Warning about attack on Khassadars ignored

Lack of coordination caused unnecessary deaths

ISLAMABAD: While there was no precise advance intelligence alert about the terrorist strike on the Bacha Khan University Charsadda, there was unimpeachable prior information, gathered by a civilian spy agency regarding the attack on the Line Officer of the Khassadar force in the Karkhano Market Peshwar that occurred on Tuesday.

This fatal hit, which claimed twelve lives including that of Line Officer Nawab Shah, took place a day before the university attack.

“The Intelligence Bureau (IB) had passed the credible information on to the concerned authorities about the attack on the line officer, even naming him, a few days before the assault,” a senior official told The News.

“The IB had particularly mentioned in the threat alert that the attack would take place in five to seven days. It had also identified three attackers,” he said. “The information proved correct, but sadly the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) authorities failed to take precautionary measures to avert the killing of Nawab Shah and others.”

The official lamented that the information generated by the spy agency was not taken seriously otherwise the attack would have been prevented.

Twelve persons, including a  journalist, were killed while 39 others had sustained injuries when a suicide bomber targeted the tribal Khassadar force in the Karkhano Market close to the Peshawar boundary with Khyber Agency. Police and Khassadars said the bomber parked his motorbike and walked towards Nawab Shah and his force and his guards. He detonated his explosives vest. The car of the line officer and another vehicle caught fire while the roof of a nearby shop caved in after the blast.

The official said his agency had no information about the fatal attack on the Charsadda University in which 21 persons including students and a professor were killed.

However, he said general intelligence information was available indicating that educational institutions would be hit by the terrorists anywhere in KP.

The official said that it was not possible to secure and protect each and every school, college and university and their administrations were also required to pay attention to their security.

He stated that there was no denying the fact that the back of the terrorists has been broken but to say that they have been totally eliminated would be fallacious.

The official said the remnants would continue such nefarious activities. The precautionary measures can contain them, he said.

Most essential, he said, is the peace in Afghanistan from where most of the attacks in KP and tribal areas originate. But, he said, for the moment peace doesn’t seem returning to the neighbouring country in the near future. This is most worrying for Pakistan, he added.

The official also pointed out another glaring fact about the post-terrorist attack investigation. He said when the police were not allowed to collect the evidence from the site, the force was mostly unable to prove the case against the culprits in a court of law. Then, the courts are unnecessarily blamed for freeing the accused.

He said the evidence from the venues of all serious terrorist attacks was always taken away by some other agency, which hands it over to police after many months. Subsequently, it is left to the police to pursue the case in civilian courts, but the force couldn’t for not having investigated the case and not having collected the evidence from the spot. This precisely happened in the Army Public School and Charsadda University attacks, he said.

The official said that despite the fact that the terrorism was number one problem of Pakistan, there was still a serious lack of coordination between the civilian and army agencies. He underlined the need for complete harmony and cooperation among them, which will give a new impetus to the anti-terrorism campaign.