“Anti-terror week”
The government has gone into a weeklong anti militant drive after announcing the date and time of its commencement. Ironically enough, another member of the minority community was killed on the very first day of the special crackdown on militancy. He is the fourth person, and the third member of a minority community, to be targeted in one week alone, a chilling statistic for a country that prides itself on communal harmony and zero tolerance on extremism.
While we appreciate that the government is making an attempt to crackdown on terrorism, we remain confused as to why there was such a fanfare regarding the week-long drive. Is it not counter-productive, we wonder, to publicise a counter-terror drive, giving the terrorists ample warning to go into hiding or, at any rate, be more cautious? We would think our counter-terrorism experts would know that addressing militancy is a long-term multifaceted approach, not a pre-announced event lasting for a week, like "traffic week."
It has been reported that, on the first day of the combing operation, cops detained around 1,600 people. We wonder whether all of them are militants. We can only hope that the anti-terror drive does not become a pretext for the administration to crackdown on opponents or harass innocent people, for that would severely hinder any serious anti-terror measure, in addition to violating people's constitutional rights.
Militancy is a serious issue that needs to be tackled in a befitting manner. We urge the government to rethink this method, for a short-sighted strategy would, in the end, only benefit the militants.
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