Learning from the attack: What went right and what never does
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A Charlie Foxtrot is a military situation where everything has gone completely wrong. Where should I even begin to explain everything that's gone wrong with the terrorist assault on Karachi's Old Terminal?
A lot has to go wrong for an airport siege to become possible, but I think I’ll begin with the few things that went right.
The Right
Despite losing four members of the Airport Security Force in the initial assault by the terrorists, we witnessed how ASF officers ran towards the firing to hold down the enemy and gain the Sindh Rangers and Pakistan Army precious time to reach the cargo airport from where the assault was intended to attack towards the more heavily defended passenger airport, the Jinnah Terminal. The ASF saved lives by directly engaging the terrorists and at the cost of the lives of seven more ASF members, a Sindh Ranger and a policeman; they bottled the terrorists until the army arrived with special forces from the nearby Malir Cantt.
Unlike the hesitation shown at GHQ, or the confusion in command shown at PNS Mehran, or Bacha Khan Airport, the Corps Commander moved swiftly to take command of the situation and sent in the commandoes of V Corps’ Quick Reaction Force. In light of Pakistan’s history, five hours is not a bad time for taking back a complex that has come under siege. And that is where the good news ends.
The Wrong
Four airline employees were killed in the fighting, as were two members of the Civil Aviation Authority. The most horrifying part of the aftermath came to light 24 hours after the assault was ended, as hydraulic excavators and bulldozers had to begin breaking into the airport’s walk-in freezer where seven unfortunate people had hid themselves. Their bodies were recovered this morning. The terrorists created the panic that took their lives, and it is panic that we need to strictly avoid.
Brave security guards and a nearby military base will not always be there the next time a terrorist assault takes place. Throughout the counter-assault, we witnessed pot-bellied police on television, milling around the front of the assault zone trying to appear useful in a situation that had gone far beyond their control.
The TV informed us that too many of the police’s charitably titled “commandoes” were deputed to VIP duty and thus could not be present at a moment that required their direst presence. An old, old problem had just reared its head.
How to right the wrongs
People have lost count of how many times they have asked the government to establish a separate VIP protection force so that the police can go back to doing their public duty, but I will repeat the point one more time because inadequate policing has again resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians in Karachi: the Sindh government must start recruiting a separate, specialized protection force for the under threat VIP’s of the province. This should begin immediately. It will free up the burgeoning number of policemen wasting their time protecting VIPs instead of following up on crime and acting preemptively on the piles of intelligence that keep coming in on threats so visible that a first world country’s police would resolve in an afternoon.
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Pakistan is a country that has gone toe to toe with superpowers. It would behoove its security apparatus to protect its public at the same standard that its first world counterparts have done so. Specialisation is part of this, such as in VIP protection, as is proficiency in Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) Team operations. A competent police force in the 21st Century would have a deadly efficient Swat Team with sniper support that would not hesitate in engaging terrorists regardless of the risk to their own lives, confident in their own and their teammates training.
This is a difficult time to make this suggestion, but I believe it is pertinent to the situation: Karachi’s police must come under a separate police command and a city-specific political command. This is in a manner, a demand for an elected local council and mayor, but Karachi has come a long way since the British set-up the system of governance that has been in effect till today. Back then Karachi was a sleepy town where half a million people would seem like a lot. Today with a population of 22 million (more people than Balochistan), it is amongst the largest cities in the world, and the most violent in its population category. The province of Sindh needs its own police, but with Karachi suffering its own dynamics of corruption and violence (one example is rumours of half a billion rupees extorted by the TTP just in 2013) the provincial and city government need to make sure resources are adequately concentrated in the metropolis, where threats abound abundantly.
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I would like to remind the reader of the way Mayor Rudolph Giuliani did not shirk from heading straight to the World Trade Centre when they were under attack and stayed at the rubble site as long as possible for the rescue mission. Before the attack he had been a divisive mayor, but his actions during the strike changed his image and behavior with his domestic political opponents. A mayor and legislature of Karachi will be changed by the challenges this city presents. And a police force constituted only for this city will prove dedicated enough not to rely on the army for the urban battlefield that is Karachi.
Finally issues with intelligence and action will also need to be resolved. Pakistan’s intelligence agencies have started showing a prickliness in their demeanour that is counter-productive to fighting terrorism, which disappears into urban slums and frontier towns. There needs to be a concerted focus on eliminating Jihadis and not allowing them any space physically, financially or rhetorically with ideology kept far from the workings of any arm of the state.
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