Fighting terrorists

We appear to be making some headway in our battle against terrorism. The Punjab Home Minister Col (r) Shuja Khanzada told a press conference in Lahore on Wednesday that the four terrorists killed three days ago, after an operation in Kala Shah Kaku, had been planning an attack on the IB Headquarters on the Mall Road. We all recall past attacks on installations belonging to key security agencies in the city over the past years. The fact that this time intelligence information led to prior knowledge of the plan and action against the gang of terrorists before they could act is encouraging. In fact, over the past months we have seen more such terrorists being thwarted at check posts. This improvement in our ability to prevent the kind of carnage we have seen in the past is a major step forward. We need to keep striding on. Khanzada, himself an ex-SSG and ISI, deserves a little pat on the back.
The four terrorists who were killed also appear to have been major players in our games of death. The provincial home minister tells us they were Al-Qaeda operatives, rather than the Taliban’s as had been previously thought. One of those killed was reportedly the head of the organisation in Punjab. Getting rid of the top guns is of course important. Our failure to do so in the past has cost us dearly. It is also assumed that other significant information can be gleaned from the two men arrested during the operation. We finally seem to be making some progress, even though there is of course still need for much more. The problem we face is huge and it will take time to bring it under control. The information from Khanzada about the subcontinental head of Al-Qaeda being an Indian national based in Afghanistan and of the terrorists slipping into the country from the Wana border also makes it imperative that we work closely with Kabul to tackle the problem. This is all critical information, and we will need it to move ahead in the battle.