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| Terrorism & it's causes |
Shujaat Kamal
The term ‘terrorism’ was first used in 1795 during the French uprising which resulted in what we call as French revolution. Terrorism has many definitions. The simplest of those is “ the act of violence which spreads fear and panic among the general public.” Any offense which causes violence and shatters peace and harmony is terrorism. In fact, any deliberate act which aims at targeting noncombatants or unarmed civilians is terrorism. No matter which country or group commits such criminal offense. If any country is involved in bombings & in mass destruction, this is termed as state terrorism. We know if we are not that naïve which country nuked Hiroshima & Nagasaki. Which countries were involved in peace loving civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan & Libya? Now the state declares any non-state actors or dissident groups as terrorists even if they are fighting against the oppressive regime.Today almost every country is among those victimised by terrorism. Terrorists have nothing to do with religion. Their main aim is to gain wealth and power. They don’t discriminate between poor and wealthy people. They search soft targets to hit or attack. People stuck by ideology and description of religion by people who have extremists mind set. Their main purpose is to operate under the banner of religion. Why they try to do that and get success?. Look, for instance, they have to make people believe that they are doing or struggling for people’s betterment but how they can do that without some people support? The main reason behind terrorists’ acts that’s why is that they want to persuade people towards their ideology and definition of religious obligation like most importantly Jihad. Extremists have justifications for what they do. They claim responsibility for every terrorist attack after the incident, even some cases they release videos and audio messages. They warn states without any fear. Terrorism is regarded for his reason as an existential threat to the world’s peace. Every country has its own strategy to combat this menace according to the available resources.
Pakistan like other countries has judicial acts to counter terrorism named as Anti-Terrorism Act ATA. Anti-terrorism courts ATC have also been formed to hear ATA related cases. This law just describes those acts which spread fear and panic in the society would be considered as terrorism.Of course, these are acts of terrorism and the people behind these criminal acts are terrorists but what about those who are against our state? Who are involved in killing our army personals? Those who just don’t believe in our Constitution terming it as un-Islamic, what about terrorists of these kinds? How to handle them? The problem with this act is that terrorism is not defined with clarity. The ambit of law must be cleared. The law must define and discriminate between people involved in personal matters result in killings and those extremists whose ideology is a threat to our Constitution and our existence. Militants involved in the conspiracy and are playing with our peace are need to be counter vehemently.Pakistan has been a victim of terrorism from decades. Although we have paid heavy human and economic cost still we couldn’t defeat them completely. Pakistan army is battling with militants in Waziristan and heading towards the goal of clearing the soil from terrorists’ existence. Forces are destroying terrorist hideouts in North Waziristan.
What are the root causes of terrorism? How a person becomes ready to kill someone? What that force actually is which prepares one’s mind set against someone. How are they trained? Different people have different ideas about the causes of terrorism. One is, of course, is not naïve about how vicious terrorism is and how it is linked directly with the mind. Those involved in extremism have a hostile mind set. They spurn people they have differences with. Amongst all, the wrong interpretation of religion is the vital & core reason behind extremists mind set up. What then? People start hatred which ended up in killings & violence. When the people are present who teach hatred then the next step comes that is ‘recruitment’. In poor countries like Pakistan, poor people become a soft target. They have nothing to eat. They are jobless or illiterate. They get inspired by extremists ideology. This is how they recruit poor people for their notorious cause. This situation is alarming. The government needs to focus on the quality education & the improvement of literacy rate at the same time. When people’s rights are denied, they look towards terrorist outfits. Social injustice like health facilities etc are also causing people to become the prey of this menace. Another important responsibility of government is to create job opportunities. We have a very low literacy rate, even after that, we have a big unemployment ratio. It’s up to the government whether it would take pragmatic steps towards quality education & to produce job opportunities or it would render to terrorism. Initiatives to refrain the new generation from the ideology they are preaching and following are the need of the hour. Whatever the causes of terrorism are, the impacts are same and those are disastrous. We all are witnessing countries suffering from violence. Infrastructure is nowhere. Schools and colleges are being bombed. People including women & children are being killed for no reason. Fear & panic have gripped people’s lives. As this crippling problem is the issue of almost the whole world, an implementable solution should be drawn. The countries suffering from extremism need to use political and diplomatic channels to resolve it forever. Strict laws need to be introduced to curb the curse of terrorism. The judicial system needs to be empowered and all other law enforcement agencies must coordinate for this cause. The state must move to top gear for rule of law where the government writ is challenged.
