Quetta again

The home minister for Balochistan has informed us that reports had been received some days ago that terrorists had entered Quetta and would strike soon. They did. At least four terrorists targeted the Police Training Centre on Saraib Road on Mondaynight, killing at least 60 young cadets and injuring over 117 others. All three assailants, including two who had detonated their suicide vests after entering the premises, causing the majority of casualties, were killed in the prolonged action that followed this latest attack. It is quite obvious then that we have won no war. The terrorists continue to score the kind of victories only they can rejoice in. The police academy should have been heavily guarded since militants have attacked training schools before – in 2009 the Manawan police academy in Lahore was the site of a day-long gun battle between the TTP and the police – and the Balochistan IGP had requested a boundary wall at the academy just last month. That boundary wall still hadn’t been constructed and made it easier for the attackers to access the academy. The young men training there in the hope of earning a living have paid the price for this negligence.

The finger of blame has been immediately pointed towards Afghanistan, and we have been told that the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Aalmi, which has claimed responsibility for the horrendous act of terrorism and the snuffing out of so many young lives had been in touch with groups in that country. The contact has apparently been traced through telephonic calls. The question is that if so much information had been gathered, why was it not put to better use and a greater effort made to detect these men of violence before they struck? This is the question that arises again and again after every new attack. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Aalmi did claim the attack and so did the Islamic State later. A security meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and attended by COAS Raheel Sharif was told that the attackers were coordinating with people in Afghanistan but the most likely explanation is that they were working with the TTP leadership which is based there. It may not be far off the mark to assume that militants in the country have assistance from across the borders. But this cannot change the fact that they essentially have roots within our own soil and that these have grown over the decades. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has been active in Punjab and other places since the 1990s. By now, the state and its army should have been able to destroy these groups and identify those who recruit people to them. The failure to do so has resulted in hundreds of deaths over the years. Are we are still in denial about the extent of the homegrown militancy problem? The Quetta attack makes it apparent this toll will continue to mount. We need internal action to cement over the weaknesses that enemy agents use to carry out their acts of destruction. Local security forces, including the Frontier Corps, deployed in Quetta for years, need to accept they are responsible for such failures, and so do the rest of the state and the government.     

Whichever group may be behind the attack, this was a time when we needed to demonstrate unity and resolve to defeat militancy and terror. That, unfortunately, is not how things panned out with Imran Khan feeling not an iota of shame in feeding the dead bodies of young cadets into the grind mill of his ambitions to power, by quickly implying that India and the PML-N together were behind the attack and that it was no coincidence that it took place so close to his planned shutdown of Islamabad. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif thought it necessary to join Imran in the gutter by suggesting that a nexus of India, Afghanistan and the PTI was to blame. It is no revelation any more that our politicians have become incapable of dealing with each other with a sense of honour. Can they at least try and mourn our dead with dignity?