Terrorism In Pakistan

Pakistan has been gripped by terrorism in recent times. It has been attributed to the government
allying itself with the United States in the global war on terror. Currently, the biggest threat to
the state and citizens of Pakistan stems from the politically motivated killing of civilians and
police officials, attributed to General Zia ul-Haq's controversial "Islamization" policies, the
president of the country in the 1980s. His tenure saw Pakistan's exceeding involvement in
Soviet-Afghan War, which led to greater influx of ideologically driven Afghan Arabs in the
tribal areas and the explosion of kalashnikov and drugs culture. The state and its intelligence
agency Inter-Services Intelligence in alliance with the United States and Central Intelligence
Agency encouraged the "mujahideen" to fight the proxy war against the Soviet Union, most of
which were never disarmed after the war. Some of these groups were later activated under the
behest of the state in the form of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harkat-ul-Mujahideenand others were
encouraged like Taliban to achieve state's agenda in Kashmir[1] and Afghanistan[2]. The same
groups are now taking on the state itself.
From the summer of 2007 to late 2009, more than 5,500 people were killed in suicide and other
attacks on civilians.[3] The attacks have been attributed to a number of sources: sectarian
violence - mainly between Sunni and Shia Muslims - the origin of which is blamed by some on
initiated from 1911 to 1988; the easy availability of guns and explosives of a "kalishnikov
culture" and influx of ideologically driven "Afghan Arabs" based in or near Pakistan, originating
from and the subsequent war against the Afghan communists in the 1980s which blew back into
Pakistan; Islamist insurgent groups and forces such as the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba;
Pakistan's thousands of fundamentalist madrassas which are thought by some to provide training
for little except jihad; secessionists movements - the most significant of which is...