- Minorities always in the crosshairs
Yet another terrorist attack targeting minorities in Quetta, despite the many successes of Zarb-e-Azb and Rudd-ul-Fasaad, raises the usual questions. One, how can terrorists still circumvent security and smuggle bomb parts into the city? Quetta is hardly a large stretch of land, and it’s had beefed up security for years. And ingredients for suicide attacks are, we have been repeatedly told over the long years of this war, smuggled into cities piece by piece to bypass security. Two, does this mean that implantation of that crucial component of the National Action Plan (NAP) – info sharing between security agencies – still leaves a little something to be desired?
It’s when – again, as we have been told – when agencies pick up ‘chatter’ about an imminent attack, and then share it among the twenty-something agencies that litter our intelligence/security landscape, that steps can be taken to intercept bomb parts at city entry points, etc. And three, if a small city like Quetta, despite extraordinary security, is forever vulnerable to the odd attack that can kill anywhere between 10 and 200 people, how secure is the whole country really? No doubt police at the Church in Quetta on Sunday acted valiantly and prevented many, many more deaths and injuries. But that means that just the reaction to terrorism has improved. We clearly need to work more on preemption.
There have, no doubt, been many successes in this long and cruel fight against terrorism. Yet more clearly needs to be done to safeguard our minorities, both Muslim and non-Muslim. After every attack the government machinery goes through the same motions – condemnation, promise to fight till the end, and glorifying the fallen. Yet the only ground work that can bring the fight to an end sooner rather than later – steps clearly defined in NAP – seem to stay on the back burner. First there were promises of complete implementation, then concerns that compliance wasn’t exactly swift, and then the matter was forgotten altogether. The sooner those in charge realise this shortcoming the better for everyone, especially minorities.
