Confusion

Why are we so confused about Daesh and its presence in the country? Why is there this reoccurring reluctance to face up to facts and look head on at evidence that the group is indeed establishing a presence in the country? Just as the IB chief informed a Senate committee that a major Daesh network based in the country had been broken up, the Foreign Office spokesman in his weekly media briefing maintained that there was in fact no organised Daesh outfit operating in Pakistan though certain groups may have some loyalty to the extremist group. We wonder then what the security agencies were doing. Were they playing games of make believe like little boys and shooting at imaginary enemies? If this was not the case why would the IB chief, presumably a man of responsibility, make his claim before a parliamentary body?

These are the kind of dichotomies that we need to sort out. It appears our major institutions lack coordination and a common vision. There have been repeated incidents which indicate the Daesh has at least some kind of footprint in the country. Why the Foreign Office would choose to deny this is very hard to understand. The fact is the rest of the world will not believe the claim of an absence of Islamic State operatives in the country and the statement simply makes it look as if Pakistan is covering up the truth. At any rate someone is telling porkies. Either there was no operation in which a Daesh group was broken up or then the outfit does indeed exist within our borders. We need to harmonize what we say and most importantly what we do. It is important that we go after all militants and do so without denying that have some influence on our soil. The fact that they do take action from our territory was made clear by the DG ISPR in his briefing in Karachi on Friday during which he said that Pakistan had every intention to defeat militancy and had joined a 34-member alliance of countries for this reason. Lt-Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa also stressed that the operation in Karachi would continue until terrorism was defeated. Whether or not they directly call themselves Daesh, groups following the ideology of the group have been active in multiple act of terrorism. There is then every reason to battle them and no sense at all in denying their presence here.