Playing the Pied Piper

In 2014 when militants targeted the Army Public School in Peshawar the government swung into action and took measures to secure school buildings, while ignoring the rest. When the Bacha Khan University was attacked, all heads were put together to review the security of universities – only. Similarly, all attention is now on securing public parks only after the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park incident in Lahore.

Militants are playing the Pied Piper, enticing the government to follow them whenever and wherever they play the flute. The government needs to make an all-encompassing and comprehensive security plan to forestall nefarious acts of terrorists against soft targets – and not wait to act when the damage is already done.

Sayed GB Shah Bokhari

Peshawar