DURING the past few days several bomb blasts took place in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa wherein innocent people … were killed and injured. In the recent attacks the militants have targeted the personnel of police and security forces. During the past some months at least 200 incidents of different kinds have taken place mostly … in Peshawar. The people are of the opinion that such incidents are taking place due to the failure of the intelligence agencies and concerned law-enforcers….

Most of the victims in these incidents are poor daily-wage earners or personnel of the security agencies, which has caused serious unrest among the … people as everyone is feeling completely insecure…. The people belonging to various sections of society, particularly the business community, have always raised a voice against lawlessness and demanded of the government to take pragmatic steps for restoration of durable peace in the province.

The frequent acts of sabotage have forced the people to leave their houses and shift to … safer places as they can no longer afford to stay in the tense environment. At present there seems to be no end to terrorist activities; rather, they might increase with the passage of time as there is no effective planning for hitting the terrorists hard…. It is the duty of the government and the local administration to tighten the security system at least inside Peshawar city, install closed-circuit television cameras and keep close vigil on the movement of suspected people so that timely action against the criminals and terrorists could be taken. Besides, the administration should take all the stakeholders into confidence by establishing peace committees which will pinpoint the issues and [come up with] solutions….

The government should direct the police to strengthen the intelligence [network] by deploying police in plain clothes in sensitive places, particularly in congested areas likes bazaars, [so that police can be informed in time] … of the … terrorists’ presence. Nobody can claim that the law and order situation has improved because the threats are still there and police should tighten checking at different checkpoints. The people have seen the results of negligence in the past and if prompt actions are not taken the terrorists can take advantage of the lethargy of the security agencies. — (May 16)

Selected and translated by Ali Hazrat Bacha.