- And the usual suspects
Once again the same pattern repeats itself. A rather well planned terrorist attack slips out of the noose constantly tightening round the terrorists, everybody is taken completely by surprise, and there’s a security rush, immediately after the incident, which quickly rounds up the culprits, who always manage to sneak in from Afghanistan. Yet there was something slightly different about the 14 schools attacked, bombed and torched in Gilgit-Baltistan the other night. It was more thoroughly planned and effectively executed than the usual suicide attack or IED hit.
That, of course, means that it had been in the works for quite a while. And that it went ahead without, seemingly, much trouble means it did not appear on the radar of any of our many security agencies. And since this was hardly the first attack on schools — Pakistan has been facing such attacks on schools since at least 2004 – this particular incident has raised more eyebrows than usual. Even the foreign press has been, understandably, quite vocal about it. When the country stands at a crossroads such regressive news leads to questions about the degree of our success in the war against terror.
Back when NAP (national action plan) was formulated, particular focus was placed on improving agency-to-agency communication. Often one arm of the security machinery picks up chatter than can prove useful, even actionable, for another. But going by how the enemy is regularly able to circumvent Pakistani security, even after the many successes of Zarb-e-Azb and Rudd-ul-Fasaad – even the end of Mullah Fazlullah itself – perhaps it is time to focus on loopholes that continue to be used against us. Those in charge must revisit the finer points of NAP, so the war that has been fought so bravely can be brought to the right conclusion.
