Given Pakistan’s record of consistent reliance on terrorist organisations to execute its strategic designs, few would be optimistic that the demise of outfits such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba is imminent. Given the stakes vested in these terrorist groups by the Inter Services Intelligence Directorate and the military hierarchy above it, it is difficult to envisage that these agencies will really abandon the jihadists. But the democratic forces at the helm in Islamabad must realise that their own political survival could be jeopardised if these militant outfits are not completely demolished. It is evident that President Asif Ali Zardari and the federal cabinet recognise the danger of a continued state sponsorship of terrorism and their rhetoric reflects this assessment. Whether they can follow through in terms of taking steps to root out these groups, is another question. Their fears about the military staging a coup is probably one reason for their hesitation. But they also appear to have been pushed on the back-foot by the LeT’s threat that it would take to the streets to “protect Islam.” A political struggle against religious extremism in which people are mobilised against obscurantism is unavoidable, necessary, and probably winnable. Regimes in other Muslim-majority countries have adopted policies of zero-tolerance towards terrorism. Even theocratic Iran has not allowed outfits with open-ended jihadist goals to sprout on its soil although it does support what it deems the nationalist aspirations of Hizbollah and Hamas. Likewise, the LeT and other Pakistan-based outfits that are intent on waging religious war all over the globe must be swiftly rooted out. “(Full Story)”