Understanding the Causes of Terrorism in Pakistan
Dr. Sarwat Rauf*
Abstract
The wave of terrorism surfaced in Pakistan afer 2001, largely due to Pakistan’s
involvement in the ‘War on Terror.’ The most intense wave of terrorism faced
by Pakistan was from 2008 onward and was mostly in response to how state
authorites failed in handling Lal Masjid Operaton. Since then, terrorism has
become a formidable challenge to the socio-economic and politcal landscape
of Pakistan. This paper aims to find out the causes of terrorism, its fallout for
Pakistan and way forward. Based on secondary review of academic sources,
this artcle identfies some gaps in the governance and the society of Pakistan
causing violence and terrorism. The living conditons of the people and hindrances
in the development of Pakistan have pushed some groups to become radical.
Given the fact that the country is a sof target of terrorist actvites, an inquest
of the internal problems linked to terrorism is mandatory. Hence, qualitatve
analysis has been used to discover the real causes of terrorism. A good number
of artcles, monographs, newspapers, books and websites have been analysed
to extract actual causes of terrorism. The central conclusion is that with some
ideological factors of terrorism, poverty, unequal distributon of resources, poor
understanding and lack of knowledge prompt minds to go for justce in violent
manners. Therefore, some consolidated actons are required to fight against
terrorism, instead of blaming single factor.
Keywords: Terrorism, Pakistan, Society, Violence, Security, Educaton.
* Dr Sarwat Rauf, Assistant Professor, Department of Internatonal Relatons, Natonal University of
Modern Languages (NUML), Islamabad
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Understanding the Causes of Terrorism in Pakistan
Introducton
Terrorism is not restricted to one area of the world. The terrorist atacks
in the last few years in Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Belgium, Germany,
Bangladesh, France, Saudi Arabia, the United States of America (USA),
Afghanistan, Turkey, Pakistan and incidents of Orlando, Brussel, Nice and
Istanbul have reinforced the idea that terrorism someway demystfied,
that it is disturbing peaceful areas of the world. The issue of terrorism has
increased the number of deaths, for instance from 2006 to 2016, number
of deaths have increased almost 67 per cent.1 Hence, the internatonal
community is looking at the issue of terrorism in a global context and
trying to identfy the pushing factors behind making of a pitless psyche.
In this backdrop, this study probes into the factors leading to terrorism in
Pakistan and the motves of terrorists behind the choices of targets. This
formidable threat has erupted at once, afer 2001, due to the US led global
War on Terrorism (WoT) and became intense afer 2008.
Indubitably, terrorism has become an internatonal issue, but
Pakistan faced acute afflicton of it. In the past two decades, terrorists
have indiscriminately targeted crowded areas of Pakistan including
religious places, markets, hotels, parks, schools and other public places.2
Pakistan (for almost two decades) has been bearing savagery due to
several reasons. However, Pakistan’s involvement in the War against
terrorism was the main factor driving intense defiance in the country.
Following American-led invasion of Afghanistan, the US took bases in the
surroundings of Afghanistan. Pakistan also became a non-NATO ally of the
US just like other neighbouring states of Afghanistan for the sake of peace.
Soon, all the facilitators of the US in WoT started to face consequences and
so did Pakistan. Pakistan was in a war-like situaton and where terrorism
was the gravest issue of the governance and a nightmare for the public.
1 Murray Acman, “What does terrorism tell us about peace?”, (November 20, 2017), Internatonal
2 Zahid Shahab Ahmed, Farooq Yousaf and Khan Zeb, “Socio-economic and Politcal Determinants of
Terrorism in Pakistan: University Students’ Perceptons”, Internatonal Studies, Vol. 55: 2 (2018), 131.
Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2019
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This study revolves around the queston that how the internal
vulnerabilites have facilitated terrorists to operate from Pakistan and
use its outskirts for their purposes? A review of the existng literature
indicates that there may be countless factors triggering terrorism in a
country. However, every factor has its own interpretaton depending on
the situaton.
In order to investgate the causes of terrorism in Pakistan, a qualitatve
analysis has been made. The purpose was to develop an understanding
of how internal problems in Pakistan was causing terrorism. The primary
objectve of this paper is to explore the domestc vulnerabilites leading to
terrorism in Pakistan and suitable remedies of it. The available secondary
data has indicated that the important causes of terrorism include poverty,
bad governance, Pakistan’s decision to be a part of the US in the GWOT,
misperceptons and lack of the enforcement of the law. This study shows
up that single factor should not be taken as germinatng terrorism and for
effectve policy measures an inclusive strategy is required. The last part of
the paper emphasises the need to transform societes through educaton,
media and introducing new laws. Indicatve policy measures may help to
bring down the terrorist actvites. Since terrorism is a polygonal problem,
therefore, it requires a mult-pronged soluton. Hence, it is suggested that
a multfaceted and focused problem-solving strategy is direly needed to
end the complex causes of terrorism in Pakistan.
