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High tide of terror in Pakistan

It was another black day in Pakistan's checkered history as the country's minority Christian community was targeted by militants. More than 70 people, including 29 children, were killed in a suicide blast in a public park in Lahore. However, most of those who died in the attack were Muslims. A splinter group of Taleban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, has claimed responsibility for the attack. It was Easter celebrations and the local Christian community was in a festive mood at one of the major recreation points when the suicide bomber struck. This disaster coincided with a standoff in Islamabad, as thousands of protesters staged a sit-in demonstration in the capital in defence of Mumtaz Qadri, who was hanged to death for assassinating former governor Punjab Salman Taseer. The group, which brought the capital to a standstill, wants the assassin to be glorified as a 'national hero', and prisoners detained under the impugned blasphemy law to be released. The protesters are campaigning in Islamabad even on the second day, as the army was earlier called out in aid of the civil administration. There was one more correlation: More than 30 religious groups had set the March 27 deadline as an ultimatum to withdraw a new women's rights law, which they consider to be un-Islamic. Thus the carnage in Lahore seems to be a desperate act on the part of extremist elements to cow down the government.
The terrorist attack in Lahore and the Islamabad siege clearly indicate that extremist tendencies are on the rise. The military operation against militants is yet to come full circle, and the fact that the so-called jihadi groups in Punjab are untouched has made a mockery of the entire anti-terror drive. Many of these groups, considered to be affiliates of Al Qaeda, Daesh and Taleban, allegedly enjoy political and administrative clout, and this is what gives them a sacred cow status. Such groups openly nurse cross-border jingoistic ambitions and have a radical agenda at home, which is intended to bleed the minorities and somehow transform the state into an orthodox entity. It is against these groups, and their political abettors, that the state should move, and exterminate them if peace and congeniality has to be ensured. What surprised many in the aftermath of the Lahore attack and Islamabad's siege was the absence of government writ. It was a meltdown of sorts and no one was at the helm of affair to take charge of the situation. This could be deciphered by militants as their victory. There is no room for capitulation and the government should lead from the front in exterminating the terror nexus and axe their political compatriots.