‘SHOCKING’ is a word bandied about with such ease to describe various situations, serious and not-so-serious alike, that it can rightly be claimed the word has largely lost its meaning. But we are shocked — shocked in the original sense — by reports that two trucks laden with 58,500 kg of explosives were merrily motoring their way unmonitored from Haripur in NWFP through Punjab (the law finally caught up with them in D.G. Khan) and onwards apparently to Saindak in Balochistan. The mind boggles at the possibility of such a breathtaking breakdown of security in a country that is supposed to be on high alert and where bombs are exploding on an almost daily basis. Little is known about where the militants are acquiring the explosives they are using to such deadly effect and there is no proof that explosives-manufacturing factories are involved in that chain, but 60 tonnes of what may be officially unaccounted for explosives being driven across three provinces is a staggering administrative, law-enforcement and intelligence failure.

The state has now, belatedly, swung into action, shutting down the factory from where the explosives originated and launching official enquiries into the explosives trade in the country. To give some idea of how little the state knows about the issue, even the military is believed to have launched its own investigation. The questions that have yet to be answered are incredibly serious and urgent. Are explosives manufacturers reporting the full extent of their production or are they under-reporting it to evade taxes and other official requirements? Who are the explosives being sold to, licenced buyers or also buyers in the black market who may be smuggling it out of the country or selling it to third parties? What security provisions are there in place to ensure that explosives, detonators and other related paraphernalia are transported securely from point A to B? The fact that these questions have to be asked at all at this time and that state officials didn’t think they needed to know until now is truly alarming. Only blind luck seems to have averted a terrible tragedy until now.