Pakistan's double standards in the fight against terrorism are biting it back, and it is high time for the country to redouble its efforts to combat the menace and finish it off once and for all, a newspaper editorial has said.
According to The Daily Times editorial, Pakistan is having to swallow the bitter pill of increasingly frequent cross-border attacks when the Pakistani Taliban, sometimes in their hundreds, have attacked the country's security forces on the border.
The latest incident was the horrible beheading of Pakistani soldiers in Dir, which has put the seal on a threat people have been warning frequently about in this space, the editorial said.
According to the report, three of such attacks in the space of one week finally seem to have rung alarm bells in Pakistan's defence and security establishment.
As a result, COAS General Kayani demanded of NATO a clear, decisive and workable solution to the border violations into Pakistan from Afghanistan, the article said.
According to the report, the time for the US/NATO exit from Afghanistan is drawing closer, but the terrorism that brought America and its allies to Afghanistan, though relatively weakened, is far from overcome.
The report pointed out that over the last 11 years, the Taliban have grown and spread to be variously described as 'good', 'bad', Pakistani, Afghan, Punjabi, and what not.
Unfortunately most of these factions and/or their origins can be traced back to the flawed policies of the Pakistani establishment, it added.
This development has turned Afghanistan as well as Pakistan into a bleeding wound.
According to the report, though the situation in Afghanistan is more serious, Pakistan cannot ignore its spillover effects.
To overcome a continuation of civil war in Afghanistan and terrorism in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, it is high time for Islamabad to put the situation in its correct perspective and escalate its fight against terrorism, the report said.
