Pakistan, a South Asian nation sharing a 2,500-km border with Afghanistan, has long been in the shadow of terror attacks from Taliban fugitives and al-Qaeda suspects sneaking from across the border.  

In the past year, Pakistan was haunted by terror threats in sporadic explosions and assassination attempts though rigid measures have been taken to eliminate terrorist attack.

On October 7, two bomb blasts exploded at a religious rally in the central Pakistani city of Multan, killing at least 39 people and injuring over 100 others. The blasts occurred just six days after a suicide bomb attack inside a crowded Shiite mosque in the eastern city of Sialkot in which 31 people were killed and more than 70 others injured.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had been the target of a bomb attack at a rally in July when he was a finance minister, but he survived the attack. A group linked with the al-Qaeda claimed the responsibility for the bomb attack.

In December last year, President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escaped from two assassination attempts within 10 days.

Facing terror threats, the Pakistani government was determined to eradicate terrorism and decided to take further measures to avoid attacks on innocent people.

As a major ally of the United States in its war on terror, Pakistan has waged an unabated clean up operation against the suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda members in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan. Over 70,000-strong troops have been deployed along the border to secure the area from further infiltration.

The seven tribal areas, especially South Waziristan, have been branded the hotbed of al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives since the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001.

Paksitani security forces carried out clean-up operations in the areas such as Wana, Shakai, Santoi and Makin in South Waziristan where officials said hundreds of foreign militants were hiding in the region inhabited by tribesmen, many of whom sympathize with al-Qaeda.

It was reported that during the first week of the military operation that began on September 9, more than 100 militants and tribesmen sympathizing with terrorists were killed in clashes with security forces. The security forces also suffered casualties in the fighting.

Meanwhile, the law enforcement agencies have made a series of arrests of the al-Qaeda linked militants in the major cities.

On June 12, the authorities netted nine militants in the restive southern port city of Karachi. One of them is Musaad Aruchi, nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, one of the masterminds in the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001. Aruchi's arrest led to the capture of Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, an important intelligence officer of al-Qaeda.

Khan's lengthy contact list made available information on whereabouts of more al-Qaeda members.

The government said that it had arrested or killed 600 suspected al-Qaeda members and smashed the common structure of the al-Qaeda terror network in the country.

Successful military operations in the past two years or more have forced the terrorists hiding in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan to relocate to other cities and even other countries.     

But the capture of the suspected terrorists and al-Qaeda linked militants has not led to a rosy ending of the war on terror in Pakistan. Attacks on mosques and religious gatherings have not come to an end in the country.

In Pakistan, where over 90 percent of its population are Muslims, Islamic zealots have a strong resentment towards the government's close cooperation with the United States in the war on terror, seeing it as a treason to Muslim brotherhood.

Across the volatile Pak-Afghan border, where it is rumored Osman bin Laden has ever been hiding, there live so many religious zealots who have the tradition of sheltering Islamic Jihadis.

Even the anti-terror agencies feel incompetent since their "ears and eyes" -- the people refuse to cooperate with them, a source from the Interior Ministry said on condition of anonymity.

More important is that the world can not defeat terrorism by force alone, it must move quickly to remove its root causes such as poverty and political grievances, observers here noted.

The hunt for Laden and his followers will surely be carried on in Pakistan, but many believe that no matter Laden is nabbed or not, and no matter how many terrorists are arrested or killed, if the soil for terrorism remains, the nation can hardly win the anti-terror campaign.

(Xinhua News Agency December 22, 2004)