The Economist has reported in a lead article that Israel has been fairly free of suicide bombers, in part to the barrier that bites into the West Bank, which protects Jewish settlements that continue to expand despite their illegality in international law.
It should be examined if we could build a similar wall around troubled Fata area to keep out the suicide bombers that presumably enter into the settled areas and play havoc with innocent lives. Arrangements could be made to issue permits to genuine workers to enter into KPK from authorised entry points. Some deterrent has to be made, like Israel, to protect the civilian population of our cities from bomb blasts and suicide bombers because we cannot continue in our present state where everybody feels threatened by extremist elements. Some out of the box measures need to be adopted to protect our urban areas instead of adopting reactive measures that do not produce lasting results.
DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI,
Lahore, December 29.