WHILE condoling with the Hazaras during a visit to Quetta in the wake of yet another gory suicide attack, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was more emphatic than ever before: “We cannot tolerate terrorism anymore and will take all possible steps to uproot it from our society,” he resolved.

It seems that sustained militancy resulting in over 30 terror attacks in the country with the loss of more than 200 lives since his assumption of office in June have made the prime minister realise that it is time to combat terrorism firmly.

His entourage to Quetta included the directors-general of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and ISI and he directed the security and intelligence agencies to extend full cooperation to the Balochistan government to ensure the arrest of terrorists.

Sounding overconfident, the prime minister said it was not difficult to control law and order in a city which had only 20 bazaars. Has Mr Sharif forgotten that during his first tenure as prime minister, Jhang, a city of only 10 bazaars, posed a major challenge to the writ of the Punjab government due to sectarian violence? The Quetta administration is unfortunately pitted against the twin menace of violence by sectarian outfits and Baloch separatists.

The prime minister also ordered that the issue of missing persons be resolved and strict action be taken against elements involved in killing citizens.

However, Balochistan Nationalist Party chief Akhtar Mengal reminded him that from January to May 2013, nearly 84 people disappeared and 79 disfigured bodies were recovered from different parts of Balochistan. He claimed that ‘operations’ were still in progress and in the past weeks 65 people had gone missing.

This situation indicates that the prime minister’s wish to bring peace to Balochistan will remain elusive unless all stakeholders are serious.

The prime minister said the police would be equipped with modern technology and the federal government would also provide the best police officers to Balochistan.

He must surely have been briefed that the police have a limited role and jurisdiction over only 5pc of Balochistan. The Levies, a ragtag tribal militia, are responsible for policing the vast hinterland and the Frontier Corps (FC), a border military force, is trying to fill the void created by inept Levies, a policing role for which it has no training.

The admission of the provincial government before the Supreme Court that criminals have infiltrated the police in the province would be known to Mr Sharif. He would also be aware that the police force is demoralised and lacks the motivation to combat terrorism.

The prime minister also said that his government would hold consultations with parliamentarians, heads of parties in the province and people concerned on the threat posed by terrorism and crime and work out a security plan.

These are good intentions but where is the plan and implementation strategy? After selecting the first-ever non-sardar chief executive from a nationalist party, the government seems to be bogged down as the provincial cabinet is yet to be finalised. So, when will consultations with political parties and stakeholders of the security establishment take place?

The Balochistan chief minister has claimed that law and order has improved after formation of his government. The chief minister cannot afford to be naïve. He knows that Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) is on the rampage in his province and the kill-and-dump strategy outsourced to volatile tribal overlords has not been abandoned.

In view of the above unfortunate facts, the federal and provincial governments cannot afford to be complacent and need to take some well-coordinated steps to combat sectarian terrorism and Baloch insurgency.

The following measures are recommended.

Inter-agency intelligence coordination between the federal and provincial institutions should be notified with well-defined terms of reference. The ISI, IB, Federal Investigation Agency and FC representing the federal government and Special Branch, Crime Investigation Department (CID) and Levies as part of the provincial government should meet regularly with the chief secretary, assisted by the home secretary, IG police and IG FC.

A counterterrorism joint task force must be launched with selected personnel from the Anti-Terrorism Force of the police, Balochistan Constabulary, Levies, FC and Special Services Group of the military under the command of the IG police in order to carry out raids and act on actionable intelligence.

Joint Interrogation Teams (JIT) should be notified by the home department to obtain detention orders under the Maintenance of Public Order law for between one to three months to carry out interrogations of arrested terrorists and suspects.

These JITs should be headed by SPs of the CID with members from all the relevant intelligence and investigation agencies. The joint reports should then become the basis of FIRs to be filed in the Anti-Terrorism Courts (ATC).

A provincial monitoring committee should be constituted under the law minister to follow up terrorism cases in the ATCs and report to the monitoring judge such cases in the high court.

All militants and undertrial accused should be held in a high-security prison in Quetta and trial of such persons must be held in jail where proper courts must be established. Under no circumstance should such prisoners be transferred to normal district prisons. Special ATCs may be notified at Quetta for the trials.

Activists and office-bearers of proscribed militant organisations like the LJ should be brought on the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997’s Schedule IV as facilitators and supporters of terrorists and their movement should not only be monitored but personal files should be maintained by the CID so that any suspicious activity may result in their detention or restricted movement.

The state should forsake the kill-and-dump strategy in respect of Baloch separatists. Any volatile groups carrying out such gruesome acts must be stopped. The state should never lose moral high ground and deal with the separatists within the parameters of the law.

Finally, civil and military institutions as well as the political leadership and security establishment must be on the same page and take all possible steps to uproot terrorism from society.

The writer is former IG Police, Balochistan.