Terrorists shifting from IEDs to suicide bombings
Suddenly there is an outburst of suicide attacks, the latest with as many as three suicide bombers targeting a court in Tangi in district Charsadda. All three terrorists were shot dead, one outside the court and two inside it. Among the 3 citizens dead was also a lawyer. With 25 injured, including 5 policemen, the death toll could increase. The gallantry displayed by the local police saved many lives with the result that the terrorists failed to create the type of impact that they had wanted to.
Operation Zarb-e-Azb had led to the killing of several terrorist trainers and their apprentices depleting the reserves of suicide bombers. This was indicated by the rise in the use of IEDs in most of the subsequent attacks. That a new crop of suicide bombers is available now is shown by their deployment consecutively in Lahore, Sehwan Sharif and at Tangi. It appears that with NACTA and the security agencies napping, terrorist networks managed to raise nurseries of suicide bombers and activate their sleeping cells. They also motivated their contacts who had been dispirited by the destruction of their control and command centers in North Waziristan to harbour the suicide bombers and guide them to the targeted sites.
Despite its utility, army action alone cannot succeed in eliminating terrorism unless it is complemented by an efficient system of intelligence gathering by various security agencies combined with real time collation of the reports and execution of actionable information through province wide quick response teams. What has stood in the way is the sheer negligence by Interior Ministry to activate NACTA.
Now that a brigadier has been chosen to head the Joint Directorate of Intelligence, the reluctance on the part of rival security agencies to share information should end. Many who had despaired of NACTA showing any sign of animation are hoping to see the body in action. NACTA, led by a Grade 22 Police officer, has been allotted sufficient funds. There should be no excuse now for failure to show results.