SINCE the dawn of this century, terrorism has been the principal threat to the people of Pakistan. By 2015, Pakistani law-enforcement authorities had succeeded in crushing terrorist forces, through military operations in Swat, South Waziristan and North Waziristan. A National Action Plan was adopted in 2015 to flush out the remaining terrorist holdouts through intel-based operations. The strategy worked well till 2019, with few terrorist incidents.
However, since 2020, the terrorists have become active again. This year alone, there have been dozens of terrorist attacks, mostly against the security establishment. This upsurge has put at risk the success Pakistan had achieved against terrorism. With the TTP having launched a full-fledged war against Pakistan’s people, we need to introspect over what went wrong, and what can remedy deteriorating law and order.