CTD chief calls for in-depth research to counter terrorism

Sindh’s top counterterrorism official has stressed the need for in-depth research and policy prescriptions as well as strategic alliances between law enforcement apparatuses and universities to fight and win the war against extremists.

Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Sindh chief Addl IGP Sanaullah Abbasi, who also has a PhD in law, told The News that correlation between law enforcement and academia is vital, as good commanders win wars with ideas and strategies, without actually fighting them.

Abbasi said counterterrorism has become a complex issue because of a hybrid of four to five generations of warfare, so studies of societies are inevitable. It has become abundantly clear that Pakistan’s struggle against terrorists is a medium- to long-term engagement, he added.

He said that as a military campaign, the struggle is no longer contained in parts of the tribal areas, but has spread over the last few years to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and increasingly in Punjab as well as in Karachi.

There is consensus in policy papers based on significant international evidence and analysis that this struggle needs to be seen in a context larger than that of only a military-style campaign, he added.

The CTD chief said events in Pakistan confirm this and many academic across the world support the approach suggested in these papers that the struggle is not only one of force but also one of ideas.

That is, he explained, extremists are driven by certain worldviews or frameworks of ideas and beliefs through which an individual interprets the world and interacts with it. He said this framework is inherently contradictory to that of the bulk of the population because it is authoritarian, unaccountable and violent.

Abbasi said that as with most countries across the world, Pakistan also has to pre-empt terrorism by tackling its causes. Terrorists have made unrealistic political demands in non-conciliatory manners, he added, and neither these demands nor their modes allow for any discussion, dialogue or negotiation.

He said Pakistani society and the government need to analyse terrorist ideologies more carefully to prepare the nation for rejecting them. “Force alone is insufficient. It’s vital to win the battle for hearts and minds for separating extremists and terrorists from the people they’re trying to mobilise.”

The CTD chief said extremists draw on a wellspring of rigid and authoritarian scholarship and ideas that legitimate their actions. It is these ideologies that are spread in a variety of ways across society to seek popular justification and support, he added.

He said that these ideologies are translated into political actions such as preserving the country’s sovereignty by expelling foreigners or abolishing the constitutional legal system to be replaced by their own brand of justice.

They are also translated into cultural and popular action such as violently banning women in public spaces, enforcing dress codes and restricting cultural expressions such as music, he added.

Abbasi said that such calls for political, legal, economic or cultural action often appeal to the Pakistani society in the face of popular discontent with the country’s political, legal, economic and cultural trends.

A political and cultural strategy to counter terrorism that seeks to isolate extremists from the population they are trying to mobilise must obviously address this discontent or at least appear publicly committed to addressing them, he added.

He said if extremists draw on a well-framed body of research to promote their agenda, the only possible way to counter terrorism is to analyse this appropriately and project an alternative ideology. Positive research can form the heart of a sound counterterrorism political and cultural strategy, he added.

The CTD chief said that such research is gravely lacking in Pakistan. Individual researchers, university departments and the few think tanks are all inadequately structured or capable of engaging in such research, he added.

He said that new efforts are needed to encourage and facilitate independent and high-quality academic research that not only analyses extremist terrorism but also proposes alternatives.