Fiascos galore

When there was so much criticism, you can’t find anything kinder than that. Prof Noam Chomsky’s observation that Pakistan Army is efficient, reliable and capable of defending the country’s sovereignty came at a time when our defence forces and their intelligence agencies were experiencing their most embarrassing moment. The terrorist attack on PNS Mehran has heaped humiliation on our security establishment still reeling under the fallout of the Abbottabad operation.

The mere fact that six militants entered the Mehran base, destroyed two multi-role P-3C Orion aircrafts and killed 12 security personnel during the 18-hour-long siege was another devastating blow to our armed forces in less than a month after the killing of Osama Bin Laden in the US Navy SEALs attack at the compound not far away from Pakistan Military Academy. This has not only thrown up questions of intelligence failure but also over whether the attackers had inside links.

As the military and intelligence agencies were strangely silent for some time, there were conspiracy theories going around about the shadowy hand of foreign elements in the attack on the naval base with some so-called television talk show hosts suggesting that India stands to gain most from the destruction of the Orions. Perhaps they had no answer for intelligence failure and the help the terrorists got from inside the base. Or they simply ignored Rehman Malik’s statement that the raiders took advantage of a blind spot that was not covered by the security cameras.

There were conflicting reports about the number of attackers and it varied from four to twelve. Notwithstanding the Interior Minister’s bizarre statement that the terrorists resembled Star War characters, he listed far fewer assailants than the media reported while insisting that all of them had been killed. The figure differed from the one quoted by the Navy’s spokesman that was again not the same as mentioned in the FIR. There was also no official word about the attack on the bullet-proof vehicles that had been pressed into service to evacuate the foreigners – six Americans and 11 Chinese – from the Mehran base.

Then there’s a rather amusing statement from Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Noman Bashir: Pakistan Navy jawans conducted a successful operation under a well-coordinated plan, though the terrorists who assaulted PNS Mehran late Sunday night were highly trained. So much for the navy’s capacity to fight out half a dozen militants. Let’s reconstruct the events leading up to the terror strike. The assailants covered an approximate distance of one-and-a-half kilometers from the boundary wall up to the hangar where two P-3C Orion aircraft were parked. They then moved on and occupied two nearby buildings where they took positions and fired at the security personnel who tried to move towards them.

The assault was the worst since the General Headquarters was besieged in October 2009, and the fourth on the navy after three bombings late April killed nine people. Everyone will be justified to know how was it possible that a few militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and explosives could enter such a highly secured facility without the collaboration of someone from inside. Does it mean the militants can carry out an action whenever they want? These questions will keep haunting the military while dealing with the most serious existential threat to our security.

The world is becoming increasingly concerned about the rising levels of militancy in Pakistan and about the network that had allowed Osama Bin Laden to live untraced in a garrison town hardly 100 kilometers from the federal capital The American counter-terrorism experts did not directly accuse our security establishment of sheltering the world’s number one terrorist but they were getting suspicious about the complicity of some rogue elements in our intelligence apparatus.

This view was also endorsed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who was here on a daylong visit to discuss how both countries can rebuild trust to fight the ongoing war against terrorism. Following talks with officials in Islamabad she said there was no evidence that Pakistani government leaders knew where Osama Bin Laden had actually been hiding. This must have come as a great relief to the military high command which has implicitly been pleading incompetence rather than complicity.

Ms Clinton and Admn Mullen’s visit may render some help in putting the US-Pakistan relations, which have been at the lowest ebb since the May 2 strike in Abbottabad, back on track. But that is not going to address the genuine concerns the people of Pakistan have about the capacity and competence of their armed forces to defend the country against growing militancy. This is about time the intelligence agencies must be held accountable for the recent fiascos.

The writer is Executive Editor, Pakistan Today