PESHAWAR: Life was never so transient in Peshawar, as it has been for the last eight years or so. In 2009, for instance, there was a suicide bombing or bomb explosion almost every day as terrorism was at its peak at the end of that deadly year. The current, comparatively calmer and peaceful, Peshawar seems surreal.

People in gatherings, at work and chats share how relieved they feel since there has been no bloody scene in Peshawar, once called the city of flowers, which became a city of bombs in the later years.

Almost everyone in the province, if not in real life but certainly on TV screens, has seen bloody scenes of Peshawar. While waiting in one’s car in a long queue at a security checkpoint on way to work or elsewhere, it was not unusual to think of a possible suicide blast, making the wait longer and more anxious.

People in Peshawar, coming from different parts of the province for work, business and education, lived from moment to moment in the last eight years when suicide bombings and explosions at public places started taking innocent lives.

The people living in the provincial capital, lucky enough to have escaped death in such a dreadful manner so far, are so much used to living with this constant fear of suicide bombings that the comparative peace that has been prevailing for the last few months feels surreal.

Since mid-June, scenario has changed. Breaking news about suicide bombings and car bombs in Peshawar are almost none. Ambulance sirens have almost become silent.

Lady Reading Hospital, in the midst of a bustling bazaar of Peshawar, had been one of the largest public sector hospitals treating trauma patients during man-made calamities like suicide bombings. The number of patients at its newly established accidents and trauma section was high as usual on Monday but the paramedic staff, nurses and doctors seemed in control of the situation. Some were getting ready to go home.

“Thank God there is peace for the last couple of months,” says Dr Ameenul Haq. There has been no mass emergency in the recent months and staff is comparatively at ease, he adds.“All of a sudden you would get calls in the middle of night to report to the trauma centre. It was exhausting,” recalls Dr Haq the days when there was a bomb blast (mass emergency) almost every week or several times in a month.

The comparative peace has been prevailing in the provincial capital despite the fact there were fears of a strong backlash from terrorists when operation Zarb-i-Azb was launched in North Waziristan Agency on June 18 this year. On the contrary, there has been no major act of terrorism like suicide bombings at public places in Peshawar like the ones in the recent past.

“I feel happy as I have no fear while going to work now,” says Chaudhry Shahid Ghafoor, who runs a departmental store in Saddar which is one of the main markets of the city. He thinks it is due to the military operation in North Waziristan that security has improved in Peshawar.

The monthly security report of the Conflict Monitoring Centre (CMC) released on July 1, 2014 also said that militant activities were drastically decreased after the launch of operation Zarb-i-Azb in Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Analysts are of the view that a recent statement issued by Jamiatul Ahrar, a splinter group of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), reveals that key militant leaders like Nadeem Abbas, Asmatullah Shaheen, Tariq Mansoor Afridi and some 200 others have been killed in Taliban infighting long before the military offensive was launched. This may also have been the reason that militants have not been able to launch major attacks, they say.

Ziaur Rehman, a journalist working in Karachi, another city often under attacks, says that split or differences in militant groups may have been one reason they were unable to launch major terrorist attacks.

“Like Peshawar, we don’t see large scale backlash of the military operation in Karachi too as was expected,” he said.

A police official says that some strategic steps and ‘search and sweep’ operations and raids against militants since the end of last year have resulted in improvement of security situation in Peshawar.

“Gradually some 42 checkposts were set up by police between Peshawar and the adjacent tribal belt,” says SSP (Operation) Najeebur Rehman, enumerating various steps taken by police to secure and improve line of defence between the provincial capital and the tribal areas from where the threat was generated.

Police, which were earlier targeted with a suicide bomber, also killing those who happened to be around, are now targeted with a bullet. “Peshawar has been mostly peaceful for the last few months. Unlike the last few years, Police recorded only a few major terrorist attacks during the first seven months of 2014. Militants failed to commit a major attack during the holy month of Ramazan and during Eidul Fitr,” according to the KP timeline 2020 website which monitors terrorism related incidents.

Police reported 25 suicide bombings in the province in July 2012-June 2013. That number fell to eight in the next cycle. The number of improvised explosive device bombings also decreased from 321 to 237, the KP timeline website says.

While the police are busy in busting extortionists and catching criminals and LRH is receiving accidents injured, life somewhat seems to be back to normal in Peshawar for now.

Whatever may be the reason, suicide bombings have not disturbed the peace of mind of the people for the last so many weeks. “Thank God,” is a common prayer one hears as people discuss the situation in the city these days.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2014