THE killing of two suspected militants and the arrest of another during a raid by security forces on their hideout in the outskirts of Lahore on Thursday morning has removed at least one link in the long and still largely unrecognised terror chain. The security personnel must be commended for a job well done. But does this make the people of Lahore, of Punjab or, for that matter, the rest of the country any safer today than they were before? This is a tough question, made more difficult by the usual official resort to reticence in discussions about militancy and terrorism. That the suspects were living in a house in close proximity to the Raiwind residence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for about two months without raising suspicion is a sign of danger. Of late there has been some improvement in how the police and other security agencies approach this serious issue. Both the security and intelligence agencies are visibly more active than before since the militant groups warned of reprisal attacks against the ruling party’s leadership and its political base following the launch of the military operation in North Waziristan. These efforts are said to have led to some successes in the shape of arrests of individual suspects that later led the intelligence outfits to Raiwind Road. However, the police and intelligence agencies are still to achieve a major breakthrough and cause a big dent in the militants’ network in Punjab. Simply put, the gang is far from busted.

In Punjab, the government of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has repeatedly been accused of not acting against militant groups for fear of a backlash. There is also no dearth of critics who argue that Mr Sharif’s policy of ‘appeasing’ groups with links to the Taliban in the tribal area and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has turned parts of the province, especially some of its southern districts, into nurseries for militant groups. The government denies these allegations, but its reluctance to root out militant outfits shows through its inaction. The Raiwind raid shows the expanse and reach of the problem, spelling out a clear threat not only to ordinary people but also to the leadership of the ruling PML-N.

The raid must lead to a drive aimed at rooting out dangerous elements whose presence is alarming not only for Punjab, but for the entire country.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2014