A few steps back

Eidul Azha brought yet another reminder of Pakistan’s militancy problem, after MQM-Pakistan leader Khawaja Izharul Hassan narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. It is believed that the attack was carried out by a little known group calling itself the Ansar-ul-Sharia Pakistan and one of the main suspects has been identified as Abdul Karim Sarosh Siddiqui, a former student of Karachi University and a central commander in the group. Ansar-ul-Sharia Pakistan has only become active this year, claiming responsibility for the killing of four policemen in the SITE area of Karachi in June. It is believed that the Ansar-ul-Sharia Pakistan, which has taken the name of a powerful militant group based in Libya and Tunisia, is made up of militants from other groups who have now banded together. It is now the responsibility of law-enforcement agencies to learn more about this group, including how many members it has and if it has been involved in any other attacks in the past. The government has often announced in the past that it has defeated a particular militant group but that victory is hollow if members of militant groups can just join others and form a new outfit.

We know that Islamic State is now well-established in Pakistan and has been behind some of the deadliest attacks this year. That is why a strategy is needed to defeat militant groups like Ansar-ul-Sharia Pakistan when they first emerge and have not recruited as many members. It was particularly disturbing that this group was able to recruit a student of Karachi University. This is hardly the first time a student has been involved in militancy – with Noreen Leghari and Saad Aziz being the most notorious examples.     Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has said that a security audit will be carried out and verification system introduced so that it can try and identify students with militant sympathies.

While it is important to catch students who have been recruited by militant groups, this should not be used as an excuse to curb all political expression in universities or to target students.    There is now a need to figure out how students are being specifically targeted for recruitment and, most importantly, to disrupt the militant groups themselves. We have, unfortunately, not been very successful in         tracking down such groups and still more significantly, have constructed to further their extremist ideologies. This is disturbing. Clearly, the ideas which inspire extremism are alive and well. Police raids in which notorious terrorists are identified or killed may create some damage to their organisations. But this really means little when other groups spring up so quickly, adding to the many already dotted across the bloodstained landscape of Pakistan.