Sir: The killing of the brave and honourable Chaudhry Aslam shows the government is lacking in providing a mechanism for combatting terrorism in the country. The law and order situation in the economic hub of Karachi is becoming so bad it is becoming Talibanised. The ongoing terrorist activities in Karachi show that the government has no writ in some areas of the city. It is becoming so obvious that the police and rangers, which have been deployed in Karachi for decades, have nil presence in front of these terrorist groups. The deteriorating situation of law and order in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has grown worse over the decades. The question of accountability seems to have been demolished from the scene. Nobody is held accountable as every time some action takes place, only political statements and press releases are made. We talk of trade with India and consulting the IMF to run the country but why are we not able to make effective our laws by equipping our security forces with more advanced weapons, tactics and organizational planning than these terrorists? We are neither equipped nor are we successful in negotiating with the Taliban to resolve the issue. We need to increase the defence budget and effective strategy for assigning tasks to the forces. We need to make a central security system of defence to combat this challenge of terrorism or else we will keep losing brave people like Chaudhary Aslam. So many soldiers and officers of the armed forces, police, rangers and other paramilitary forces have given their lives for the country but the government has failed to demolish these terrorist elements. It is high time the government take action because this country belongs to us and not to the terrorists. We need to kick them out. FATIMA MANSOOR Via e-mail