Peshawar siege: Pak army must act against non-state actors like JuD, Taliban, says media

Islamabad, Dec 17: Pakistan is reaping what it has sown and the military operation cannot stop the cycle of violence until the army acts against non-state actors like JuD and the Afghan Taliban, media here said today, a day after a deadly attack on a school in Peshawar left 141 people dead.

"Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, despite all that has happened, despite the many sacrifices of the brave soldiers who have died fighting terrorists, you refuse to employ a blanket policy against non-state actors, while the military conducts operations against bad Taliban in FATA," The Nation said in its editorial. "... it continues to protect sectarian elements in Quetta, the Afghan Taliban and other 'jihadi' organisations such as Jamat-ud-Dawa.

The country is reaping what it has sown over decades," the write-up title 'For Our Children' said. The Dawn said Pakistan should acknowledge that it does not quite have a plan or strategy as yet to fight militancy in totality.

"Denial will only lead to worse atrocities." the editorial titled 'New blood-soaked benchmark' warned. "Military operations in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and counterterrorism operations in the cities will amount to little more than fire-fighting unless there’s an attempt to attack the ideological roots of militancy and societal reach of militants," it said.

"Further, there is the reality that militancy cannot be defeated at the national level alone. Militancy is a regional problem and until it is addressed as such, there will only be a long-term ebb and flow of militancy, cycles destined to repeat themselves," it said.

The Nation said the tragic incident offers a reality check and underlines the need to change the policy "the sake of our children, for the sake of our country's future".

"Only the truth will set us free," it said. The media also held the country's intelligence agencies and politicians responsible for the brazen assault.

"Where was the intelligence? The military has emphasised so-called intelligence-based operations against militants in recent months, but this was a spectacular failure of intelligence in a city that ought to have been at the very top of the list in terms of a security blanket," it said.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) is a terror outfit operating from Pakistan and is headed by Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

PTI