Internal Vulnerabilites
The word ‘terrorism’ resonates different meanings. However, terrorism
generally can be defined as the use of violence against civilians in order to
achieve ideological or politcal goals by creatng fear. Definitons of terrorism
may be different, but its connotaton is always derogatory. Christopher
C Harmon delineated terrorism as a politcal issue. He maintained:
“Terrorism is the deliberate and systemic murder, maiming and menacing
of the innocent to inspire fear for politcal ends.”3 The US Department of
3 Christopher C Harmon, Terrorism Today (New York: Routledge, 2013), 1.
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Understanding the Causes of Terrorism in Pakistan
Defence defines terrorism as: “the unlawful use of violence or threat of
violence ofen motvated by religious politcal or other ideological beliefs
to instl fear and coerce governments or societes in pursuit of goals that
are usually politcal.”4
It is hard to identfy a single root cause of terrorism, even a common
set of causes are debatable. Nevertheless, different preconditons
are causing the emergence of various forms of terrorism. Economic
disparity, injustce, corrupton and politcal discriminaton are known
factors facilitatng terrorism.5 As a mater of fact, ”terrorism entails the
actve partcipaton of small group of individuals who may or may not
represent collectve interests.”6 In the transitoning internatonal security
landscape, there are rising external pressures on Pakistan to ratonalise its
expenditures on war against terrorism. Internally, myriad of problems are
curbing Pakistan’s efforts to root out terrorism such as ethnic divisions,
brainwashing of innocent people, politcal divisions, weak ant-terrorism
laws, poverty, dissatsfied people and hatred against government.
Sectarian Division and Ethnic Fault Lines
Sectarian division and history are essental elements in comprehending
the roots of terrorism in Pakistan. Just like other parts of the Muslim
world, Pakistan is also having a major sectarian division i.e. Shia and Sunni
and further division is between Barelvi and Deobandi. Adding fuel to fire,
ethnic and cultural differences also create fragmentaton in the society.
Some pre-Islamic traditons are intermixed with religious rituals due
to the setlements of other religious groups in the sub-contnent. The long
history of sectarian violence is smashing the peace process in Pakistan.
4“Joint Publicaton
3-26, Counterterrorism”, Department of Defense Dictonary of Military and
Doctrine/pubs/jp3_26.pdf.
5 Eric Rosand, “In strategies to counter violent extremism, politcs ofen trump evidence” (May 6, 2019), available
politcs-ofen-trumps-evidence
6 Martha Crenshaw, “Politcal Explanatons”, Addressing the Causes of Terrorism: The Club de Madrid
Series on Democracy and Terrorism, (Madrid: Club De Madrid, 2005), 13.
Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2019
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However, sectarian rif was not a major issue in the early years of Pakistan.
“The 1st incident in was ant-Ahmadiya riots in 1953 at Lahore.
Because of this incident the first martal law was imposed …. Afer
this incident, sectarian clashes were there but the conflict was on
minor scale. During Ayub khan’s reign many sectarian incidents
occurred, but the most violent incident was the atack on Muharram
procession in a town near Khairpur Sindh. At the end of the 1970s a
number of events led to enhance the sectarian differences that
ultmately led to establish the culture of violence in the Pakistani
society. Among these events the impact of Iranian revoluton and
the empowerment of Shia community by the Iranian proxy tactcs,
the inundaton of Afghan refugees to Pakistan, as a result of soviet
invasion of Afghanistan, the role played by Pakistan
in Soviet Afghan war and introducton of Islamisaton policies by
Zia-ul-Haq are the most prominent factors. These factors increased
sectarian violence in Pakistan and the internal security situaton
worsened.”7
Thereby, sectarian violence was high during the 1990’s in Pakistan,
but the politcal leadership could not muster the courage to thwart the
mountng power of Jihadists and the scale of religious extremism reached
its climax.8 The Shia sect, which comprise about 15 per cent to 20 per cent
of the total populaton was subjected to terrorist atacks.9 Similarly, the
Shia Hazara community is not safe in Queta.10 The Hazara community
(Hazarganji area in Queta) has been facing devastatng suicide atacks
7 Asma Khan Mahsood, History of Sectarianism in Pakistan: Implicatons for Lastng Peace. Journal of
Politcal Science and Public Affairs, 5: 291. (2017), 1. doi:10.4172/2332-0761.1000291
8 Hassan Abbas, Pakistan’s Drif into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America’s War on Terror (New
York: Routledge, 2015), 12.
9 Eamon Murphy, The Making of Terrorism in Pakistan: Historical and Social Roots of Extremism
(London: Routledge, 2013), 2.
10 Edward Mickolus, Terrorism, 2013-2015: A Worldwide Chronology (Jefferson NC: McFarland and
Company, 2016), 73.
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Understanding the Causes of Terrorism in Pakistan
since long.11 Hence, societal fragmentaton is a major contributng factor
in terrorism.
