Pakistan battling a home-grown Islamist insurgency

At least five people including three policemen were killed on Wednesday in two militant clashes near Pakistan's Swat Valley, officials said. In the first incident, gunmen ambushed a car of local pro-government fighters in the Kooza Bandi village of Swat Valley, killing three people including a police guard, district police chief Sher Akbar told AFP. Nobody claimed responsibility but Taliban militants have carried out such attacks in the past.

Pro-government militias rose up in reaction to the Taliban's brutal rule of the Swat Valley between 2007-2009, when the militants grew unpopular for killing tribal elders, razing schools and kidnapping people for ransom. Separately, up to six militants stormed a checkpoint in the northwestern town of Dargai, that lies in the Malakand region neighbouring Swat, killing two police, local officials said.

Sunday’s attack on Karachi's airport - Pakistan's busiest - killed 19 security personnel and civilians, along with the 10 assailants. The group that claimed responsibility on Monday vowed even more violence. The violence is now being seen as a direct consequence of the government's failure to deal with the Pakistani Taliban who after claiming responsibility for that attack, promised many more as revenge for the killing of Hakimullah Mehsud in Waziristan by a US drone strike last year. To demonstrate the threat as it were, for the second time in two days, Pakistan's largest and busiest airport was forced to shut down after militants launched another brazen attack on the airport security forces. Tuesday's assault targeted the Airport Security Forces academy near Karachi's Jinnah International Airport. An unknown number of gunmen attacked the academy's entrance and were met with an armed response. The attackers fled, and no one was killed in the attack.

The Pakistani Taliban, known to be behind the attacks, formally known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, was formed in 2007 when various terrorist groups already operating in the country's northwest banded together. The group aims to overthrow the government and impose a hard-line form of Islam. It also has called on the government to pull all troops from tribal areas bordering Afghanistan where many of the terrorist groups are based. The TTP is loosely affiliated with the Afghan Taliban, which is fighting US-led forces in Afghanistan, and shares similar ideology, but it has a different leadership structure. The TTP focuses its fight in Pakistan.

Pakistan has been carrying out large-scale military operations in the northwest since 2009, when it launched an operation to retake the Swat Valley, a heavily populated area that had been taken over by Taliban terrorists. That was followed by operations in other regions along the Afghan border that have displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians and killed more than 4,000 Pakistani troops. North Waziristan is the only region where the military has not carried out a large operation so far, and it has become a hub for terrorist groups.

Average Pakistanis are tired of the violence and the government's seemingly inability to end it despite repeated military operations. Sharif's pledge to halt the bloodshed through talks helped him get elected last year. Months of cautious circling and peace talks between the government and the ‘holy’ warriors have now been wasted. The attack raises serious doubts about the feasibility of continuing negotiations with the terrorists. The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has yet to say that it is abandoning talks altogether. The government and the security forces found it impossible to accept TTP demands like enforcement of Sharia across the board, withdrawal of the army from the tribal regions and a peace zone for itself.

Many Pakistanis blame the violence on the US by saying that Pakistani terrorists are only attacking because the government is allied with the US, and once American troops leave Afghanistan, the attacks will stop. Many Pakistanis are angry at what they perceive to be a conflict pushed on them by the US against fellow Muslims in the invasion of Afghanistan.

Even if the government is able to negotiate an end to the fighting with the Pakistani Taliban, it won't mean the end to violence in the country. The Pakistani Taliban is a loose affiliation of terrorist groups, and not all support the peace talks. There also are many other terrorists operating across Pakistan, including sectarian organizations that target the Shiite Muslim minority. Insurgent groups in the south western province of Baluchistan want an independent country.

Religious extremism and its links with terror is nothing new to the nation. Islamists in Pakistan have flourished in part because governments have failed to provide for people's needs, such as in education and health care. Islamists fill the gap through their welfare organizations, clinics, mosques, religious seminaries and other networks. The impoverished masses then support their philosophies and political activities.

"Terrorism in Pakistan has become a very serious problem in recent years. The death toll of terrorist attacks has risen to about 60,000 over the past 13 years. The government is protecting institutions and military areas, but must also protect civil society and minority communities from these Taliban. Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis and even moderate Muslims live in fear and many are trying to leave the country. In 2012, thousands of Hindus left Pakistan and took refuge in India, thousands of Christians sought refuge in South Asia". This is what Farrukh H. Saif, Executive Director of the NGO "World Vision in Progress", engaged in the protection and security of Christians and other minorities in Pakistan says to Fides Agency, commenting on the recent attack at the airport in Karachi, claimed by the Taliban.

"It is not the first attack in areas of high military, civil or religious value", remarked Saif. "It all began with the controversial policy of Islamization of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in the 80s. Zia, a fundamentalist Muslim, infused Islam into everything from school textbooks to the legal code – including pushing through harsh blasphemy laws and statutes that treated rape victims as adulterers. “These policies have destroyed peace and tolerance in Pakistan, launching a wild wave of sectarianism, religious fanaticism and summary justice, which has engulfed our society. Religious extremism has grown beyond all proportion", said Saif.

Days after the assassination of Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer, one of the few politicians openly challenging the onslaught of religious extremism, Pakistani moderates are facing a new and troubling reality: Pakistan is a country where fundamentalism is becoming mainstream, leaving even less room for dissent, difference and many once-prevalent leisures such as public music, dance parties or other social contact between the sexes. More liberal-minded Pakistanis have been left with a profound sense of loss, alienation and fear for the future. One rights activist forecast that at the rate Islamist groups are rising, a religious party could be ruling the country in 10 to 15 years.

In a statement sent to Fides by the "Pakistan Peace Coalition", which includes organizations, clubs and associations of all religions, including Christians, Pakistan's civil society condemns the terrorist act in Karachi and have asked the institutions to ensure compliance with the rule of law in the country. The forum urges to tackle the main causes of the spread of radical militancy and terrorism, calling on the state to seriously do more with regards to the welfare and development of its citizens.

The budget used for defense and security - it says - remains one of the highest in the annual budget of the state", and yet, the Pakistani citizens are at the mercy of terrorists".