| February 4, 2003 | Tuesday | Zul Hijjah 2,1423 |
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Karachi bomb blast
The Columbia tragedy
THE United Nations has expressed deep concern over the security situation in Afghanistan following a series of armed attacks on UN personnel. There have been a number of incidents in which vehicles belonging to UN agencies have been snatched at gunpoint in various parts of the country. UN workers have been held hostage by gunmen and robbed and beaten on at least two different occasions. Last week, there was a bomb attack on the offices of the UN demining team in Mazar-i-Sharif. The spate of such incidents reflects the growing lawlessness in the country, which has made the already arduous task of the aid workers even more difficult. The attacks on UN personnel and property have been accompanied by other incidents of violence. There have been regular outbreaks of factional fighting, highway robberies, bomb blasts and other acts of terrorism. The authorities point their fingers at Gulbadin Hekmatyar’s Hizb-i-Islami, implying that along with the remnants of the Taliban, it might be behind these attacks. The showdown last week between militants and US-led troops in eastern Afghanistan, which led to the most serious bout of fighting in many months, is also believed to have involved the same group. Watching helplessly from the sidelines is the beleaguered administration of Hamid Karzai, whose government’s writ barely extends beyond Kabul.
The 4,000-strong international peacekeeping force remains confined to the capital, despite appeals from the UN and the Kabul authorities to extend its mandate to cover the rest of the country. The hinterland, meanwhile, is largely under the control of warring warlords who do not accept the writ of Kabul. Given these anarchic conditions and the lack of any central authority or force, all kinds of marauding bands operate along the highways and loot and plunder at will. The tragedy is that the law and order problem has prevented any progress being made on desperately needed reconstruction and rehabilitation work. Only a fraction of the huge sums pledged by donors to rebuild the war-ravaged country has reached Afghanistan. The country seems to be stuck in a bind from which there seems to be no easy way out. The aid agencies feel insecure and unable to begin reconstruction work because of the bad law and order situation.
The government cannot extend its writ beyond the capital and take on the warlords without the help of the international community, which is generally reluctant to take on this arduous task. With funds for development blocked, the Karzai government cannot rebuild the shattered economy and create jobs which would help reduce the level of anarchy and violence. There is a need for the developed nations to urgently rethink their priorities and help the government break out of this state of helplessness. Unfortunately, Iraq seems to dominate all else in the current US scheme of things, reviving fears that Afghanistan could once again be abandoned to its fate as it was following the Soviet pull-out. The regional powers, mainly Pakistan and Iran, have wisely declared that they will not encourage any particular faction and instead fully back the Karzai administration. Tehran and Islamabad must ensure that they continue to resist the temptation of playing favourites once more and help Afghanistan return to normality. If the current descent into anarchy is not halted soon, Afghanistan could once again become a safe haven for terrorists and destabilize the entire region.
YESTERDAY’s powerful bomb blast in Karachi that killed one person and injured eight, including two policemen, was another reminder that Karachi is a relatively safe operational ground for terrorists. As investigations into the blast continue, the city police are at a loss in identifying any one group or individual who might have been responsible for the dastardly act. The bomb was tied to a motorcycle and exploded in the parking stand of a Clifton shopping mall where the shops were only just being opened for the day. Had it gone off a little later, the number of casualties would have been far greater. The bomb was so powerful that it completely destroyed eight motorcycles and shattered glass windows of the nearby buildings, including the high-rise glass-studded Pakistan State Oil headquarters.
It seems that a general lack of vigilance and proper intelligence gathering on the part of the law enforcement agencies makes it possible for the terrorists to plan and carry out their assaults at public places with virtual impunity. Last year saw the bloodiest of terrorist attacks in Karachi: a suicide bomber killed 11 French engineers and two Pakistanis outside the Sheraton Hotel in May followed by another ghastly attack in June that killed 12 people outside the US consulate. A plot to blow up the president’s motorcade near the airport was luckily averted, but the gory drama of the kidnapping and subsequent killing of the American journalist, Daniel Pearl, could not be stopped before reaching its terrible finale. Together, these dreadful happenings in recent months have given Karachi the dubious distinction of being the most preferred city for the terrorists to strike — at a place and time of their choosing. Private businesses have been forced to set up their own security arrangements on the premises, and these now include vehicle searches as motorists approach a parking lot. With so much murder and mayhem going virtually unpunished, is it any wonder then that terrorists of various stripes and motivations feel free to choose targets in Karachi to act. Leaving aside the elaborate security arrangements for the VIPs, it is indeed disconcerting to realize that the revamped Capital City Police and hundreds of Rangers personnel occupying public school and college buildings should have so utterly failed to make the city a little more secure against such dreadful happenings.
THE world is mourning the American space shuttle tragedy that took place last week. This is America’s second space disaster, the first one being the Challenger blow-up in 1986, in which seven astronauts, including a woman school teacher, lost their lives. Generally, a take-off is considered more hazardous. But once a space ship blasts off without a hitch, ground crew relax. The Challenger blew up while taking off. In this case, the tragedy is doubly shocking because it occurred when Columbia was about to land after having successfully completed its mission in outer space. Apart from the setback to America’s space programmes, the Columbia tragedy has human dimensions. The seven astronauts killed included a young woman from India. Her passion for space had taken her to this tryst with destiny. Their death is not America’s loss alone but that of all mankind, which has seen more than 150 people killed as a price for man’s constant endeavours to unravel the mysteries of the universe. Space with its limitless expanse has always tempted man. Its conquest has just begun. While there is no doubt that the Columbia tragedy will help focus more attention on safety measures, successes and hazards go together in missions of this kind. All one can hope is that tragedies of such nature will not deter man from getting closer to stars and galaxies, which have always fascinated him since the dawn of civilization and the beginning of astronomy in Babylon.