In additon, some wicked people have presented a distorted image
of Islam to justfy their use of violence. They are getng full advantage
of the innocence of people and instlling their ideology, engraving more
ethnic divisions. Although Eric Rosand has proven in his research that
the non-religious and non-ideological grievances are facilitatng factors
of terrorism. His study proves that there is litle empirical evidence that
religion (or ideology) is a main motvator for violent extremism.12 Yet
few other sources prove religion as a supportng factor of terrorism with
reference to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2014, “religious extremism
has become the main driver of terrorism.”13
Terrorists did not leave any place, markets, mosques, offices,
educatonal insttutes and hotels, to target. Government atempts to
create natonal cohesion and hold the country together against the pull
of ethnic division. Civil-military leadership took an inclusive step to curb
the menace of terrorism. In this regard, Natonal Acton Plan (NAP) along
with military operatons namely operaton Zarb-e-Azb and Radd-ul-Fasaad
were successfully launched against militant groups. However, progress is
stll awaited on many targets of the NAP.
Indoctrinaton
Brainwashing of young people is a major tactc of terrorists. Several suicide
bombers, caught alive, revealed about the existence of Pakistani Taliban
schools, established to brainwash youth. They kidnapped teenagers from
schools, streets or parks and teach them that God has chosen them for
11 Syed Ali Shah, “20 killed, 48 injured in atack targetng Hazara community in Queta” Dawn, April
12, 2019.
12 Eric Rosand, “In strategies to counter violent extremism, politcs ofen trump evidence” (May 6, 2019), available
politcs-ofen-trumps-evidence/
13 George Arnet, “Religious extremism main cause of terrorism” The Guardian, (November 18, 2014),
terrorism-according-to-report
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suicide atacks and they cannot refuse to carry out suicide atacks.14
The general view of terrorism is that young minds are indoctrinated
in a partcular environment and in the name of religion, hate is imparted
by masterminds.15 This practce was started in 1979 when Pakistan, as an
ally of the US and frontline state against the Soviets, gave its land to the US
and other allies to promote Jihadi culture. It is apt to say that many people
were brainwashed during the Soviet Union’s interventon in Afghanistan
and afer the end of the war, they contnued their actvites for the cause
of Islam.16 The religious schools (commonly referred to as madaris) were
built to train fighters. They were instlled with a religious zeal to throw out
non-believers from Afghanistan and also brought together the language
of jihad in Pakistan.17 With the end of the Cold War, the US started to
change its tone toward Pakistan. Since then, the US officials have been
accusing Pakistan of playing a double game. However, Pakistan’s efforts
to cope up with the evil of terrorism are remarkable as it has adopted
new encounters and coordinated mechanisms. The connecton between
remote radicalisaton has also been found, therefore, it was becoming
harder to detect real culprits. The new coordinated mechanisms to
counter terrorism between bordering states have been introduced such as
Quadrilateral Cooperaton and Coordinaton Mechanism (QCCM). Politcal
and military cooperaton between states has proven successful. Since the
use of technology is becoming prevalent in society and has made evil use
of technology easier as the most fanatcal religious extremists use the
internet.18 The Internet is an effectve tool for terrorists, they use online chat
rooms to share informaton, spread propaganda, coordinate atacks, raise
14 Musa Khan Jalalzai, Whose Army? Afghanistan’s Future and the Blueprint for Civil War (New York:
Algora Publishing, 2014), 89-93.
15 Jessica Trisko Darden, “Tackling Terrorists’ Exploitaton of Youth” American Enterprise Insttute.
(May
2019),
tackling-terrorists-exploitaton-of-youth/Tackling-Terrorists-Exploitaton-of-Youth.pdf
16 Hassan Abbas, Pakistan’s Drif into Extremism….12.
17 Samina Yasmin, Jihad and Dawah: Evolving Narratves of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamat Ud Dawah
(London: Hurst & Company, 2017), 21.
18 Jame A. Lewis, “The Internet and Terrorism” Proceedings of the Annual Meetng (American Society
of Internatonal Law, Cambridge University Press) Vol. 99 (March 30-April 2, 2005), 112.
28
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Understanding the Causes of Terrorism in Pakistan
funds, and to recruit more people.19 Terrorist propaganda on the internet
along with radicalisaton is playing the potent role in changing young
minds as they are being used remotely. Moreover, this contributes to fast-
growing religious intolerance causing fearful environment and fulfilling
terrorists’ objectves. Hence, the main cause behind the hampering of
Pakistan’s ability to stop rebels is the indoctrinaton of its own fightng
forces within its own borders.20
The terror itself has brought psychological problems ranging from
individuals to society.21 Growing terror in the hearts of the people is
causing depression, distress and confusion. Most people have acquired
the sense of insecurity and they feel unsafe in performing normal actvites
because they watch or hear news about growing terrorism in different
cites. Partcularly people who have lost their family members or friends
in these terrorist actvites are suffering more and many who have closely
witnessed the suicide bombings are in severe disturbance. Our youngsters’
minds need fresh thoughts and modern educaton to shun plagued idea
of becoming violent.
