To say that the recent loot of cash from some bank branches in Kashmir is an indication that demonetisation has dried up terrorists’ cash flow is to indulge in self-deception. This is the same as saying that India’s “surgical strikes” on Pakistani terror camps were an effective response to terrorist attacks in India.
Military courts in Pakistan have been expeditiously trying and convicting those charged with terrorism, pronouncing and carrying out dozens of capital punishments. The authorisation for doing so, valid for two years, ends on January 2, 2017. The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) government does not have the required two-third majority in the National Assembly to extend this date. The country’s minister of state for interior affairs, Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman, smugly says “the situation is under control now; there is no need to extend such wartime legislation”.
The way terrorism is being dealt with in Pakistan has been criticised in the report of the country’s Supreme Court-constituted commission to investigate the August 8 suicide attack on Quetta Civil Hospital that killed at least 74 people, mostly lawyers, who had gathered to pay homage to a senior and respected member of their profession.
The report castigates Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who ignored responding to two letters written by the Balochistan government earlier, but had the gumption to meet and discuss matters with hard-core terrorists such as Maulana Mohammad and Ahmed Ludhianvi.
Let’s hope wiser counsel prevail.
Military courts in Pakistan have been expeditiously trying and convicting those charged with terrorism, pronouncing and carrying out dozens of capital punishments. The authorisation for doing so, valid for two years, ends on January 2, 2017. The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) government does not have the required two-third majority in the National Assembly to extend this date. The country’s minister of state for interior affairs, Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman, smugly says “the situation is under control now; there is no need to extend such wartime legislation”.
The way terrorism is being dealt with in Pakistan has been criticised in the report of the country’s Supreme Court-constituted commission to investigate the August 8 suicide attack on Quetta Civil Hospital that killed at least 74 people, mostly lawyers, who had gathered to pay homage to a senior and respected member of their profession.
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The report regrets that the “religion of Islam was being corrupted by extremist ideology”, and adds that “if Pakistan is to be a tolerant citadel of peace and interfaith harmony, then the laws and the Constitution have to be re-established”. All people, including those in India, who wish Pakistan well, fervently share this hope.
The report castigates Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who ignored responding to two letters written by the Balochistan government earlier, but had the gumption to meet and discuss matters with hard-core terrorists such as Maulana Mohammad and Ahmed Ludhianvi.
Let’s hope wiser counsel prevail.