ISLAMABAD, Jul 12 (APP):Students and experts from different educational institutes on Thursday underlined the need for addressing root causes of extremism and terrorism, saying a culture of tolerance and acceptability in the society must be created to lead a peaceful co-existence.
The students, attending a two-day national youth entitled “Countering Violent Extremism on campuses”
organized here by National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), said the young generation must be equipped with basic education so that they could differentiate between good and bad.
A large number of students from Fatima Jinnah Women University Rawalpindi, International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI), Punjab University Lahore, National University of Modern Languages, University of Karachi and religious seminaries affiliated with Wafaqul Madaris are attending the event.
The main objective of the programme is to engage students and faculty members from prominent universities
and madaris for devising a Pakistan specific national strategy for countering on-campus religious extremism.
The initiative will be vital for strategizing coordination, famework within which universities, Higher Education Commission (HEC), and civil society may work in tandem to eradicate extremism on university campuses through programmes that promotes exclusivity and peaceful coexistence.
Sharing his views, a student from (IIUI), M Ishtiaq Khattak said issue of extremism would be effectively
tackled through educating the youth at different level. He said education would enable the youth to understand and differentiate between right and wrong, besides it would keep them away from anti-social and ant-state elements
using immature minds for their nefarious designs.
Another student of Fatima Jinnah University, Salwa Iftikhar was of the view that it is easier to brain-wash a
dull mind, but it is impossible to exploit an educated mind. She said that mostly young people belonging to lower
income households unfortunately are more vulnerable to joining extremist and terrorist organizations and added that
the best solution to tackle extremism is education and education only.
Deputy Director NACTA Zahid Ullah Khan told APP that as a result of efficient achievement of National Action coordination terrorist authority has registered an apparent downstairs inclination in terrorism incidents which have reached 730 in 2017 as compared to 2,070 attacks in 2010, adding that NACTA are taking initiatives to promote the culture of tolerance and acceptability among the students. The Authority are also taking steps to get rid of the
factors which promoting the tunnel mentality in the society.
Male and female students from universities from all four provinces attended the conference. During an interaction with universities and madras’s students Zahid Khan said that (NACTA) was making plan with higher education commission to counter the forces of extremism and violence at university campuses