Politcal Aspect
In case of Pakistan, politcal leaders usually identfy the problem, but they
have remained weak in creatve thinking. A path of military rule employed
by President Ayub Khan (1958-1969), President Zia-ul-Haq (1977-1988)
and President Pervez Musharraf (1999-2008), caused resentment in
many fundamentalist groups. Historically speaking, the evolving politcal
instability, formaton of splintered jihadist groups and socio-economic
downfall played the vital role. The fragile situaton was conducive for
outsiders to use the land of Pakistan and this prepared breeding grounds
for terrorists. During the tme of President Zia-ul-Haq, the Jihadists were
19 Eben Kaplan, “Terrorists and the Internet”, Council on Foreign Relatons (January 8, 2009), htps://
20 Shuja Nawaz, “The Pakistan Army and its Role in FATA”, Combatng Terrorism Center, Vol.2, Issue 1
(January 2009), htps://ctc.usma.edu/the-pakistan-army-and-its-role-in-fata/
21 “Effects of terrorism: A Trauma and Victmological Perspectve” United Natons Office on Drugs and
of-terrorism.html
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nurtured to fight with Soviets in Afghanistan, but the ideological and
religious orientaton became so strong in Pakistan. A special report of
Dawn in 2017 mentoned; “His tenure saw the state-sponsored export of
Islamic jihad to several parts of the world”.22
Nearly a decade later, another military rule started, General Pervez
Musharraf took control as the chief executve. Pakistan became an ally of
the US in the WoT and President Musharraf took bold steps by banning
insurgent outits, arrestng leaders of insurgent organizatons, cut off their
funds and expunged radical elements. Certainly, at that tme the military
leadership showed its commitment to root out terrorism from Pakistan.
The tragic incident of December 16, 2014, in which ostensibly the
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) atacked Army Public School (APS) in
Peshawar, pushed the government to take some serious actons. Thus,
the twenty-point Natonal Acton Plan (NAP), as a new counter-terrorism
strategy, was adopted by the civilian government. The Prime Minister
and the Army Chief of Pakistan vowed to adopt an iron fist policy against
all terror groups. However, afer six months, NAP appeared as a hastly-
conceived wish-list formulated during a crisis tme, it was not a coherent
strategy.23
Weak Law and Enforcement
Weak states have weak law enforcement systems, which spurs violent
behaviours in society. In this way, hostle forces can easily apply subversive
techniques to achieve their objectves. Weak governments have had a poor
record in combatng terrorism because of dishonest rulers.24 The politcal
and economic systems are sof targets to implode society and breach
22
S. Akbar Zaidi, “Despotc Islamizaton” Special Report: Darkness Descends 1977-1988, Dawn,
November 01, 2017.
23 “Revisitng Counter-terrorism Strategies in Pakistan: Opportunites and Pitalls, Crisis Group”, Report
NO 271/ Asia,
(July
22,
counter-terrorism-strategies-pakistan-opportunites-and-pitalls
24
Douglas Johnston, Andrew MCDonnell, Henry Burbridge, James Paton, Countering Violent
Religious Extremism In Pakistan Strategies For Engaging Conservatve Muslims”, Internatonal Center
for Religion and Diplomacy, DC, (March 2016), 15.
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Understanding the Causes of Terrorism in Pakistan
natonal cohesion. Afer the 9/11 incident with the rising terrorist atacks,
Pakistan was so weak in providing security to public and law enforcement
agencies (LEAs), it
remained unable to provide protecton to the elites of the country. Due
to weak laws, individuals involved in terrorism actvites were set free by
courts on the basis of lack of evidence.
Public places such as schools, markets, hospitals and worship places
had remained their favourite marks. The terrorist atacks on Army Public
School in 2014 with 145 killings,25 veered the Government of Pakistan to
introduce new strict laws to beat up terrorism such as Natonal Internal
Security Policy (NISP)-enforcement of this policy was assigned to NACTA.26
It was realised that the best defence of a country would be achieved by
improving the legitmacy of the state through the practce of rule of law
at the natonal level. Rule of law should be the building of strong judicial
insttutons and cultures, a fair and effectve criminal justce system,
expanding human rights educaton and fightng corrupton.27
Media as a Factor
Media has become an indispensable tool of official communiqué and an
instrument of conveying public voices to authorites. Indeed, media can
bring both positve and negatve effects. Its positve use can transmit
ethics and moral values. Communicaton revoluton has created a host of
virtual communites.28 However, the contnuous advancement of media has
given birth to insecurity and social vulnerabilites because of the spread
of counterfeit news. Several stories of media are admired because both
users and handlers are young people and stories displaying youths are
25 Sophia Saifi and Greg Botelho, “In Pakistan school atack, Taliban terrorists kill 145, mostly children”,
CNN,
(December
17,
2014), htps://editon.cnn.com/2014/12/16/world/asia/pakistan-peshawar-
school-atack/index.html
26
Douglas Johnston, Andrew MCDonnell, Henry Burbridge, James Paton, Countering Violent
Religious Extremism In Pakistan Strategies For Engaging Conservatve Muslims”, Internatonal Center
for Religion and Diplomacy, DC, (March 2016),,9.
