Pak’s Decades-long Misadventures a Crushing Burden on Islamabad

As far back as 2011, the then As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, warned Pakistan, You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours.”

Eighty-four dead and over 220 injured in a massive suicide attack on a mosque in the Police Lines in Peshawar on January 30, underlined the wisdom of these words. Over the decades, Pakistan has continued to breed terrorists as strategic assets’, playing lethal mischief against its neighbours. But the snakes’ are increasingly turning against their breeders.

Pakistan has already recorded at least 161 terrorism-related fatalities in 2023 all data till February 3 from the South Asia Terrorism Portal), indicating a dramatic escalation over the 73 fatalities recorded in the corresponding period of 2022. Through last year, and despite a seven-month ceasefire with the country’s most lethal terrorist formation, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan TTP), terrorism consumed 971 lives, a 46.45 percent surge over the 663 fatalities in 2021.