'National war, not army's isolated fight,' says Senator Kakar on Balochistan unrest

• Senator Kakar underscores multi-prong strategy for war on terror.
• He says militants are mere 1% of people who lack mass support.
• Ex-PM censures those who "misled" country over talks, dialogue.

With the country still mourning the precious loss of lives in recent terrorist attacks in Balochistan, Independent Senator and former caretaker prime minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has termed the fight against terrorism a "national war", stressing it is not an isolated struggle of the country's security forces and intelligence agencies.

Reflecting on the recent violence in Balochistan during the Senate session on Tuesday, Senator Kakar said: "This is a national war and not an isolated fight of the Frontier Corps, Pakistan Army, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB)."

The lawmaker's remarks come in the wake of recent bloodshed in the country's largest province by terrorist groups which saw more than two dozen people, including security personnel, being martyred.

On Monday, at least 23 passengers were killed after being offloaded from passenger buses and trucks in the Rarasham area of Balochistan's Musakhel.

Separately, at least 10 people, including police and Balochistan Levies personnel, were martyred in a gun attack in Kalat.

Furthermore, at least 14 brave sons of soil including ten security forces soldiers and four personnel of law enforcement agencies (LEAs) were martyred in clearance operations — launched after at least 37 people were martyred in different terrorist incidents — wherein at least 21 militants were neutralised.

Addressing the Upper House, Senator Kakar said that the prerogative over violence only rested with the state. However, he added, an attempt was being made to "create a gap between institutions" that have been made responsible for violence management by the Constitution.

"The beginning of the victory in this war starts with accepting them [security forces, LEAs] as the protector of our home, locality, province and country," he said.

Furthermore, he underscored that all necessary assistance, whether on the legal front via the promulgation of necessary laws or on the financial front, all-out support to the security forces and the LEAs including the provision of equipment, narrative building etc.

"This is a war based on a multi-prong strategy," the senator noted.

Continuing on the terrorists' nefarious objectives, Kakar said that the militants target whoever is standing with the state of Pakistan whether it is the Baloch, Pashtoon or anyone else.

Commenting on Baloch terrorist outfits, he noted that their narrative wasn't that they were deprived of their rights, but in fact, they claim their separate identity alleging us of occupying their land and that they wanted to break Pakistan and establish another state of their own.

"Who are they [terrorists]? They are a mere 1% [of the masses] if they were not and they had the support of a large section of Baloch society then they would come to the ballot and not resort to armed struggle," the lawmaker stressed, adding that the militants were targeting the country's resolve targeting so that we give up this fight.

On the issue of negotiations with the terrorists, Kakar said that dialogue was a mere tool for the end goal which needs to be defined.

Censuring the ones who misled the country regarding holding talks with the militants, he said: "Who were they ones who misled and deceived the people of this country over the delusion of negotiations [...] we believed them to have informed opinion but they misled the parliament".

Highlighting the need to address the internal confusion, he called for leaving aside all political differences and for a uniform effort to carve a way forward including a serious debate regarding the use of force, negotiations as other matters.