Militancy as a tool of policy can no longer work in Pak: Analyst

Islamabad, Jan 12(ANI): Zahid Hussain, an analyst and author of Frontline Pakistan, has said that Pakistan has realized that militancy as a tool of policy would not work.

The comment comes after a report revealed that Pakistan suffered its worst year of terrorist violence last year, with a total of 2,586 attacks, which killed more than 3,000 civilians and destabilized the country.

"There is now a broad realization that militancy as a tool of policy cannot work. This is going to be a prolonged war," The Christian Science Monitor quoted Hussain, as saying.

According to the report produced by the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS), terrorist attacks killed 3,021 people and injured 7,334 in 2009.

The report also revealed that there was a 45 percent increase in the terrorist strikes over the previous year.

Pakistani extremists had been careful to limit their targets to the police and military, but towards the end of 2009 they began to hit civilian targets, including Islamabad's International Islamic University and markets in the cities of Lahore and Peshawar, the report said.

"The most important trend to emerge was attacks on soft targets. The distinction between combatants and non-combatants is gradually disappearing," said Abdul Basit, a researcher at PIPS. (ANI)