Since the death of the TTP leader Baitullah Mehsud in a drone attack last month the Taliban under their new leadership have mounted an offensive that has caught our security forces on the wrong foot. The latest to fall victim to an assassination attempt is the religious affairs minister, Hamid Saeed Kazmi.

He suffered bullet injuries but the driver of his car was killed and his guard seriously injured. This is shocking especially because the incident comes after the government had been reassuring the people that security had been beefed up. Moreover, the Taliban have clearly indicated that the present strategy is a no-holds-barred one. Two suicide bomb attacks took dozens of lives in three days last week in Torkham and Mingora, followed by Wednesday’s incident in Islamabad.

Although it will only be known after due investigation if there were security lapses that made Mr Kazmi a vulnerable target, some questions can be raised. The minister, who had condemned suicide bombing, had been receiving threats from the militants, and the authorities had been duly informed. That itself should have prompted the government to step up protection for him. Yet reports state that his car was apparently not bullet-proof and there was no police patrol accompanying his car when he was attacked. Obviously the investigators are expected to look into this matter as they seek to track down the assassins.

What is more worrying is that complacency seems to have set in lately due to the let-up in suicide bombings in the past few months. This is dangerous because the Pakistan Army’s war against the Taliban is only one prong of the security strategy. The trickier one calling for greater skills is the pre-emption of suicide attacks. This involves efficient intelligence-gathering as well as precautionary measures at vulnerable points. There seem to have been lapses on these scores. Even more disturbing is the possibility of the militants having penetrated the security outfit. Some mechanism needs to be instituted to screen the personnel responsible for the security of all citizens.