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TERRORISTS have struck again amidst claims that militancy’s back has been broken. As in most recent attacks, they again chose a soft target — this time a crowded hospital to maximise casualties. Quetta has bled many times before, yet the suicide bombing at the entrance to the Civil Hospital’s emergency ward this week was one of the most gruesome. Lawyers, journalists, women and children were among the victims.
The latest bloodbath is a grim reminder of the continuing terrorist threat despite the success of the military operations in the tribal areas. However, one is not sure how serious we are in dealing with this existentialist challenge. We have already lost the national counterterrorism narrative that all political parties across the spectrum briefly agreed on after the 2014 Peshawar school massacre.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that has pledged allegiance to the militant Islamic State (IS) group, has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack. JuA has been involved in several attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas in the past. It is, however, the first time it has made a claim that denotes an expansion in its operation to Balochistan.
The presence of all kinds of militant groups makes Balochistan’s terror maze more complex.
Most of the group’s militants and its leaders are believed to have taken sanctuary across the border in eastern Afghanistan after fleeing the military operation in Fata. Last week, the United States placed JuA on its list of ‘specially designated global terrorists’. Indeed, the Quetta hospital suicide bombing bears the hallmark of IS terrorist attacks — targeting civilians in crowded places as seen in the Middle East and other countries. Such attacks are aimed at creating mayhem.
It was not the first time the terrorists have targeted a hospital in Quetta. What is most shocking is how the bomber loaded with explosives managed to enter the emergency area, breaching the security at the hospital entrance that should have been reinforced given the security situation in the province.
Quetta has been drenched in blood many times over in the past 10 years, leaving thousands of people dead. Most of the previous terrorist attacks had targeted the Hazara Shia community. Although there has been a marked decline in incidents of sectarian violence in the city following a crackdown on some extremist groups, targeted killings and IED attacks on security forces have spiralled in recent months. Most of these incidents are blamed on Baloch separatist groups.
What makes Balochistan’s terror maze more complex is the presence of all kinds of militant groups, ranging from sectarian to separatist. The footprints of al Qaeda and IS have also emerged here: these global terrorist networks have found natural allies among local Sunni sectarian militant groups. In fact, the province has become a major recruiting ground for IS.
While there may not be a significant presence of Pakistani Taliban groups in Balochistan, the province has become a major sanctuary for Afghan Taliban insurgents fighting the US-backed Kabul government. The city also houses the Afghan Taliban leadership council known as the Quetta Shura. More than 30pc of Quetta’s population is said to comprise Afghan refugees; some neighbourhoods are actually out of bounds for Pakistani security agencies. The Afghan Taliban have close links with Sunni extremist groups like the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi. All this has made the province more vulnerable to terrorist violence.
Both civilian and military leaderships accuse foreign intelligence agencies of involvement in the massacre in Quetta. They see the attack as part of a conspiracy to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project. Surely given the new great game being played in the region and the history of proxy wars between India and Pakistan, the involvement of external forces in terrorist attacks in the province cannot be ruled out. Its geo-strategic location has further added to Balochistan’s woes.
However, foreign intelligence agencies can only fish in troubled waters. Political instability, weak state authority unable to maintain control over its territory and failure of the government to provide security to the people provide a favourable environment for external involvement.
Despite some improvement in the political atmosphere and containment of the separatist insurgency, the situation in Balochistan is far from stable. External involvement cannot be stopped if the militant groups continue to operate with impunity and foreign insurgent groups are allowed sanctuaries. It is high time we reset our national security policies. No longer is it enough to cry hoarse over foreign conspiracies. There is now a greater need than ever to put our own house in order and stop playing the victim.
That brings our attention back to the National Action Plan. The fact of the matter is that our national leadership has never been serious in implementing the 20-point agenda to counter militancy and religious extremism. It has been more than 18 months since the formulation of the action plan but there is still no sign of any reform measures being carried out. Political expediency and lack of conviction are the major reasons for our patchy response to extremist violence. The entire focus has been on the use of military force.
For sure the military operation in Fata, particularly in North Waziristan, has driven the TTP out of their sanctuaries and dismantled the militant network. But combating militancy and religious extremism is not just about eliminating the TTP.
We still lack a comprehensive and overarching counterterrorism strategy.
As a result, incidents like Monday’s hospital bombing in Quetta and the murder of women and children in a terrorist attack on a Lahore park earlier this year continue to happen. It may be true that intelligence-based operations in the cities have been effective in weakening extremist networks. But those actions have been selective. Many of the banned outfits have been operating freely under new banners in blatant violation of the law.
A combing operation in the province has been ordered in the aftermath of the Quetta attack. Certainly such a crackdown is necessary to hunt down the attackers. But it does not offer any long-term solution. Such incidents will keep happening if we continue with a patchy response to high-profile terrorist attacks.
The writer is an author and journalist.
Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2016
