Introduction
As the world moves towards more freedom and awareness of human rights, people have also
started exhibiting extreme opinions and ideas which is leading to an increase in radicalization all
around the world along with Pakistan who has been afflicted by this dilemma for quite a while
now and desperate for a resolution of this problem. The complex nature of the concept
radicalization makes it difficult for the scholars to agree on one specific definition of this term,
but it generally refers to the extreme opinions and beliefs that people exhibit which often acts as
a driving force for their violent actions. Thus, in the most general sense the concept of
radicalization can be grasped along the lines described by Peter Neumann as “what goes on
before the bomb goes off”1 or any other illegal violent activity for that matter. A radical belief or
ideology is a threat to society as much as any other security threat as it often leads to agonizing
consequences for the state, thus increasing the need for the deradicalization of society.
One fails to determine the harms of extremist or radical beliefs as radicalization usually doesn’t
lead to violence in its early stages but gradually shows its effects on society with its roots
strengthened deep within it. People belonging to various sects, religions and nationalities have
become a victim of this extreme surge in radicalization not just in Pakistan but all over the world.
There is no specific form of extremism, violence, and radicalization as it can appear in a variety
of forms and be state-sponsored, religious, political, ideological, ethno-linguistic, and even
ecological in nature.2 Pakistan has been afflicted with almost all such kinds of radicalization for
over a decade with different militant groups emerging day by day threatening state and citizen’s
security creating a terrorism prone environment in the already terrorism ridden state of Pakistan.
The terrorist outfits like Lashkar e Jhangvi, Jaish e Mohammed, Baluchistan Liberation Army
and several others emerged as a consequence of extremist and radical views.
Pakistan has been dealing with such different terrorist organization since 9/11 and several kinds
of radicalization have been harboring among the nation since then which has been dealt in
different ways by the institutions, but the complete eradication of such elements have not been
made possible due to failure in addressing the core issues and root causes of those cases.
Moreover, the contemporary increase in terrorism activities after the takeover of Afghan Taliban
in Afghanistan creates an enormous need for deradicalization of such groups along with tackling
their terrorist activities. A decade long war against terrorism by the state of Pakistan has been
failing due to several reasons are thoroughly discussed below along with the complete historical
background of the emergence of terrorism and in-depth analysis of all the past strategies in
tackling it, which helps one realize the ways through which an end can be put to this struggle
against these elements of radicalization that has been plaguing the nation for over a century now.
While all of these concerns of terrorism are surface level issues and are in need of an immediate
resolution, but this paper is not only concerned with such issues, it is also based on addressing all
1
Asta Maskaliunaite, “Exploring the Theories of Radicalization”, International Studies.
Interdisciplinary Political and Cultural Journal, 17(1) (December 2015), DOI:10.1515/ipcj-
2015-0002.
2
Abdul Quddus Suhaib, Malik Adnan, “Religious Extremism and Online Radicalization in
Pakistan: How to Counter the Trend?” Islamic Studies 59, no. 2 (2020): 239–54.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27088390.
kinds of radical and extremist beliefs emerging in Pakistani society that are currently in early
stages and haven’t reached such extreme level yet. There is a need to understand that extremism
poses a grave threat to state security and it needs to be tackled in its early stages before its too
late.
