Originally Posted by Ayesha Chemist

Comment
The solution is not talks — at this stage — that won’t walk but to strengthen the state’s capacity against urban terrorism. Talks will come, as they always do. That is precisely the reason for use of force or the threat of its use: to force the enemy into talking. But the lesson remains unchanged. Talks must be conducted from a position of strength.

Finally, those expecting a neat solution must despair their belief. Irregular wars and the combination of external and internal threats do not vanish easily or quickly. They take years to gestate and many more years to put down. The choice, therefore, is not between fighting and talking as two mutually exclusive binaries. They are intertwined. But the timing must be right. And the fight itself needs to be understood correctly in all its dimensions — urban terrorism being the most important to deal at this point.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29th, 2013.