Going for the militants' jugular

During a recent press briefing in Islamabad, the Capital City Police Officer Malik Ahmed Raza Tahir claimed that they had important leads on the gang responsible for the kidnappings of Shahbaz Taseer and American national Warren Weinstein. CCPO Tahir also revealed that this group was planning on abducting the children of the affluent class for high ransom.

It has been almost three months since Shahbaz Taseer was kidnapped and almost four since Warren Weinstein was abducted from his house in Lahore. For a couple of weeks after their disappearances, the public witnessed confident government officials, Rehman Malik and Rana Sanaullah, repeatedly claiming breakthrough in either of the cases. But these claims were not translated into any concrete progress or recovery of the abductees. Whether premature press statements regarding clues to the kidnappers' locations jeopardised the investigation is now a matter of speculation; but this new information given by the CCPO is a reminder of how the weak law and order situation is being exploited by both habitual criminals and militants alike.

For several years a cat and mouse game involving constant pursuit, near captures, and repeated escapes between the law enforcement agencies and the militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan has only added to the public's frustration and despair. Both countries, and the West, have made considerable efforts to trace and plug the loopholes in the formal financial systems from where the militants have access to private donations. Yet their efforts have not borne the expected fruit as the terrorist groups keep finding alternative ways to raise funds.

The Afghan Taliban rely heavily on the money received in the form of the illegal taxes they collect from local businesses and allegedly extort from the local employees of foreign agencies. The drug trade also helps them fund their attacks. The Pakistani Taliban, according to authorities, have previously banked heavily on foreign private funding, mostly through illegal hawala methods, and donations collected under the garb of charity.

But now with increasing checks even on the informal financial transactions, the Taliban groups are starting to resort more on local crimes to fund their activities. Of the four bank robberies in Karachi in the past few months, the police suspects Taliban were behind three of them. They are also holding a Swiss couple hostage since June of this year and have demanded ransom and release of their counterparts as payment. An increasing trend in bank robberies is noticeable every year close to Eid time. The amount of money stolen is usually in millions and despite prior experience, law-enforcement agencies are almost always unable to stop the crimes. Follow-up investigations have revealed that these incidents are more often than not carried out by localised associates of the militants.

While it is still unclear whether Shahbaz Taseer and Warren Weinstein were abducted by the Taliban, there is strong speculation in support of this theory. The problem remains that our intelligence agencies rely too heavily on human intelligence and are neither equipped with modern spying technology, nor adequately trained in counter-insurgency operations.

With the considerably large, informal economy of Fata and weak checks on illegal money movement in the rest of the country, it is difficult to effectively plug funding for the militants. The recent increase in abductions, robberies and extortion, not only in the north but throughout the country, can signify the success of the Pakistani officials in substantially decreasing foreign funding through legal channels. Yet it heralds another problem of increased security risk for the already battered Pakistani citizens.

If Pakistan is to have any hope of succeeding in its fight against militancy, it needs to focus primarily on two things; improved intelligence and better counter-terrorism strategy. Monetary funding is the jugular of this militancy. If the government can sever this link which feeds the monster, it will go a long way in its success against terrorism. More importantly, it will give the state a far stronger footing if it is to negotiate a peace settlement with them.

A slightly modified version of this appeared in Business Recorder (7 November 2011).