January 22, 2025

Finally, the Pakistanis have named Hafiz Saeed as a terrorist under their Anti-Terrorist Act. Saeed was under house arrest (although that only means he was unable to travel, but otherwise he was able to conduct his nefarious activities without restrictions as he had access to all means of communications and people were able to meet him at his home) for the last few months. But acting against Saeed alone is not even going to dent the terrorism infrastructure Pakistan has allowed to come up on its soil.

The question is: has Pakistan woken up to the threat that people like Hafiz Saeed pose to its internal security by radicalizing the youth or is this just a preemptive measure fearing international backlash in the wake of the change of administration in the US? As soon as the Pakistani defence minister Khawaja Asif called Saeed a threat to Pakistan, he was severely criticized by a large number of political and religious leaders.

To a large number of people in Pakistan, Saeed and his ilk are heroes. They can say things against India which their diplomatically handicapped government cannot. Hence, when India conducted its surgical strikes inside Pakistani territory some months ago, the Pakistani government officially denied them. But Saeed made a rousing speech in front of fawning supporters in which he threatened to show India what surgical strikes actually are. Many leaders in Pakistan, including the generals, feel that people like Saeed should be given a free hand to keep the proxy war against India going.

But with the changed circumstances arising out of Donald Trump becoming the US President, Pakistan has realized that it has to clamp down on terror outfits like Jamaat Ul Dawah, Lashkar e Toiba and Jaish e Mohammed masquerading as social welfare organizations. Then, with the IS claiming responsibility for the attack on the holy Shia shrine at Sehwan in Sindh, Pakistan must belatedly be realizing that if it does not stop the radicalization of the youth, the IS will take them over and establish their caliphate in the country.

But Pakistan must realize that selective action against terrorism will not work. Acting against Saeed and leaving out Masood Azhar must rank as a half-hearted attempt to act against groups that are fomenting terrorism. Azhar is the more dangerous of the two simply because of his ability to mobilize large number of highly trained jihadis. While Saeed thunders a lot, Azahr quietly gets the dirty work done. Although it must be commended for making a beginning, if Pakistan is really serious about its anti-terror operations, it must also act against Azhar. Similarly, the Pakistani army must be instructed to stop facilitating the sending of jihadis across the border to India.

Unless the world sees a drop in terror activities from Pakistan, Saeed’s naming would be regarded as tokenism. The Trump administration is not going to be impressed with such futile gestures. It has already warned Pakistan not to take its friendship for granted. Most countries have come to realize that Pakistan is the place where terrorists get radicalized, trained and motivated. They are then released as loose cannons to carry out acts of destruction all over the world. Hence, Pakistan is under immense pressure to set its house in order. The government might be willing to play ball, but as the protests after Saeed’s naming have shown, it will have to contend with pressure groups and public opinion within Pakistan that supports these terrorists.