National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) have signed an agreement to tackle growing influence of militancy in educational institutes. According to the details of Letter of Intent (LOI) signed between two government agencies, administration and faculty members will be taken on board in order to spread awareness and carryout deradicalization campaign in campuses all over the country. This is a welcome move, especially in light of several incidents of severe violence on campus grounds and militant links with enrolled students.
Punjab University in Lahore and Karachi University have been routine targets of violent clashes between heavily armed student groups. There have also been reports of university students involved in carrying put militant activities such as those in Safoora Goth carnage or assassination attempt on Sindh MPA Khawaja Izharul Hassan last year by a former student of the University of Karachi. Brutal lynching of Mashal Khan on premises of Mardaan university by his fellow students shows the alarming levels of militant mindset prevailing on campuses.
Sensitivity of deradicalization campaign requires that utmost caution be practiced at all levels. It does not take long for an awareness campaign to become a tool of mass conditioning as has been evident in several other counter terrorism operations. Students and faculty must not get the impression that their privacy is being violated by increased monitoring. Universities should be safe spaces for healthy debate and logic-based arguments. This freedom of expression should be nourished rather than curtailed in educational institutes.
The focus should remain on extremism and a holistic approach — which includes examining the activities of different religious and political groups on campus, to reviewing the literature students are being exposed to both within and outside classrooms, must be adopted. But most importantly, intrusive surveillance should be avoided at any cost and security presence should be limited to basic minimum required for routine tasks on campuses.
