federal government is still slow to act on the 20-point National Action Plan to counter terrorism and extremism in the country.

Two years have passed after the APS carnage but ostensibly, the centre continues to be unclear about the strategic actions like registration and regularisation of seminaries, choking of the terrorists’ funding, stopping of the re-emergence of proscribed organisations, checking of religious persecution, ban on glorification of terrorists and misuse of the Internet by terrorist outfits.

It has yet to come up with an alternative narrative to the one that culminated in incidents like APS and Bacha Khan University terror attacks, says Prof Khadim Hussain, analyst and author of the book titled ‘The Militant Discourse’ on religious militancy in Pakistan.

Some immediate measures like the setting up of military courts for two years to quickly decide the cases of terrorism and lifting of moratorium on death penalty were taken soon after the APS carnage.

Analysts regret banned outfits continue to spread terrorism, religious extremism

However, there is a lack of narrative to counter banned organisations and what they propagate.

Analysts say banned organisations spreading religious extremism, terrorism and sectarian hatred continue to operate after changing names.

The force was used to impart death sentences, while terrorist cases were handled by military courts but an alternative narrative to counter terrorism and extremism is still missing.

It might be done willfully or unconsciously but there is a resistance to it perhaps in the government institutions, insisted Prof. Hussain.

The analyst said a lack of the government’s work on 20 points of the NAP was obvious from the fact that the interior ministry and religious affairs ministry hadn’t even compiled the data of seminaries, some of which were even used as terrorist networking tool or as financers of terrorists.

He added that same was the case with the action point regarding the mainstreaming of Fata.

“It was discussed and raised in the Senate, too, that part of Pakistani establishment doesn’t want to mainstream Fata through reforms since it is connected to Afghanistan. The security establishment doesn’t want to change its policy on Afghanistan,” he said.

According to him, ‘zero tolerance for militancy in Punjab’ seems to be one of the most difficult action points to implement.

“Banned organisations are holding rallies and public meetings very openly even in Islamabad,” he said.

The 20 points of the NAP clearly demand that the government strengthen the anti-terrorism institution called the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta).

Dr Sarfraz Khan, director at the Area Study Centre of the University of Peshawar, said the Nacta was supposed to be a coordinating body with the counter-terrorism departments but since it didn’t even have funds to function, what good one could expect of it.

He said the Zar-i-Azb military operation, long overdue military offensive in North Waziristan, might have hit militants operating in tribal belt hard but neighbouring Afghanistan had yet to be satisfied with how much it had destroyed terrorist havens.

“The action point regarding having a comprehensive policy on Afghan refugees and their registration has not been implemented properly. In the last six months, the manner in which Afghan refugees were harassed in Pakistan, it has created a lot of hate there,” he said.

The director said terrorists were still able to target peace committee members and police in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa infested with militants.

He adding that it looked like the militants’ networks were partially damaged and not completely dismantled unlike what the NAP demanded.

Dr Sarfraz said in Punjab, activist of banned organisations were contesting elections that showed there was still tolerance for militancy in the province and that the NAP had not been implemented there yet.

Parents of the students killed in the APS attack have been demanding judicial inquiry into security lapse and to hold security agencies accountable for it.

However, such appeals have so far fallen on deaf ears.

There have been only prayers, tears and candlelight vigils to remember the horror and loss of that day as beyond that, the national tragedy has failed to move the government to fight the monster of extremism, hate and terrorism that nourishes a mindset that could even butcher children for own twisted ideology or interest.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2016