MILITANCY and terrorism in Pakistan is a hydra-headed monster. Experience has shown that even when the security forces achieve success in one area, their efforts do not succeed in killing the monster. By necessity, therefore, countering the threat requires concerted, multi-pronged efforts that target various aspects simultaneously, across the law and order spectrum. How crucial this last aspect is can be gauged from increasing evidence about links between the Pakistani Taliban and street crime as described in a recent news report. Increasingly, insurgents are raising funds for their activities through bank heists, kidnappings for ransom and extortion. Drawing upon a network of malcontents and for-hire criminals across the country, they are blamed for masterminding or carrying out crimes to fund their insurgency. In doing so, they add to the crime wave and contribute to further erosion of the people's confidence in the state and intensification of fear. The Taliban hand, through the 'Black Night' group, is said to have been behind a June raid on a Dera Ismail Khan bank; in Karachi, the Taliban are thought to have been behind three of four bank robberies carried out this year which netted $2.3m. Similar links have been found in numerous abduction and extortion cases.

The shift in sources is a simple equation. US and Pakistani military offensives have killed or sidelined many mid-level and senior commanders who were, in a number of cases, men with links to international funding networks. Meanwhile, greater scrutiny of money transfers has made it harder to send funds around the world. Countering this phenomenon will require cooperation and intelligence-sharing between the civil and military law-enforcement agencies. Only if both are equally well-equipped and trained, and are working in tandem to combat a common enemy, can there be any hope. Without that, both arms of the security forces will continue to address the problem in a piecemeal and ultimately ineffective fashion. As for the Taliban, the logic under which they justify their turning to crime is despicable. Although they advertise their war as being one of a religious hue, their tactics expose the hollowness of their ideology.