IT is an essential milestone in the long road back to normality in Swat. The return of security responsibilities and administrative control of Swat to civilian authorities was carried out in a handover ceremony in the district on Monday.

A district police officer has now assumed primary responsibility for security in Swat, more than a decade since the military was drafted in under Article 245 of the Constitution to fight the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan that had overrun Swat and much of Malakand division.

The fight-back against militancy gathered pace in Swat, and military operations in Malakand division a decade ago were a springboard for a series of security gains in Malakand and the erstwhile Fata.

The long pause before the start of Operation Zarb-i-Azb in 2014 was unfortunate, but today, there is no region in the country that the Taliban have under their de facto control.

Sporadic militant violence in various parts of the country clearly continues and the triple threat of terrorism, militancy and extremism has not been eliminated. But the recovery since the security lows from 2007 to the start of the 2010s is undeniable and remarkable.

The bravery and sacrifices of Pakistan’s security forces, military and civilian police, are tremendous and shall not be forgotten by a grateful nation.

As security commanders at the handover ceremony noted, the ongoing fencing of the Pak-Afghan border is an important plank of the military’s strategy to bring true peace to Pakistan’s militancy-hit regions. The killing in Afghanistan of Mullah Fazlullah, the TTP kingpin who rose from Swat, earlier this year underlined the cross-border nature of militancy and why the TTP has proved so resilient.

Fencing alone will not solve the problem; border security cooperation, intelligence sharing and the elimination of militant sanctuaries on both sides of the border will be required. It is to be hoped that Pakistan and Afghanistan can work jointly to deliver regional peace goals.

The handover to civilian authorities in Swat should also draw attention to the inability of the state so far to build on important counter-insurgency and counterterrorism gains: the fight against extremism has virtually stalled, and it appears that extremist elements in certain quarters are in the ascendant.

The history of the rise of Fazlullah and the Taliban in Swat began with a dismantling of the social contract and space afforded to extremist elements. History should not be allowed to repeat itself elsewhere in Pakistan.

Finally, Swat is an important lesson in both the civil and military sides of the state working in cooperation with each other to deliver stability and peace with prosperity to follow. The fight against terrorism, militancy and extremism requires the full array of the state’s resources, civil and military.

The ongoing merger of Fata with KP is the next big test of state institutions’ willingness and ability to cooperate.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2018

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