Commenting on the killing of 10 tourists — nine of them foreigners — by militants, Pakistan’s Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that attack on foreign tourists is an attack on Pakistan. President Asif Zardari condemned the attack while calling for an investigation. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif described the incident as inhuman and commiserated with the bereaved families.

These are the reactions of leaders and precisely this is what they have doing every time a tragedy happens.

A brutal murder of ten mountaineers in a base camp, around 4,200 feet from the Nanga Parbat, one of the highest mountains in the world, which is known for its dangerous and hostile slopes and treks warrants some concrete steps and at least condemnation of the militants who perpetrated this act.

The hypocrisy of Pakistani leaders is evident from the fact that they condemn the acts of terrorism but never say a word against the terrorists who fearlessly brag about their heinous crimes against unarmed innocent people. Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) took responsibility for the Nanga Parbat attack. Earlier, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, another militant group, claimed killing 25 people including 14 female students in Quetta on June 15 while two Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf legislators were killed by Taleban in a bizarre attack on a funeral gathering. But there was brazen silence by all when it came to condemning the attackers by name.

Just a few months back dozens of innocent bus passengers were killed in the mountainous region of Gilgit. Murderers first checked the victims’ ID cards to ascertain their sectarian affiliation.

Despite all these, our religious-political parties still insist on having dialogue with terrorists. As usual, spin doctors have started giving lame excuses by coming up with conspiracy theories of hidden hands, foreign agents and drone attacks. Accept it or not, we are in a state of denial. No one can help Pakistan unless we are ready to help ourselves by facing the truth that the ensuing terrorism is a direct result of religious and sectarian extremism, which was once encouraged by the state to achieve some short-term goals.

Now this monster has gone out of its masters’ control. Conferences, meetings, summits, dialogues, talks — all are waste of time and will not yield any tangible result. If we are still not ready to cut the terrorists’ lifeline — stop their political, ideological, moral and financial support, we should get ready to plunge into further darkness. — Masood Khan, Jubail