The government’s efforts to curb terrorism seem unavailing, and though terrorist incidents do not seem to be increasing, they do not seem to be decreasing either, with two gory incidents on Tuesday in which a total of 19 people were killed. There was a suicide bombing in Bannu, at the Federal Constabulary Headquarters there, in which six were martyred, and then the was a 12-hour firefight, as five terrorists used the attack as cover to try to take over the HQ, and were killed. In Quetta, there was a suicide attack in the parking area of the Shahwani Stadium, after the BNP(M) hosted a meeting in memory of its late leader Sardar Ataullah Mengal, in which 13 people were killed. There was a third incident in Lakki Marwat, in which two policemen were killed, showing that the acts of terror had not yet been controlled. That incident might indicate why counterterrorism efforts were failing. The policemen were killed after the district police launched a clearing operation, using armoured personnel carriers and drones. Yet the martyred policemen were approaching one of the targeted areas on a motorcycle.
Neither attack has been claimed, but it seems fairly obvious that the attacks in Bannu and Lakki Marwat are of sectarian terrorists. Not only does the Tehrik Taliban Pakistan have a presence in the area, but it has attacked law enforcement agencies there before. Also, though there has been some speculation about cooperation between sectarian and separatist terrorists, Baloch separatists have never operated in KP. However, the second attack is a little puzzling, for while Akhtar Mengal, Sardar Ataullah’s son and successor, is not a natural target for either separatists or sectarian terrorists. Is there some intra-separatist dynamic at work here? It must not be forgotten that Sardar Akhtar, while committed to working within the federation, is hardly a centralizer.
The government has a very narrow line to tread. While it must ensure that genuine grievances are addressed, it must also restore law and order. This requires better intelligence than seems to be available, which means that intelligence agencies must divert some of the resources they expend on politicians towards actual; threats to the nation, towards the sectarian and separatist forces that have shown that they have not yet been defanged, and that they still have much of their venom.
