What an unlucky Pakistani circus we have as opposed to the Lucky Irani one!
Pakistan is passing through an existential crisis the enormity of which at least my generation has not seen before.
Most concerned citizenry has struggled the past few weeks to discern how a 180-million strong nation that in terms of its human resource potential, natural wealth and nuclear-armed defence is right up there with select few has lost its way.
The stunning attack on Mehran Naval Air Base is the latest evidence of how our once-fabled land is coming apart at the seams.
Last month, Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani famously declared at the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul that the armed forces had broken the back of militants and his compatriots should have faith and optimism in the country’s future. It could have been Rangeela trying to pull our leg(s).
A week later, the Americans found Osama bin Laden not very far from where the General was making the bombast.
As the Abbottabad episode coupled with unceasing drone attacks was not enough humiliation, the so-called “back-broken” Taliban have struck back five times in succession after Osama was killed to drive home the point about just whose back is being broken.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighting on the side of Al-Qaeda came, saw and conquered the naval base for at least 17 hours, making a mockery of claims by both Kayani and President Obama of having effectively put the Al-Qaeda network out of business.
The suicide attack on a Frontier Constabulary base and training centre in Shabqadar left nearly 90 recruits dead. The second attack was on a convoy of US diplomats in Peshawar. While it may not have involved a specific target but the ‘To Whom It May Concern’ message was unmistakably clear — the Americans, who killed and consigned Osama bin Laden to the sea.
These have been followed by two police station suicide bombings in Peshawar — not very far from where the U.S. convoy was attacked — and Hangu.
Where all this leaves Pakistani citizens with regard to their confidence in both the military and civilian leadership is pretty obvious.
There is palpable disenchantment and an overwhelming sense of insecurity with no clear and coherent strategy to deal with the impending challenges.
What is most shocking about the naval abracadabra is that six terrorists were able to hold the state hostage for 17 hours.
It beggars belief when you consider that the number of security personnel guarding the naval base count up to 1,100.
It couldn’t have come at a worse time for the already besieged security establishment, which is yet to recover from the shock of the Abbottabad abyss, which has cast them as suspects in the eyes of the world.
For sheer audacity, this attack matched the GHQ Circa 2009 when Al Qaeda, operating logistically through the TTP, staged a hard-to-believe 22-hour hit-and-stay operation during which they held army personnel hostage and killed several of them.
The terrorists, who held us in shock-and-awe at the Mehran Naval Air Base destroyed two multi-million dollar P3C Orion aircraft, which is a four-engine turbo-prop, anti-submarine and maritime surveillance machine.
As a patrol aircraft, it has advanced submarine detection sensors such as directional frequency and ranging sonobuoys and magnetic anomaly detection equipment.
The planes can carry a mixed payload of weapons internally and on wing pylons.
The U.S. handed two P3C Orion aircraft in April 2010. By 2012, Pakistan Navy is expected to take delivery of a total of eight P3C aircraft.
The huge balls of fire and continued firing fed into the initial speculation that some 20 terrorists had attacked the base from several sides.
A clownish looking Rehman Malik in a Yankee cap later confirmed that the terrorists were six in number, four of whom he claimed, had been killed while two others escaped. His bid to show around his Blackberry with a picture of a killed terrorist was facile and distasteful to say the least.
A while later Naval Chief Admiral Noman Bashir said the terrorists were five to seven in number before making a less-than-convincing bid to cover the gaping hole in battle readiness at his end by claiming that naval commandos were up and about in three minutes flat.
Bashir instead shifted the focus to the attackers, saying they were highly trained with sophisticated weapons like RPG launchers, which prompted a member of the media to sarcastically ask him when he would be sending his personnel to their (terrorists) like for training!
In all this hoopla, conspicuous by his absence was the defence minister, who reportedly, when pushed to explain, simply mumbled that he was ready to take off to Karachi but since Rehman Malik was “already doing his bit”, he laid low.
The writer is a newspaper editor based in Islamabad and can be reached at [email protected]
