Defeating terrorism.

The people of Pakistan have spo ken. And the government must pay heed.: The widespread, spontaneous, and vociferous protests by the people of the erstwhile FATA, in particular both Waziristans, Bajaur, Wana, Lakki Marwat, Bannu, D I Khan, Swat, etc against the re-emergence of terrorists in their areas must have taken Terrorism Central (myriad terrorist groups milling around in the wildlands of Afghanistan) and the Afghan Taliban by surprise. The people have demanded that the government drive these terrorists out of their areas and re-establish its writ there. Their demands have been further reinforced by the very sound edict/fatwa by some leading religious leaders of KP that declare all acts of terrorism and unilateral declarations of Jihad as patently unIslamic. The whole nation concurs. The terrorists will henceforth have to confront a much more hostile operational environment than before. The people and their armed forces, CAF, Police, other LEAs, intelligence agencies, etc will now form a formidable, integrated bulwark against them and their macabre designs. Pakistan is clearly gravitating towards a whole-of-the-nation paradigm shift in countering terrorism. Pakistan needs to come up with a very well-considered, multidimensional policy to tackle terrorism anew. It must relaunch an exterior manoeuvre to expose RAW-India's state sponsorship of terrorism against Pakistan in connivance with other hostile agencies. A strong, renewed, and rearticulated diplomatic and media offensive, therefore, needs to be launched. Furthermore, Pakistan must continue to engage the Afghan Taliban government albeit sans its policy of appeasement. Pakistan has multifarious leverages that it can exploit against Afghanistan. It must start conditioning its support for the Kabul Regime to its success in halting all terrorist attacks emanating from Afghan soil against Pakistan. Pakistan could quietly become more reticent in supporting the Kabul Regime in international fora; indicate revisiting the transit and bilateral trade facilities and agreements; block off all manners of cross-border smuggling, flight of foreign exchange, unrestricted movement of people, goods, foodgrains, etc. The refugees are either restricted to welldefined areas or repatriated honourably. A very delicate, subtle balance will however have to be struck between exploiting the leverages and retaining a working relationship with Kabul. Pakistan's interior manoeuvre must bring about a...