ISLAMABAD: It seems as if Islamabad is being dragged back to the instability it witnessed from 2007 to 2010 when the capital witnessed a spate of deadly terrorist attacks.

Wednesday’s explosion at the city’s Fruit and Vegetable Market claimed 24 people and injured 122 here on Wednesday. It came just 38 days after the attack on the District and Sessions Court Islamabad where a handful of terrorists killed 11 and injured 29.

“The aim was to kill a large number of people which is why the market was chosen. Hundreds of people are present there all day long,” says a police officer.

Compare this to the past three years in which no major terrorist attack took place in Islamabad.

Admittedly the city witnessed bloodshed and instability but most of it took the shape of targeted killings. In the early months of 2011, the capital was shaken by the targeted killings of senior government officials such as then Punjab governor Salman Taseer and federal cabinet member Shahbaz Bhatti.

Just last year, Chaudhry Zulfikar, the prosecutor in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination case, was gunned down in the city while towards the end of 2013, a member of the Haqqani clan, was also allegedly killed in Islamabad.

However, suicide or other terrorist attacks, which claimed multiple lives, had witnessed a steady decline. Such attacks included the attack on Marriott Hotel in 2008 that left 60 dead and 262 injured.

This, says experts, was one of the deadliest attacks carried out in the history of Pakistan; 1,000 kilogrammes of explosives were used in it. (To provide a comparison, police officials’ preliminary investigations say that only five kilogrammes were used in the Wednesday blast.)

However, while the Marriott attack was deadly in numbers and psychologically, it was 2009 that brought the highest number of terrorist attacks in Islamabad.

A police officer said that 11 such incidents took place in the city in 2009. These included the attack on the International Islamic University, which claimed eight lives, and the attack on FC deployed at a green belt.

In 2008, six terrorism incidents took place in the city.

But 2010 onwards, there were no major attacks in the city. The only suicide attack as such (aside from the targeted killings and unsuccessful attempts) was the one on Silk Bank in 2011.

Police officials claim that this ‘peaceful interlude’ was due to the efforts of law enforcement personnel and intelligence agencies.

Since 2008, the forces have arrested over a 100 militants from the city, officials points out.

This is why analysts are now arguing that the latest two attacks can be linked to the government’s policy of talks with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, even though the attack has been claimed by a Baloch group. However, late on Wednesday night, the interior ministry claimed that according to initial investigations, it was not the work of the Baloch group.

These attacks reveal “the general level of confidence of the militants to strike with impunity,” says Ayesha Siddiqa, an author and security analyst, adding that they [militants] have strengthened due to government’s surrender.

Similarly, Imtiaz Gul, another analyst, also feels that the attack symbolises the brute opposition to the very idea of peace talks by those elements within TTP whose agenda differs from those who believe in talks.

It is noteworthy that after the government first announced talks on January 29, there were a spate of attacks in Peshawar and nearby areas. These included the attacks on cinemas in Peshawar and one in the Qissa Khawani bazaar that claimed around 10 lives.

However, the reaction to those attacks were not enough to derail the talks.