Prolonged exposure to terrorism, violence and bloody conflict can habituate citizenry towards a zombie-like numbness about the same, even if statistics get worse. Overkill of gory coverage and images can induce the populace into a disconcerting ‘normalcy’ ~ the implosive situation in Pakistan has seemingly spiraled and regressed to such numbness.

There was hardly any domestic alarm or international outcry even as six militants belonging to Tehreek-i-Jihad Pakistan (TJP) stormed a compound used by the Pakistani military in the Dera Ismail Khan district, killing at least 23 Pakistani soldiers, in the deadliest attack on the military in 2023. Restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in the North-West of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan hosts the most indefatigable Pashtuns who have had a tenuous relationship with the State of Pakistan.

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The invisible and unrecognised (by Pashtuns on both sides of the same) border called the Durand Line separates the two countries. Tension between the two realms harks back to the time when just after Pakistan’s independence, Afghanistan voted against Pakistan’s inclusion in the United Nations in 1948 ~ the sole country to do so, as the Afghan government laid claim to Pashtun territories on the Pakistani side of the Durand Line. It remains an unsettled issue that periodically flares-up between Kabul and Islamabad, irrespective of the dispensation in Kabul, be it monarchical, proSoviet, Northern Alliance or even the Pakistan supported government of the Taliban, as on this issue Afghans simply cannot concur with Pakistan.

It is that co-ethnicity which ensures that the Pak-facing terror groups like Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) or other mutated jihadist forms like the Tehreek-i-Jihad Pakistan (TJP) can secure sanctuary and support from the Afghan Taliban Government. Following the deadly terror attack, the Pakistani government issued a demarche to the Afghan Charge d’Affaires in Islamabad, Sardar Ahmad Shakib, implying official complicity and demanding the extradition of terrorists based out of Afghanistan. It is a farcical optic that is routine and meaningless, as the Afghan Taliban government can never be seen to be turning the heat on its own, on either side of the Durand Line.

The Pakistani Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) claimed that this attack entailed a failed storming attempt into the Pakistani military post that was followed by a suicide bombing tactic with the militants ramming an explosive-laden vehicle. But such suicidal incidents are also an incontrovertible reflection of the determination, sheer hatred and extent to which militants are attacking the Pakistani State.

To discredit the militants undertaking such attacks as ‘foreigners’ as has been the wont of the Pakistani state, the Tehreek-iJihad Pakistan ( TJP) which claimed responsibility for this attack, also released details of the four attackers said to be hailing from Dera Ismail Khan, Swat, Mardan and Lakki areas. But the tit-for-tat of claims between the Pakistani state and militant organisations notwithstanding, the caretaker Pakistani Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas was left alluding to cross-border suggestions, “Terrorists and their handlers, wherever they are, will pay for their cowardly attacks.

Our brave soldiers are ready to make the ultimate sacrifice to blunt the nefarious designs of enemies.” These are trite, rote, and meaningless statements that heal no societal wound nor resolve any underlying issue, while the violence levels have only shot up drastically. The ensuing call to forcibly deport and push-back ‘illegal’ Afghan refugees (almost all of Pashtun ethnicity) from Pakistan has further railed the prevailing sentiments between the close-knit Pashtun populace and the Pakistan state. In a sign of reciprocal arrangement of stands, groups like the Tehreek-i-Jihad Pakistan (TJP) have distanced themselves and often condemned the rivals of the Afghan Taliban government like the Islamic State (Khorasan Province faction) e.g., during Khar bombing.

This ensures a favourable equation with the dispensation in Kabul. Importantly, these groups are not even sparing the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) imperatives (especially in Balochistan province) that are key to Pakistan’s socio-economic survival, as also cause consternation in Beijing. With a failing economy, empty coffers dependent on ‘bailouts’, domestic politics in complete disarray, a caretaker government, popular leaders such as Imran Khan behind bars, and a society caught in the vortex of extreme religiousity and secessionist sentiments ~ Pakistan is somehow managing to stick together, as the genie of terrorism that was patronized and abetted by it is backfiring and consuming its creator. It is no longer the Line-ofControl (LOC) dividing the traditional enemies India and Pakistan that is the area of unrest and deep concern, but the Durand Line along the border with Afghanistan that has become a killing field. The 2023 Global Terrorism Index report for Pakistan (made much before these increased attacks) had already recorded, “third consecutive year where an increase in terrorism deaths has been recorded and the largest year-on-year increase in the last decade” and it went on to comment, “Now that the Taliban are in control of neighbouring Afghanistan, with reports suggesting leaders of terrorist groups such as TTP are using Afghanistan as a safe haven, it is likely that terrorist activity will continue along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border despite counter-terrorism efforts”.

Basically, the Pakistanis have tied themselves in knots in the sense that having invested heavily in religiosity and accompanying ‘terror nurseries’, the puritanical and revisionist environment that they have created for themselves disallows retracting from the same without a public backlash, at least initially. Clearly the politicians will have limited bandwidth to course-correct and it will only be the Pakistani ‘establishment’ (military) that can usher in fundamental policy changes without bothering for temporary discontentment.

Already the Pakistani Army Chief is in Washington DC beseeching the reiteration of ‘ally’ status (something unthinkable during Imran Khan’s grandstanding era) and win back forces that don’t pander to Pakistan’s regressive instincts.

Sadly and ironically, only a farcical ‘dummy’ government with the real control levers in the neighbouring Rawalpindi Headquarters (GHQ) can rein-in and salvage the situational slide hurling towards a failed state. The potent combination of unhinged politicians, uneducated clergy and shadowy elements of the Pakistani military have combined to create the current chaos ~ now, the necessary pullback (without the clergy and vile politicians) depends ironically on Pakistani Army Chief General Asim Munir and his ostensible ‘civilian government’ (e.g., current caretaker or any other future ‘coalition of the willing’) to retrieve the situation. Else, the numbness of death counts in Pakistan will continue.

(The writer is Lt Gen PVSM, AVSM (Retd), and former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry)