The bloody week

It is comforting to hear from a military officer that the operation in Orakzai, which had gone on for more than five months, has finally cleared 90 percent of the Agency of terrorists and that it is now being called off. What remains highly disconcerting, however, is that terrorist activity has picked up in rest of the country.
On the first day of the current month, there were three bomb blasts killing 35 and injuring 200 participants of a Shia rally in Lahore. Two days later, followed another and a more deadly sectarian attack in Quetta that killed 56 and injured 160. On Monday, a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into the city police station in the Lakki Marwat district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, killing 19 people, including nine policemen and three students.
On Tuesday, at least 20 people, mostly women and children, were killed, while more than 94 others were injured in a car bomb attack on a police residential area in Kohat. As two badly injured persons in Quetta subsequently passed away, the total number of the dead has risen to over 130.
The last seven days thus constitute, by all accounts, a bloody week. In addition to launching four deadly attacks, terrorists kidnapped the vice chancellor of Peshawar Islamia College University, who is also related to the KP ANP president Asfandyar Wali. In Lahore, terrorists blasted two low-intensity bombs on Tuesday.
The targets chosen, a senior police officer's residence and the office of the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS), indicate these were meant to spread panic and demoralise security officials. While there was a lull in the attacks on schools in the aftermath of the military operation in Swat and South Waziristan, the incidents are again taking place in Kalam and outside Peshawar. The TTP has now threatened more suicide attacks on security forces and government offices.
The Pakistan army amazed the world by its success in cleansing Swat and South Waziristan within weeks of initiating military operations. The US-led forces in Afghanistan, duly supported by the local troops, have tried to achieve similar objectives but have failed despite the high-tech weapons and other military assets at their disposal.
However two problems have remained unaddressed. First, the army failed to eliminate the top terrorist leadership in the areas cleared by it. The outstanding examples are Maulana Fazlullah in Swat and Hakeemullah Mehsud in South Waziristan. The two Taliban commanders succeeded in escaping presumably on account of the lapses in the intelligence network. Similarly, a number of important and well-known commanders like Qari Hussain also managed to escape to other agencies where they restarted their activities.
The elimination of charismatic leaders causes widespread demoralisation among their followers, while their continued presence provides an emotional boost and a rallying point to terrorists. Second, despite victory in Swat and South Waziristan, the movement of the terrorists from one area to another could not be blocked.
This explains the attacks on schools in Swat and the continued militant activity in South Waziristan, the latest example being the suicide attack in Wana, killing former MNA Maulana Noor Mohammad who opposed fighting the Pakistan army. Terrorists have thus been able to relocate themselves from one Agency to another and fan out to the rest of the country.
There is a perception that instead of retaining their strongholds in FATA, the terrorists have decided to strike inside the big cities. There is also a perception that with the army whole-heartedly engaged in rescuing the flood victims, the terrorists have increased their activities.
What is badly needed under the circumstances is to improve the working of the security agencies. What is more, co-operation between the federal and provincial agencies should be enhanced. Success against terrorist networks depends on the performance of the intelligence bodies. They have to be able to infiltrate the terrorist organisations and establish listening posts there. Instead of becoming active after an act of terrorism has been committed, the agencies should be able to pre-empt it.