27 Ted Piccone, “Democracy and Terrorism” Brookings; Policy Brief, (September 2017), htps://www.
brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/fp_20170905_democracy_terrorism.pdf
28 Jonathan R. White, Terrorism and Homeland Security (Boston: Cengage Learning, 2017), 80.
Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2019
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popular too. New communicaton channels are prevalent in the society
and contributng to forming different mind-sets.
Mostly young people are the users of social media. Their average
ages are 18 to 35 years, however, adults’ number is increasing too.29
Generally, youth is the most vulnerable target of media programming as
electronic media imprints lastng effects on young minds. Glorificaton of
violence and the stories of conflict in TV talk shows project an emotonal
public sphere.30
Keeping in view the popularity of media in public, terror mongers
have also started to use it. Terrorists are primarily interested in the
number of viewers. The response of the viewers is the key for them and
victms are insignificant. To get the atenton of the public through media
is their main goal and the selecton of the area and media coverage of
terrorist incidents is advantageous for them as it gives more ratngs to
TV channels. Terrorists want to make their actons legitmate and media
inatentvely gives sometmes their antcipated staton. Given this factor,
terrorists conduct atacks shrewdly with full cognizance of the impact of
media reportng. The media coverage of Lal Masjid during operaton in
July 2007, terrorist atacks on the memorial of Shahbaz Qalandar in early
2017 and Army Public school in December 2014 are a few examples to
refer to.
Poverty, Unemployment and Dissatsfacton
The relatonship between terrorism and unemployment is complex. It
comes under the broader theme of globalisaton, as the enlarged income
gap between the rich and the poor is too much because of globalisaton.
Nevertheless, material deprivaton and socioeconomic struggle are the
29
“Social Media Fact Sheet”, Pew Research Center: Internet and Technology (January 12, 2017).
30
N. Lorenzo-Dus, Television Discourse: Analyzing Language in the Media (New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2009), 5.
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Understanding the Causes of Terrorism in Pakistan
sources of social tensions and resentment among the less privileged.31
The unemployed poor people who cannot afford food and hardly fulfil the
basic needs of life usually become violent and forget respect, tolerance
and other moral values of life. Although poverty is not directly the cause
of terrorism,32 but it generates hate, which has consequences. Former
president of the US George W. Bush is relevant in this regard, as he once
said, “we fight against poverty because hope is an answer to terror.”33
Poverty breeds social upheaval, creates illegal immigrants influx, and
connects with violence, which may lead to terrorism. Therefore, reasons
for mobilisaton of terrorists can be economic.34 The extremist forces are
opportunists and exploit the emotonal state of food insecure people.
During 2004-16 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) had the lowest percentage
of food security. Study showed food insecurity rate is generally high in
all provinces, but specifically high in Balochistan and Sindh.35 Hence, the
people of these areas are easy prey for the real culprits as they are excitng
the unwaged youth to commit atrocious offences such as suicide atacks
against the harmless public.
An emerging class in Pakistan is of diaspora and some educated
young people who are dissatsfied with the extant politcal, social, and
economic system of Pakistan, thinking that their rights are being violated.
Some are rightul in getng the positon in offices, but they are deprived
because of the confiscaton of certain posts by influental groups, this
deprivaton triggers youth to join fanatc partes.
31 Chris E. Stout ed., The Psychology of Terrorism: Theoretcal Understandings and Perspectve
(Westport, Connectcut: Praeger, 2002), 69.
32 A Kruger & J. Maleckova, “Educaton, Poverty and Terrorism: Is there a Causal Connecton? Journal
of Economic Perspectve 17, No.4, (2003), 119-144
33 George W. Bush’s Speech in Monterrey, Mexico, (March 22, 2002).
34 Andrej Zwiter, Human Security, Law and the Preventon of Terrorism, (Taylor & Francis, 2015), 97.
35 Adeeba Ishaq, Mahmood Khalid and Eatzaz Ahmad,
“Food Insecurity in Pakistan: A Region-Wise
Analysis
of Trends” Pakistan Insttute of Development Economics (PIDE) Working Papers 157, Islamabad
(September 2018), 22.
