Urban centres in the crosshairs of the terrorists
As the army moves to capture the last few terrorist sanctuaries in North Waziristan, the terrorists have put the urban centres in their crosshairs. While on Thursday the army killed 10 in Dattakhel, a suicide bomber targeted the vehicle of a police officer in Peshawar, killing two security personnel and injuring the deputy commandant. The same day four policemen were shot dead by the terrorists in Quetta. This was the second incident of the sort in the city in a week. Unless the terrorist networks in urban centres are broken and their sleeper cells neutralised, we might win the battle in the tribal areas but lose the war in the cities.
The situation in the urban centres is alarming. Itching to avenge their defeat the terrorists are concentrating on cities. They are making use of the vulnerabilities in the system to bleed the law enforcement agencies. By conducting consecutive attacks on the minorities, particularly on the members of Shia community, they want to shake the people’s confidence in the state and its repressive organs. Within months of the setback in tribal areas the terrorists have managed to activate their sleeper cells in cities where they have launched several terrorist attacks.
What helps the terrorists is a lack of the required commitment in federal and provincial administrations. Both have failed to take bold measures agreed upon during an APC in December last year. Despite the backing from the army, the federal and provincial governments are reluctant to go ahead for fear of a backlash from the religious parties and seminaries. Meanwhile the banned outfits continue to operate in the country providing shelter and facilitation to the terrorists. The section of the seminaries tainted with extremism remain another source of help to the terrorist outfits. There is an urgent need on the part of the federal and provincial administrations to take bold steps to deprive the terrorists of the sources of support in the cities.
