By Faizan Usmani

In my columns chiefly written on War on Terrorism from 26th September to 9th October 2008 in The Financial Daily, I have proposed a number of ideas that may mitigate the threats of ongoing militancy on the name of the religion. By the same token, this blog also entails some of the basic solutions that should be considered by anti-terror committee. We may successfully cope with war on terrorism. We urgently need out-of-the-box ideas as wars are won not by deadly weapons, but through smart strategies. For this purpose:

  • Renewal of ID cards: All tribal people should be asked to renew their ID cards within month. The process of renewing expired ID cards will help us somehow to churn out foreign people living in tribal areas under the guise of Pakistani people.
  • Mandatory display of ID cards: It should be mandatory for all people in war-torn areas to display ID cards attached with a neckwear ribbon all the time that could be easily spotted and authenticated by any security personnel when needed. Thus, putting a mandatory ID cards condition will discourage militants to some extent.
  • Putting temporary restrictions on tribal lifestyle: By the same token, a lot more initiatives are required by Pakistani officials regarding regulating the worsening law and order situation inside tribal areas, and it could be easily done by putting some restrictions on the present lifestyle of tribal people just for a temporary period. It has reported in all major newspapers that anti-Pakistan foreign-based secret agents are living in tribal areas by following the same lifestyle and speaking the same language as our tribal people do.
  • Identify the real enemy: The wide presence of unknown enemies inside our tribal areas is of much help for enemies to destabilise the peaceful conditions in these areas, and their similar dress-up and lifestyle make it rather impossible to spot and recognise them so easily. They have been mingled in our environment and doing everything to achieve their malicious tasks.
  • Be clean-shaved: To deal with these secret agents, all tribal people, just for a short duration, should be restricted to be always clean-shaved and shave off beard because, despite all deceiving resemblance, the facial appearance of foreign elements will assist the tribal people to distinguish everyone living within their own ranks. Many renovations and fashion adjustments may also be made in turban, dress and the like.
  • Temporary restrictions on women: Women living in such tribal areas should be likewise discouraged to come out of their homes needlessly because secret agents may also attack in the guise of being a burqa-clad woman.
  • Cooperation with armed forces: All tribal people should cooperate with our forces in this regard so that we can achieve the desired results in a short span of time. All is fair in love and war; so this is the right time to prove our deep love with our motherland by following a nation-friendly lifestyle for a short period.
  • Mandatory 5 daily prayers in the mosque: All male adults in tribal areas should be asked to offer all 5 daily prayers in the mosque on regular basis. This deliberate and rather stern move may help in identifying new human faces in the area and all missing people from daily prayers could be questioned for their absence.
  • Lucrative cash prizes for tribal people: People in tribal areas should be offered lucrative cash prizes if they catch any suspect alive and bring him to justice.

There might be more suitable ideas in this regard and should be put forward by our decision makers as nothing could be more patriotic at the moment than eradicating the menace of terrorism from our homeland. The Government of Pakistan has recently formed an anti-terror committee as a much-needed step taken to curb the sudden rise of militant attacks, especially within tribal areas, and in major cities of the country in general. The tradition of forming committees on different issues has become a favourite pastime for our government officials but, in the given scenario, the issue is more critical and significant for the whole country and viable remedies and solutions must be put forward without any further delay.