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The disclosure of a terrorist cell involved in high-profile terrorist attacks in Karachi, including the targeted assassination of social activist Sabeen Mahmud and the Ismaili Shia community, is an eye-opener for several reasons.
The terrorist cell mainly comprised three self-radicalised university graduates; Saad Aziz, Tahir and Azfar. Given the affluent socio-economic and education backgrounds, these militants certainly do not fit our typical terrorist profiles. However, there is enough empirical evidence to suggest that affluent-educated-urban militants exist in Pakistan since 2004.
Examples are Afia Siddiqui, a pro Al-Qaeda fundraiser and MIT graduate; Omar Saeed Sheikh, murderer of the US journalist Daniel Pearl and graduate of the London School of Economics; Dr Arshad Waheed and Dr. Akmal Waheed, two brothers linked to Al-Qaeda; Faisal Shahzad, the botched car-bomber of New York’s Time Square and son of a senior Pakistani Air Force Officer as well as Awais Jakhrani, son of an inspector general of police, mastermind of the Karachi naval dockyard attack.
Against this backdrop, the discovery of the Karachi terror cell is instructive for four reasons; first, our understanding of Pakistan’s complicated and ever-evolving militant landscape; two, the utility of urban-educated Pakistani youth for Islamist militant networks; three, threat of cyber radicalisation; and four, our counter-strategies.
First, research on terrorism has debunked the myth of the poverty-terrorism nexus. It is a much more complicated phenomenon, which goes well beyond simple binaries. The Iraqi terrorist group Islamic State’s ability to attract western Muslim youth from affluent and educated backgrounds offers further insights into changing patterns of worldwide militant recruitment and radicalisation.
Certainly, Pakistan is not aloof to these changing patterns. The shock we witnessed in the media commentary after the unearthing of the Karachi terror cell exposes our narrow understanding of violent extremism in Pakistan. Pakistan’s militant landscape needs remapping: serious academic efforts are needed to come to grips with new complexities. No segment of our society is safe from the threat of violent extremism that is prevalent in different forms in all strata of society.
Second, the rationale behind focusing on universities and higher education institution for recruitment is that other militant networks like the Taliban have a monopoly on recruiting from the lower ranks of society. The educated population remains an available open option for Al-Qaeda and IS. Additionally, the Al-Qaeda and IS brand may have a larger appeal to university students and their ilk who may hold extremist leanings but do not wish to join more ‘tribal’ and local groups.
For instance in September 2013, Pakistani security forces discovered a terrorist cell linked to Al-Qaeda at Punjab University, Lahore’s premier public sector university. In February 2014, another organised network affiliated with Al-Qaeda was detected in Karachi. The network had multiple wings whose members ranged from highly educated individuals to IT professionals and technologists who worked on bright students as potential members.
Third, smart use of the internet and social media by terrorist groups like IS has alarmingly increased the youth’s vulnerability to self-radicalisation through internet. Use of social media has revolutionised the recruitment prospects of would-be jihadists to their favourite militant organisations. So, the threat of cyber radicalisation and online militant recruitment is critical and real.
At present, there are 32.4 million internet users in Pakistan, half of whom use the internet on their portable electronic devices, including mobiles. More than 70 percent of these internet users are young people. The focus of the jihadist organisations on the online battle can be understood by a July 2005 statement of Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al Zawahiri to Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, then Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq. Zawahiri said: “We are in a battle and more than half of this battle is taking place in the media.”
Four, after the Peshawar schools attack the National Action Plan has more or less filled the voids in our operational response to terrorist threat. However, gaps exit in the domain of soft-CT responses, which remain underutilised in Pakistan. Pakistan needs to evolve a comprehensive counterterrorism policy that balances the hard and soft aspects of counterterrorism. The soft-CT strategy should involve a Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) component comprising individual-focused de-radicalisation and environment-focused counter-radicalisation efforts.
In the end, it is also important to look at how the state is treating the younger segment of our population. Do we have a youth policy that gives younger people a sense of empowerment and directs them towards a bright future? As long as the state does not own its youth, such tendencies will grow further in an environment (online and offline) that remains susceptible to extremist causes.
The writer is an associate research fellow at the International Centre for Political violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR) of the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Singapore.


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