The Lahore police has busted a network of terrorist killers associated with the outlawed, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The group had planned to kill religious and important personalities from academia, the judiciary, police and media. A link has been found between this group and the one from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi captured earlier from Lahore. The arrested group had planned to attack the winter national anthem ceremony in the Punjab University. Fortunately, timely intelligence led to the cancellation of the programme. The presence of a police warden in the arrested group shows the level of penetration of the terrorists within society. He would inform about the movements of senior police officials to his group. There must be many like him, perhaps more educated and cultured, in various terrorist outfits, driven by the idea of ‘cleansing’ Pakistan of anyone even remotely enlightened. In the midst of this bubbling cauldron, the absence of the state is conspicuous for its inability to protect its citizens. Though the state has been in limbo for long now, its policy initiatives to reign in terrorism have also come to naught. The wheels within wheels in the dialogue process have left little hope that any time soon a clear, transparent and decisive decision would be arrived at. The pattern of killing the intelligentsia began in the restive cities of the country to begin with such as those of Balochistan and Karachi. Now the trend has been extended to other parts of the country. Saner voices are targeted by the terrorists for their ability to overcome the wrong, narrow and illogical ideas sowed into the minds of the poor nation by the ultra-conservatives who imagine Pakistan as a fortress of Islam. This wrong notion, wrapped up in an unrealistic pan-Islamic ambition has resulted in a country as confused as it could be on the true and sensible religious values. The result is that anyone who disagrees with the narrow, literalist interpretation of Islam is at risk. These voices using reason to undo the extremist narrative are in danger of being picked off one by one. Is this the fruit of the efforts of Mr Jinnah to unite the Muslims of the subcontinent to secure their rights? In the pursuit of this witch-hunt to purge Pakistan of the so called un-Islamic elements, these terrorists are doing no service to Pakistan or Islam. They have made the country more intolerant towards even the basic human values Islam teaches about respecting the right of others to live as they want. *