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Thursday March 28, 2024

The softer targets

Friday is supposed to be a holy day, but in Pakistan it is now often associated with bomb explosions and suicide bombings. It is obvious that militants on a suicide mission prefer to die on a blessed Friday after being misled to believe they are doing something good. This Friday

By Rahimullah Yusufzai
February 15, 2015
Friday is supposed to be a holy day, but in Pakistan it is now often associated with bomb explosions and suicide bombings. It is obvious that militants on a suicide mission prefer to die on a blessed Friday after being misled to believe they are doing something good.
This Friday in Peshawar was another tragic day in the life of arguably the most dangerous city in Pakistan. The Imamia Imambargah in Peshawar’s Hayatabad town was attacked by four militants on a suicide mission. Twenty worshippers offering Friday prayers were killed and almost 60 sustained injuries. They were all innocent and had gathered to pray and seek the blessings of Allah. In the eyes of the misguided attackers, though, they were liable to be slain because they were Shias.
The Shias in Peshawar, as elsewhere in Pakistan, have been under attack in recent months and years. The targeted killing of Shias has been going on and prominent members of the sect including doctors and bankers have been assassinated in the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Life in the city for its small Shia population has become risky. Some who can afford to shift elsewhere have already done so, but most have stayed back even if they are wealthy because abandoning Peshawar isn’t something they have ever considered. You cannot simply walk away from a place where you were born and where your near and dear ones are buried.
Though it is true that the Imamia Imambargah is located on the edge of the troubled, militancy-hit tribal region of Khyber Agency and was an easy target due to its proximity to places where militants continue to have a strong presence despite the military operations, one could ask the question how and why a similar place of worship was attacked in faraway Shikarpur in Sindh, a place that wasn’t known for any noticeable militant activity until now.
Shikarpur was an unlikely place to be attacked by sectarian terrorists, but sadly that attack too could not be prevented and up to 60 people lost their lives. This should be enough to explain that relatively soft targets are now being attacked since going after the hard targets and the men in uniform, whether soldiers or policemen, has become difficult and costly for the militants. Also, focusing too much on the security of educational institutions in the aftermath of the December 16 terrorist attack on the Army Public School and College, Peshawar and ignoring other soft targets such as places of worship wasn’t the right policy.
The militants are forever in search of new and easier targets instead of those where security has been improved. It is true that every potential target cannot be protected and even nominal security at most places isn’t enough to deter militants who are on a mission to kill and be killed. There is still a need to maintain a balance in terms of the priority that ought to be accorded to vulnerable spots.
Much effort and resources have been spent trying to protect the citizens living in Hayatabad, a beautiful satellite town on the outskirts of Peshawar often described as posh and wealthy. A protective wall has been built to seclude it from the adjacent Jamrud and Bara areas of Khyber Agency and the police have a strong presence in the town to protect its inhabitants from the bands of criminals and kidnappers on the prowl in the neighbourhood.
Hayatabad Phase-V, where the Imamia Imambargah, is situated is particularly vulnerable as government offices, educational institutions, quality hospitals and companies offering utility services situated there are frequented by a large number of people. This makes it easier for criminals to operate and terrorists to enter unchecked and carry out attacks.
The four attackers who caused mayhem at the Imambargah had reportedly come disguised in uniforms similar to those used by the Frontier Constabulary. It is possible they drove without being stopped or questioned at the inadequately manned roadside checkpoints that separate Peshawar district from the Khyber Agency, or to be precise Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). Or they could have used the unfrequented routes and even stayed somewhere in Hayatabad before launching the assault.
Obviously, the government would have to ensure that the uniforms used by the personnel of the security forces and law-enforcement agencies aren’t sold to unauthorised persons and that checkpoints are fortified in line with the magnitude of the terrorist threat.
This brings to question the oft-repeated demand made by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the federal government to send back all the units of the Frontier Constabulary serving outside the province. This force, which has recruits from the Pakhtun and non-Pakhtun tribes inhabiting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata and is run by police officers, was primarily meant to be deployed on the boundary between the tribal areas and settled districts, but many of its units are serving in almost all the provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and the federal capital, Islamabad, where they ably guard the foreign embassies, the VVIPs and the multinational firms and assist the police.
The demand isn’t new and was made by previous provincial governments as well – and ignored by the centre. It is time the wrong is corrected and the Frontier Constabulary, which is different than the Frontier Corps that has army officers in command positions, is assigned to perform its original role. Though all the civil armed forces, including the Frontier Constabulary, are under the control of the federal government and can be dispatched by it to other provinces, there is urgent need to redeploy the 52 or so Frontier Constabulary platoons serving outside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to guard the frontiers between the tribal areas and settled districts.
A new force would have to be raised to protect the embassies, the VVIPs and others in case a decision is taken to send back the Frontier Constabulary personnel to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where they are needed more these days. However, it is hard to fully agree with the argument made by the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that the attack on the Imamia Imambargah could have been prevented had the Frontier Constabulary units been returned from other provinces and deployed on the boundary between Peshawar and Khyber Agency. Terrorist attacks have happened at many places in the country where large contingents of the army, paramilitary forces and the police were deployed and institutions deemed impregnable were assaulted.
The latest Peshawar attack has also highlighted the need for deciding the future of Fata in consultation with the tribespeople to deny the use of the tribal territory to militants to launch attacks in not only Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but also the rest of the country.
By quickly claiming responsibility for the attack on the Imambargah in Peshawar, the mainstream Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) headed by Mullah Fazlullah reinforced the view that sectarian terrorism is part of its agenda. The objective was obviously to provoke the Shias and fuel sectarian strife. Through the attack, the TTP also made its presence felt despite suffering setbacks due to the ongoing military operations against it and in the wake of the split in its ranks.
There were quite a few similarities in the suicide bombings at the Army Public School and the Imamia Imambargah and the mastermind in both cases was the TTP commander Khalifa Omar Mansoor. As he is based in Afghanistan along with his boss Mullah Fazlullah, it is obvious the Afghan government will have to do more and Pakistan would have to reciprocate to tackle the militants causing death and destruction on both sides of the Durand Line border.
The writer is resident editor of The News in Peshawar.
Email: rahimyusufzai@yahoo.com