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Educatonal System and Monopoly of Elites
The extreme poverty and poor educatonal system is stuck with the old
structure. Many parents are bound to send their children to madrassahs
(a school which teaches Islamic curriculum with no teachings of science
and technology). Poor educatonal systems contribute to the growing
number of Jihadists.36 Old-fashioned madrassahs are not harmonised
with modern trends. Therefore, their graduates cannot compete at
the global level. A survey conducted in Pakistan has indicated that a
minority of the religious schools have promoted extremist view of Islam.37
Madaris consttute almost 10.8 per cent of all educatonal insttutons
in Pakistan.38 Government has taken several steps to reform madrassahs
in Pakistan, but the efforts remained insufficient and futle. “In the early
2000s, President Musharraf passed several reform initatves; including
the Voluntary Registraton and Regulaton Ordinance of 2002 and a five-
year $113 million
plan to introduce secular subjects into the madrassah curriculum. These
efforts gained litle tracton and received insufficient funding and support”.39
In order to bring harmonised religious educaton with mainstream
educaton system, the Government of Pakistan has announced recently
that all the registered madrassahs would be placed under the educaton
ministry.40 However, not all the madaris are registered and many of them
are being tagged in far-flung districts of Sindh and KP by NACTA.41 These
efforts are intended to teach respect toward other religions and sects.
36 Peter A. Olsson MD, the Making of a Homegrown Terrorist: Brainwashing Rebels in Search of a Cause
(Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2014), 82.
37 Bano, M. “Beyond politcs: the reality of a deobandi madrasa in Pakistan”. Journal of Islamic studies,
Vol 18, Issue I, (2007) 43-68.
38 Mohin Bashir and Shoaib Ul Haq, “Why madrassah educaton reforms don’t work in Pakistan” Third
World Quarterly, Volume 40, Issue 3, Taylor and Francis Online, (March 21, 2019), htps://www.
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2019.1570820
39 Douglas Johnston, Andrew MCDdonnell, Henry Burbridge, James Paton, Countering Violent
Religious Extremism In Pakistan Strategies For Engaging Conservatve Muslims”, Internatonal Center
for Religion and Diplomacy, DC, (March 2016), 8.
40 Adil Tanoli, “ Registered madrassahs to be placed under educaton ministry: NACTA”, (April 30 , 2019)
41 Ibid.
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Understanding the Causes of Terrorism in Pakistan
The traditonal elites have monopolised power in Pakistan for almost
70 years and the rest of the populaton suffered discriminaton, whereas,
landlords used poor populaton as second-fiddle. The frustraton is eruptng
and turning into extremism as local elites have hampered the path of
advancement. The absence of opportunity caused by the stranglehold of
the elites in all provinces of Pakistan gave birth to frustraton.
It has been observed that due to the monopoly of the politcal
elites over certain decisions of development and social justce, they were
deemed responsible for the violaton of human rights. From 2006 to 2009,
several targeted atacks were carried out against the politcal elites, for
instance, in December 2007, the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhuto
was targeted, in September 2008, the then Prime Minister Yousaf Raza
Gilani was atacked42 and several other incidents took place. The end of
dissatsfacton is possible through equitable distributon of resources.
It is considered that liberal democracy promotes the system of rule of
law, which serves as an effectve conflict resoluton mechanism and
experiences fewer actvites of terrorism.43 Hence, the fusion of religion,
modern teaching, and internatonal languages are required to handle a
greater variety of occupatons.
Ant-American Sentments
The wave of hatred was visible against the US due to its discriminate
behaviour.44 It is generally perceived in Pakistan that the US wants to divide
the Islamic world and to impose American culture on Muslim societes,45
which is sowing the seed of hatred in general public. Another important
factor of ant-American sentment is the US-India nexus, the growing Indo-
US relatons are furthering the exasperaton.
42 Muhammad Feyyaz, “Conceptualising Terrorism Trend Paterns in Pakistan: an Empirical Perspectve”,
Respectve on Terrorism; Terrorism Research Insttute (February 2013), 82.
43 Seung Whan Choi, “Fightng Terrorism through the Rule of Law?” Journal of Conflict Resoluton,
Vol.54, No.6 (December 2010), 944.
44 James Kitield, “Despite The Millions America Spent Trying To Win Them Over, Most Pakistanis Stll
millions-to-win-the-over-most-pakistanis-stll-hate-america-2012-6
45 Madiha Afzal, Pakistan under Siege: Extremism, Society, and the State (Washington D.C: The Brooking
Insttuton, 2018), 8.
Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2019
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Stratagem
Drone atacks caused civilian casualtes more than what has been
televised and even most of them (victms) were not the actual culprits.46
The contnuity of such atacks on our land set off fear in public and to some
extent distancing common people from the government. The changed
attude of the US toward Pakistan is a contributng factor of the general
public hatred toward the US. The Salala incident in 2011, had added fuel to
the fire. Apt to say that the West and Pakistan have always been different
in identfying the agents of terrorism.47 Ever since Pakistan is supportng
the US-led WoT and sacrificed a lot, the US has always wanted Pakistan
to do more. President Trump is ignoring Pakistan’s efforts toward regional
peace and siding with India. Moreover, one of the significant American
vindictve actons against Pakistan since 2001 is the decision of Trump
administraton to suspend military aid to Pakistan48 which has aggravated
the situaton.
