Tracking terror

At its first meeting for 2017, the apex committee of Punjab set up under the National Action Plan in January 2015 to tackle terrorism at the provincial level has stated it will do everything possible to cut off funds for terrorism and take other steps to defeat militancy. These include better monitoring of places where militant outfits gather, more surveillance of entry points and a further clampdown on hate literature. The meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and attended by a plethora of security officials including National Security Advisor Gen (r) Naseer Janjua, the corps commander of Lahore and others, discussed terrorism in detail and reviewed the efforts made so far to defeat it. Quite obviously, the funding of terror groups is key to their ability to operate and conduct missions that take the lives of so many. The issue of terror funding has been with us since 9/11, when routes leading to Pakistan were traced out while the money trail which led to key terror suspects was being figured out. We know that the money continues to come in. In some cases, it is collected in the guise of charity or support for ‘jihad’. In others, it may be derived from illegal businesses including kidnapping for ransom or other crime. There have in the past been suggestions that groups such as the Taliban have linked themselves to major criminal mafias in a frightening alliance.

It is obviously important to cut off the money supply to terrorists as a key means to curbing their activities. The task would mean following how money is sourced to banned outfits, with Hawala still being one way of doing this. These matters were discussed at the latest gathering of security advisers. There is also little doubt that in Punjab, where places of worship have been attacked and protests by extremist groups block roads in major cities for hours, hatred remains a problem. The Punjab government, like the other provincial setups, needs to assess why it has not been successful in tackling groups that operate within its territory. The failure has been pointed out again and again and questions raised about meetings between senior members of the federal and provincial government with figures linked to militant ideas. There are many networks that tie them together. These would have to be untangled if we are to leave terrorism fully exposed and defeat terror outfits which for now continue to operate in many parts of the country, including Punjab.