This Article is From Apr 20, 2009

Pakistanis, not Indians responsible for terror incidents: Dawn

Pakistanis, not Indians responsible for terror incidents: Dawn

AP image

Islamabad:

Extremist elements in Pakistan are responsible for the growing terror incidents in the country and not Indians or others, a leading newspaper said on Monday, contending that "disastrous lack of consensus" among the politicians to tackle the menace has led to nearly 1400 innocent lives lost in just over a year.

"Let the people's representatives see for themselves how often the evidence points towards the Baitullah Mehsuds and the Lashkar-i-Jhangvis and how often towards the Indians or Americans," the editorial of leading daily Dawn said.

The daily asked the Pakistan People's Party led government to "empower the parliament" with information as it regards "mere existence" of the National Assembly as "enough" for the democratic project.

Fourteen months, 1,841 incidents of terrorism, 1,395 lives lost. The number of inquiry reports presented in the National Assembly? Zero, the daily said.

"Democracy, the politicians seem to forget, isn't about form over substance. When there isn't a National Assembly or its composition is jiggered to please a strongman, the politicians are rightly up in arms," the editorial said.

Particularly when it comes to militancy and its roots about which there is still a "disastrous lack of consensus", the government must do everything it can to involve parliament so that it could "assess what has gone wrong in the states response." Nearly 2,000 incidents of terrorism have occurred across the country in just 14 months.

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