The series of suicide bombings has killed a large number of innocent
civilians and hindered the pace of economic growth which was already
slow. The below-given chart shows an increasing number of causalites
from 2001 to 2015 and 2016 to 2018.
46 Marina Fang, “Nearly 90 Percent of People Killed in Recent Drone Strikes Were Not the Target”,
Huffpost,
(October
15,
us_561fafe2e4b028dd7ea6c4ff
47 Marvin G. Weinbaum, “Militancy and Extremism in Pakistan: A US Perspectve” in Moeed Yusuf ed.,
Pakistan’s Counterterrorism Challenge (George Town University Press, 2014).
48 Vanda Felbab-Brown, “Order From Chaos”, Brookings, (January 5, 2018), htps://www.brookings.
edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2018/01/05/why-pakistan-supports-terrorist-groups-and-why-the-us-
finds-it-so-hard-to-induce-change/
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Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2019
Understanding the Causes of Terrorism in Pakistan
Civilians
Security Force
Terrorists/
Total
Personnel
Insurgents
2000
45
0
0
45
2001
29
9
0
38
2002
88
7
44
139
2003
140
24
25
189
2004
435
184
244
863
2005
430
81
137
648
2006
608
325
538
1471
2007
1522
597
1479
3598
2008
2155
654
3906
6715
2009
2324
991
8389
11704
2010
1796
469
5170
7435
2011
2738
765
2800
6303
2012
3007
732
2472
6211
2013
3001
676
1702
5379
2014
1781
533
3182
5496
2015
940
339
2403
3682
2016
612
293
898
1803
2017
540
208
512
1260
2018
369
165
157
691
2019
97
75
56
228
Total*
22657
7127
34114
63898
Table 1 Fatalites in Terrorist Violence in Pakistan 2000-2019 (Data tll June 23, 2019)49
Afghanistan Border and Tribal Areas of Pakistan
The unmanaged porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan
has been the main cause of tension and invited foreign powers in the
region. This porous border poses serious threats to Pakistan’s internal
stability as Islamist terror outits nailed their foothold in the tribal areas
of Pakistan, which gradually became the source of perennial worry for
49
“South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP)”, Insttute for Conflict Management (ICM), www.satp.org/
satporgtp/countries/pakistan/database/casualtes.htm
Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2019
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Stratagem
Pakistan. The contnuous stay of the US forces in the region together with
poor governance, steered militancy across much of the region and had
produced fertle grounds for the protracted instability including terrorist
atacks in Pakistan.
A great number of people have become homeless due to drone
atacks and some have lost their assets. People seeking shelter in the
setled areas of Pakistan, remained dissatsfied due to poor coordinaton
of the government.50 Eventually, this encouraged people to join ant-state
actors as resentment. Apt to say that domestcally, Pakistan is facing an
undesirable situaton largely due to the negligence of the government.
This has also alienated people and made them deprived.
Several ethno-natonalist militant groups are operatng from across
Pak-Afghan border and Pak-Iran border. Due to porous nature of border
between Pakistan and Afghanistan, other problems such as human
trafficking, cross-border terrorism and drug trafficking have made the
situaton worse. In past, uncontrolled movement of people due to porous
border has made authorites helpless. The tribal areas of Pakistan were
considered the safe haven for terrorists. It was a recruitng and training
ground for the Afghan Taliban.51
Neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan would be capable of eliminatng
hideouts of terrorists without cooperaton of each other.52 In an effort to
ease tensions and improve security, Pakistan struggles to manage the issue
internally and externally. Externally, Pakistan is constructng the fence
along its porous 1,500-mile border with Afghanistan.53 Pakistan is using a
proper mechanism to manage border over which Afghanistan is showing
its unhappiness. Internally, with several new laws, the merger of Federally
50 Uzair M. Younus, “Pakistan’s IDP Problem”, Foreign Policy, (January 16, 2015), htps://foreignpolicy.
com/2015/01/16/pakistans-idp-problem/
51 Daniel Seth Markey, Securing Pakistan’s Tribal Belt (Council on Foreign Relatons, 2008), 3.
52 Franz J. Marty, “Afghan-Pakistani Cross-Border Terrorism Cuts Both Ways”, The Diplomat, (April 09,
2018), htps://thediplomat.com/2018/04/afghan-pakistani-cross-border-terrorism-cuts-both-ways/
53 Mushtaq Yusufzai, Francis Whitaker, Wajahat S. Khan and Ahmed Mengli, “Pakistan is building a
world/pakistan-building-fence-along-border-afghanistan-n873291
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Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2019
Understanding the Causes of Terrorism in Pakistan
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) into KP is another explicit instance to
bring peace to the region. However, Pakistani efforts are being seen with
suspicion by sub-natonalist groups within Pakistan and also disparaged by
Afghanistan.
