WHILE military forces must be used to address terrorist threats on the battlefield, long-term success against violent extremists necessitates action by civilian law enforcement. However, as a new research points out, provincial counterterrorism departments lack the capacity to appropriately address the terrorist threat. The document, produced by the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, identifies major shortcomings in CTD performance. According to the think tank, CTDs “lack clarity” on militant group dynamics and lack the necessary skills to assess pertinent intelligence.Furthermore, aside from the Punjab CTD, departments in other provinces are facing funding problems.
It should be highlighted that ‘capacity building/strengthening of CTDs’ is one of the areas addressed in the new National Action Plan. Furthermore, many law-enforcement experts, particularly those who have worked in CT, demand for the police to play a larger role in CTDs in order to dismantle militant groups. Furthermore, the federal interior minister has spoken of’restructuring’ Nacta, which is supposed to be the country’s top CT organisation. This cannot be accomplished without addressing the shortcomings in provincial CTDs. The departments must be overhauled in order to fight the terrorist threat.Experts have identified gaps in training, procedural difficulties, financial impediments, and so on, all of which must be addressed. CTDs should be able to stymie terrorist groups’ financial sources and break up cells through intelligence operations before militants strike. The current wave of terrorism, which gained speed after the collapse of the truce with the proscribed TTP, has taken a heavy toll on security personnel, with the militant threat particularly acute in KP and Balochistan. Before these threats escalate into a full-fledged insurgency that necessitates military intervention, the state must provide CTDs with the tools, training, and funding they need to stop terrorists in their tracks. We cannot afford to ignore the civilian CT bodies.