ANOTHER three religious groups with links to militancy and terrorism were banned over the weekend by the federal government, taking the total number of proscribed groups in the country to 38. But this is no belated move that is worthy of applause, for the experience with the first 35, banned through various notifications since 2001, suggests that simply outlawing groups either pushes them further underground or, as is increasingly the case, the groups resurface with a new name soon enough.

The fact of the matter is that Pakistan has no coherent strategy to deal with sectarian and radical Islamist outfits that practise and preach violent jihad. Worse, there are more than just lingering suspicions that the state itself helps some of these groups survive. For what else can explain the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, the now banned offshoot of the anti-Shia Sipah-i-Sahaba, being warmly embraced by the Difaa-i-Pakistan Council, itself packed with establishment favourites who dabble in extremist rhetoric and worse? Banning the ASWJ now when in the very recent past the group had been allowed a high-profile public platform does not really have the makings of a credible, anti-extremism policy.

While official tolerance for or indifference towards groups linked to violence and operating publicly in Pakistan is a big part of the problem, there is also the shrewdness of these outfits that has to be contended with. Taking advantage of the devastation caused by floods and rains in Sindh over the last couple of years, religious ‘charities’ with fairly obvious links to militant groups have leapt into the field and secured a foothold for themselves in new areas. Meanwhile, that most rabid of sectarian outfits the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi is believed to be recruiting in the Brahvi belt in Balochistan, where well-funded clerics have radicalised parts of the population. Faced with a canny and cunning foe, the state has much to do to stay one step ahead of these groups. Tweaking laws to deal with such groups, resourcing law-enforcement and intelligence agencies to keep track of them and developing coordination mechanisms to keep local, provincial and national agencies in the loop and on the same page are only some of the things that need to be done if radical outfits are to be disabled. But first, there has to be the will. A tolerant, pluralist Pakistan or a dark and ugly place where no one is safe? The choice is one that Pakistan must make.