PM at ISI

Could have done better

The prime minister didn’t really need to visit the ISI headquarters to tell the clandestine services that our biggest challenges now are extremism and terrorism. This posturing no doubt owed to the battle of intelligence agencies that has now been incorporated in the deteriorating Delhi-Islamabad verbal clash. The Indians have long accused our security services of practically everything that goes wrong on their side. And of late we, too, seem to have developed a liking for involving RAW in most of our troubles. Visiting ISI, therefore, meant putting the executive’s weight behind the brass and the intel boys at a time of escalated diplomatic confrontation. That makes sense, but could he have done it better?

The prime minister is reminded that even if RAW, or other any other agency for that matter, was indeed behind recent terrorism, haven’t Pakistani nationals been found actually committing the act. Tracing funding and arming to foreign sources is one thing, but what about on-ground perpetrators? And shouldn’t we really focus, as the PM said at the ISI HQ, on sharing real time intel so security services can preempt attacks on our soil, which occur all too often?

Zarb-e-Azb took off to everybody’s satisfaction, but there is an increasing feeling that terrorists still pretty much strike at will. Every few days there is a more daring attack and each time there is a show of iron will from Islamabad. Yet there is little follow through. If the Isamili massacre in Karachi was not bad enough, we have another mass killing in Balochistan. And it’s not as if this was the first incident of its kind. Our agencies seem able enough to track distant planners and abettors, but they need to do a better job of controlling crime as it happens in the homeland. If the PM was able to impress this point upon his hosts, perhaps the visit would have been worth it. Otherwise it’s better to shift focus from posturing to practical application, at least till there is an existential war going on.