Nevertheless, if Pakistan and Afghanistan do not setle their
issues bilaterally, the results would be detrimental at local and regional
levels. Mutual trust and cooperaton in the management of their border
would mitgate tension. Moreover, legitmate travel and commerce can
contribute to harbouring regional peace.
The Way Forward
In view of the internal vulnerabilites, some initatves are required along
with the on-going efforts to curb terrorism. Possible remedies could
include:
•
Modern, technical, empirical and research oriented knowledge
must be introduced in the universites and all educatonal
insttutons. Textbooks must be rewriten, harmonising
internatonal standards and Islam. For this, the assistance of
intellectuals, technical and skilled people are required.
•
Insttutonal decay must be stopped, and a transparent system
should be introduced to mitgate corrupton. In order to bring
transparency, accountability and separaton of powers without
prejudices are the antdotes.
•
Although, the formaton of new insttutons and laws to cope up
with the challenges and military operatons to root out terrorism
are commendable. Yet, efforts should be made to eliminate poverty
and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) must be taken
as an economic opening as it would steer a lot of employment
opportunites.
•
An insttuton is required to identfy the loopholes in the on-going
Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2019
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efforts of curbing terrorism and proposals of remedies. In this
regard, internatonal trends and developments must be taken into
consideraton.
•
Beter line of communicaton with Afghanistan must remain intact;
it would eventually lead to the end of the menace of terrorism.
•
Citzens of Pakistan should be persuaded to propagate a pluralist
culture of Pakistan to promote the good image of the country.
Only educated people will be helpful in shunning the misconstrued
beliefs.
•
The on-going reforms for madrassahs must be contnued untl
the harmonisaton with the modern educaton system. The major
religious groups should be called together to setle down their
issues and they all should talk about problem-solving methods.
•
To set an example for extremists, doors for reconciliaton must
remain open. They must be offered an opton of apology first and
alternate iron fist policy must be followed
•
Role of media is very important to shun terrorist actvites in
Pakistan. Media should display responsible behaviour while
broadcastng news stories about terrorist actvites and killing of
the innocent people because this can serve the terrorist cause.
The message of tolerance, respect and morality must be the
language of electronic and print media.
•
Promoton of entertainment programs, celebratons of festvals,
recreatonal actvites must be increased to end suffocaton in the
society.
•
While making policies to counter terrorism, merely current
arrangements are not enough. To meet the present and
forthcoming requirements of the security forces, a perpetual line
with long-term planning will return required results. It is essental
to respect human rights and freedom while certfying the internal
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Understanding the Causes of Terrorism in Pakistan
security.
• Youth programmes and counselling centres must be established at
the natonal level. Moreover, equal opportunites for youngsters
will be helpful in mitgatng violent elements in the society.
• Role of politcal partes is very important to curb terrorism in
Pakistan. They all must converge their interests on this issue.
While setng aside their differences they must work together for
natonal cohesion.
• There is a need to link the economy with science and by this
means security preparedness would be more effectve. Advanced
technology can help investgators in identfying criminals.
Technology helps in maintaining huge records and inserton of
the right kind of informaton and it is of a greater assistance to
maintain law and order.
Conclusion
Terrorism is a form of irregular warfare and it has become a parasite for
Pakistan’s social fabric. During the last 72 years of Pakistan’s existence, the
internal security environment shows that it is lacking in natonal cohesion
and it appears that there are several reasons for societal fragmentaton.
Several concepts have been muddled up and transmited into society
and as a result, society is confrontng an existental threat spanning from
ethnicity, intolerance, snobbery and militancy.
Nevertheless, Pakistan has adopted many effectve actons to
combat terrorism. The deepening commitment of Pakistan can be seen
in the new military offensive against terrorist hideouts and revamping of
laws. Despite all human and economic losses, the country is labelled by
the US as dishonest or unwilling in fightng terrorism and Pakistan is told
several tmes to “do more.” The failure of the US-led forces, afer staying
long in Afghanistan, the entre blame is on Pakistan for not taking acton
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against terrorists. This has worn the trust between the US and Pakistan’s
governments and triggered an internatonal image problem for the
country. Critcizing Pakistan’s endeavours in fightng against terrorism is
damaging to the country. We have sacrificed a lot in the on-going war on
terror. Hence, natonal consensus and confidence in governmental efforts
are the prerequisite of the accomplishment of the objectves. Although to
control terrorism and other hitches related to it, efforts are going on, yet to
root out terrorism without an inclusive and dynamic strategy. All natonal
strategies to counter terrorism are different in terms of local expectatons.
The Government of Pakistan has therefore adopted one approach and
issued the Natonal Internal Security Policy. The term “security” has also
been changed and has become so intricate. The long-term planning entails
special atenton to research and development and greater emphasis on
integrated efforts.
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