PML-N leadership should take terrorist threats head-on
The brazen disregard of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other extremist organisations has come to the fore once again as the government has begun contemplating hanging the terrorist who attacked the General Headquarters (GHQ) in October 2009. Not that anyone ever expected that the TTP would take any such measure lying face down, especially after its now proven ability to orchestrate jail breaks to free those of its compatriots that do end up behind bars. Having been granted an upper hand by both blatant neglect on the part of security agencies and gross incompetence on the part of the political leadership, the TTP now feels it can go public about threats to the new political government led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which many observers considered to have a soft spot for extremist groups.
A note sent to media by the TTP and Ansarul Mujahideen threatened to target two high-profile personalities of Punjab and the federation and carry out suicide bombings in FATA against government functionaries if the GHQ attack mastermind Dr Usman Ghani and his associates are hanged in Faisalabad jail as per schedule on August 23. The declared target is now the “homes of prominent PML-N leadership,” with a warning, “the leadership of the PML-N will be made target of revenge, just like we targeted the ANP leadership.” This also means that the secular versus non-secular parties divide being constructed by many observers before the elections also has no sanctity with the TTP and its affiliates. Dr Usman and his cohorts confessed to the GHQ attack in September 2011, explaining that they attacked the Pakistan Army because “it was an ally of the United States” and a “legitimate target.” One of the attackers had served in the military himself.
The government, for all it can do, cannot let terrorists hold it hostage. Any weakness on the part of the PML-N leadership, already floundering between talks and conducting an all out assault, shall be taken as a sign of weakness. There is also the additional fear that the TTP may be issuing the warning as a precursor to a DI Khan like assault on the Faisalabad jail to free their “jailed muhajids.” Twelve years into the war against the Taliban, it should have been the TTP that should have been on the run. The situation, unfortunately, is the reverse. The government needs to remain steadfast against the challenge offered by the militants and any planned executions of terrorists must go ahead. But more importantly the much delayed national security policy must be drafted and approved soon. The current reactive approach to dealing with the TTP, which focuses on damage control, not eliminating extremist groups, cannot go on much longer without putting the entire civil and military machinery of the country on terminal risk.
