As Pakistan struggles with an intensely polarized political battle, terror continues its terrorizing ways. The latest attack came as Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq narrowly escaped a suicide attack on Friday when his convoy was targeted in Zhob, Balochistan. A suicide bomber exploded himself right beside Haq’s vehicle, which reports indicate was not bulletproof. The JI chief was on his way to address a political gathering when the suicide attack took place. At least seven people were injured while the suicide bomber died on the spot. The attack did not deter the JI chief from his political work though; he addressed a political gathering after the attack, saying he was not afraid of dying. While condemnations poured in from the prime minister and other leaders of the country, the fact that a suicide attack targeted the chief of JI is quite worrying in itself.
Security analysts point out that the rise in terrorism that we have witnessed in the past two years, especially after the fall of Kabul to the Afghan Taliban, has now enough resources and information to target high-profile personalities. That the chief of a religious party is not safe from these terrorists shows that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its affiliate groups will not shy away from targeting religious leaders either. This is not the first time that religio-political leaders have been targeted by terrorists. In 2011, Maulana Fazlur Rehman escaped two back-to-back suicide attacks. Maulana Fazl also escaped another suicide attack in 2014. The recent attack on JI chief is reminiscent of the three suicide attacks on Maulana Fazl. And, lest we forget, it is also a reminder that the TTP issued threats to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari earlier this year and that such threats cannot be taken lightly.
Last month, Director-General (DG) of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry had revealed that there was concrete proof of contacts between the TTP and militant Baloch organizations and foreign intelligence agencies. The ISPR DG had also revealed that 436 terrorist incidents had occurred this year alone, in which 293 people were martyred and 523 injured. The numbers have increased in the span of just a month. Needless to say, this is terrifying for a country that has battled with its own domestic war on terror for years now, losing army jawans, civilians, police personnel in the process. At a time when the country is facing one of its worst political and economic crises, it should not be forgotten that terrorism is rearing its head. But the state of Pakistan has given a clear, unequivocal message, with the military and civilian establishments both saying that terrorism will be dealt with an iron hand. The speed with which the TTP and its affiliated groups are now successfully conducting terrorist attacks across the country – from major cities to more remote areas – is a testament to what experts had been warning for long: that the Afghan government must also ensure that cross-border terrorist attacks are not carried out from Afghan soil. Experts say that Pakistan’s negotiations with the TTP were initiated after the fall of Kabul and brokered by the Afghan Taliban. As a result, some TTP elements did not just resettle in Pakistan but now it has been officially admitted that this policy led to the current rise in terrorism. A country that has fought valiantly against terrorism and sacrificed more than 80,000 lives cannot afford more terrorism in already troubled times.