Militants continue to attack ‘soft targets’ as the NAP naps
After the attack in Army Public School in Peshawar back in 2014, the civilian and military leadership chalked out a unanimous plan to uproot terrorism and extremism. There was a clear shift in policy and the government and army decided to launch a massive action against terrorists and their ‘facilitators’.
On Monday morning the provincial capital of Balochistan was under attack once again, as a blast targeting local hospital claimed over 70 lives and injured several other people. The blast took place when lawyers’ community of the province had gathered at Civil Hospital Quetta to receive the body of Balochistan Bar Association’s former president who was killed earlier in the day.
Another blast took place in Quetta three days later, on Thursday, injuring five police officials.
The recent wave of terrorism has led people to ask that how far the National Action Plan (NAP) has been implemented and why terrorists are still being able to carry out attacks at such a massive level – despite the government’s claim that they are ‘on the run’.
After the attack in Army Public School in Peshawar back in 2014, the civilian and military leadership chalked out a unanimous plan to uproot terrorism and extremism. There was a clear shift in policy and the government and army decided to launch a massive action against terrorists and their ‘facilitators’.
Operation Zarb-e-Azb undoubtedly yielded positive results and the number of large-scale terrorist attacks saw a decline. At first the terrorists were able to target military and government installations but after the operation their strength certainly decreased and they changed their tactics. They started targeting the public more than the state – in short, they decided to go after soft targets this time.
There was an-APS like, although not that massive, attack in Charsadda in January in which over 20 university students were gunned down by militants. In March terrorists attacked Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park of Lahore where people had come to enjoy their Easter holiday. 72 people including women and children became victim of the horrific attack. And in the latest attack, terrorists chose to target the cream of Quetta’s lawyer.
Intelligence failure: heads should roll
The fact that such attacks are still taking place just goes to show that our security policy has some loopholes that need to be addressed. Since Quetta has been under the control of Frontier Constabulary (FC) for years, attacks like these are certainly an intelligence failure and result of miscommunication between the agencies. There should be an inquiry into why intelligence information was not communicated and those found responsible for the criminal negligence should be taken to task.
‘Good, bad Taliban’ policy still being followed?
In the past, Pakistan’s policy vis-à-vis terrorism was that the groups that are not carrying out activities in Pakistan will not be targeted in army actions. These groups included Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network. But after the APS attack, when the country’s leadership sat down to discuss a long term plan to deal with the menace of terrorism and extremism, it was decided that the distinction between ‘good and bad’ Taliban will be eliminated and all terrorist groups regardless of their affiliation will be targeted. This shift in policy was not ordinary, as it brought a change to the longstanding unofficial foreign policy position of the country.
But Pakistan’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Azaz recently made a statement that raised question about Pakistan’s newfound commitment about not differentiating between ‘good and bad’ Taliban. He said that Islamabad has considerable influence over the Afghan Taliban because its leaders live in the country.
In March this year, Aziz delivered a speech at Washington’s Council on Foreign Relations where he said, “We have some influence over them (Afghan Taliban) because their leadership is in Pakistan and they get some medical facilities. Their families are here.”
Pakistan’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Azaz recently made a statement that raised question about Pakistan’s newfound commitment about not differentiating between ‘good and bad’ Taliban. He said that Islamabad has considerable influence over the Afghan Taliban because its leaders live in the country.
“We can use those levers to pressurise them to say, ‘Come to the table’. But we can’t negotiate on behalf of the Afghan government because we cannot offer them what the Afghan government can offer them”, he had said.
Pakistan will certainly have to play a role in the Afghan peace process and convince the Afghan Taliban to come on the dialogue table but this should not become a reason for the country’s leadership deviating from what they themselves decided post APS – no distinction between ‘good and bad’ Taliban.
Government’s response to the terror attack – as usual, flawed:
Balochistan’s Interior Minister Sarfaaz Bugti was rather quick to state that Indian intelligence agency RAW was behind the Quetta blast but he did not comment on the security lapse. Let’s admit RAW was indeed behind the Quetta attack –in that case it was a bigger intelligence failure.
The fact that intelligence agency of a neighbouring country can plan and carry out such a huge attack and our law enforcement agencies do not have the capacity to thwart it, is disturbing to say the least.
NAP’s non-implementation – a failure of the government:
Army chief General Raheel Sharif recently commented on the implementation of NAP while presiding over a security meeting at General Headquarters in Rawalpindi on Friday. The COAS declared lack of progress on implementation of NAP damaging for the operation Zarb-e-Azb, a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
“NAP is central to achievements of our objectives and its lack of progress is affecting the consolidation phase of operation Zarb-e-Azb,” General Raheel was quoted as saying.
The army chief is right – Zarb-e-Azb’s consolidation phase cannot be successful unless all segments of society play their role in tackling the menace of terrorism.
Anchorperson and analyst Moeed Pirzada said that government is responsible for the negligence and security lapse that led to the Quetta attack. He said that the military has done whatever they could to implement the National Action Plan, and added that it is the government that failed to do its job. “The government has failed to implement NAP as they never made it a priority.”
While commenting on the inactivity of National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), he said that the government never released the funds required for NACTA but reserved money for projects like Orange Line Metro Train. He said that operation Zarb-e-Azb’s critical phase has passed successfully and the army has been able to put a halt to the terrorists’ communication network and their training centres have been destroyed.
“The responsibility now lied with the government to facilitate the consolidation phase of the operation by introducing reforms in Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) – but they failed to do so.”
When asked about likelihood of RAW’s involvement in the Quetta attack, he said that the attack was meant to divert attention from atrocities taking place in Kashmir.
“It was the first time that the world media started paying attention to Indian forces’ brutalities in Occupied Kashmir and Pakistan’s government was asking the world to intervene to stop India from committing human rights violation in the valley. India has benefitted from the recent attack in Quetta, as it can now tell the world that Pakistan has no moral standing since it has failed to secure its own province of Balochistan”, he said.
VVIP movement during emergency –unneeded:
There were usual VVIP visits following the Quetta attack and roads were blocked for the security of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff Raheel Sharif, among other leaders, who had arrived in the city to visit CMH and meet with the injured from the blast. The VIP movement and blockades created problems for blood donors and families of the victims. How is it acceptable to block hospital’s entrances and exits during an emergency situation?
Where there are VIPs, there will be security arrangements and long lines of protocol staffs. Why can’t our respected leaders delay their visits knowing that their movement will only add to the problems of those dealing with the situation? The photo-ops and tokenisms can wait.
For the action against terrorists to succeed, proper coordination between the agencies is needed. And the political leadership of the country should get its acts together instead of playing the usual blame game.
