- Another intelligence failure
The attack on a hotel belonging to a national chain was a bloodbath. Not only were two security guards killed, but so were the four assailants, but though the local police deserves all credit for ending the attack, the underlying problem remains. The hotel had about 40 Chinese among its guests, who were the targets of the attackers, as claimed by the Baluch Liberation Army (BLA) in its statement claiming responsibility for the attack. The law enforcing agencies and the intelligence agencies proved totally unable to prevent the attack, which is counter-intuitive, as such a largescale attack would be bound to yield unmistakable intelligence at the planning stage.
The situation becomes even more alarming if the recent attack on Data Darbar is taken into account. There too a carefully planned attack was launched without a whisper of prior knowledge. The intelligence agencies had not even issued the largely useless warning of an attack being planned. There are two patterns emerging. The first is of intelligence failure. It is almost as if the intelligence agencies are resting on their laurels. It seems that there is a crying need to pull attention and resources off opposition politicians and devote them to terrorists. It is not as if the attacks were committed by newcomers, by outfits that everyone had heard of for the first time. Nor were the attacks launched against wholly new targets.
That is the second pattern noticeable. The BLA and the Data Sahib attackers do not share ideological similarities. But both are attacking where the opponent will hurt most. One is targeting law enforcing agencies, the other Chinese working on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Those authorities responsible for security should realise that these are limited targets, which can be hardened. This would leave the terrorists with no option but to go for soft targets, and for that, the intelligence agencies will have to do their jobs, something which they do not seem to be doing at the moment. Before then, the Chinese government’s reaction will also be evident. Though no Chinese citizen has been a victim, this continuous targeting in an area which it regards as crucial to the success of CPEC and thus of its Belt-and-Road Initiative, will cause it great concern. The Pakistan government must deal with this without any of the cavalierness it has recently shown.