The primary vow of a state is not a difficult one: the state must protect life. Nevertheless, the plot of the piece about the security work in Tirah has a way of making it appear as though any form of coercion on the part of the state is a human right abuse per se. A government, not only, must not perpetrate unlawful harm, but must also discontinue armed parties which threaten civilians. If militants operate in a border region, organize their attacks and murder people, the state cannot take the issue as a PR challenge. It must treat it as a legal emergency of grave concern.

The Constitution in Pakistan gives the right to life the priority. Article 9 ensures life and liberty that implies that it bears a positive obligation to ensure that it does not subject its citizens to violence and not a negative obligation not to mistreat them. Article 245 grants the armed forces the authority to participate in aiding civil power in cases where internal unrest and armed aggression exceed the normal police power. In areas including Tirah where the terrain and proximity to the border have been tested and tested by the forces of TTP, the question is not whether the state is justified in doing so. The question is whether it is acting within the law, using reasonable, proportional and threat-oriented force. Inaction is not neutrality. Sometimes doing nothing is possible at the expense of ordinary people being exposed to bombs, ambush, extortion and........

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