THE deadliest attack in the UK since 2005 is the most wretched yet. A suicide bomber stood among a crowd of teenagers and young people and deliberately detonated an IED — an act of violence so ghastly that it numbs the mind. Pakistan, which has suffered many terrorist atrocities, none worse than the barbaric targeting of children in the APS attack of December 2014 in Peshawar, can extend its deepest condolences to the UK and must renew its pledge to cooperate with the UK in the fight against terrorism wherever necessary. The militant Islamic State group, which has claimed responsibility for the Manchester attack, is truly the biggest global threat since Al Qaeda, and a greater, more sustained, more coordinated effort is required by the global community to eliminate it. Confirmed details are necessarily scarce so soon after the attack, but the scope of the IS threat is clear. From so-called lone wolf attacks by self-radicalised individuals absorbing IS propaganda to the direct cultivation of militant cells, networks and armies across the world, IS has established itself as the pre-eminent militant threat to the global order.

Worryingly, while the international community appears to understand the gravity of the IS threat and the need for coordinated action against it, the global fight against militancy appears to be headed in the wrong direction. In a week where the US president is in the Middle East and representatives of many Muslim states are gathered to pledge to fight militancy, there could have been the possibility of a united front against the principal common threat facing the Western and Muslim worlds. Instead, US President Donald Trump’s policies threaten to exacerbate the very IS threat he has vowed to eliminate, while the Muslim world appears to once again be dividing itself along sectarian lines. Where IS has deadly clarity in considering every single nation on the earth as its enemy, the international community is unable to recognise that the direction it is taking in the fight against militancy may prolong and extend the threat of terrorism.

For its part, Pakistan needs to recognise that it risks jeopardising the gains it has made in the domestic fight against militancy for two reasons. One, the IS threat inside Pakistan is not being taken seriously enough, particularly with strong counter-extremism measures yet to be implemented. The pernicious effects of IS propaganda are already becoming visible inside Pakistan, with the skilful exploitation by the group of social media and the internet already claiming a number of victims. Just as counter-insurgency and counterterrorism together have been unable to end the Pakistani Taliban threat, the IS threat will not be defeated without robust counter-extremism measures. Two, Pakistan must reconsider its involvement with the Saudi-led Islamic Military Alliance if it continues down the path of becoming an anti-Iran force. The national interest is paramount and clear: no involvement in regional or sectarian conflicts of any kind.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2017