May 13 witnessed yet another confidence shaking tragedy in Karachi wherein 45 (till the last count) citizens were martyred by terrorists. The tragedy, wherein terrorists got into a bus and killed majority of its occupants and injured the others - first of this type in Karachi - resembled tragedies that have gone on in Balochistan for several years. In all fairness, this tragedy is the failure of the civil law enforcers - Sindh Police. According to an eye witness, no policeman was present in the security check post within yards of the site of the tragedy, which prompted the demand for resignation of the Sindh Chief Minister, who responded by asking why this demand isn't made when similar tragedies occur in other provinces.
Impliedly, he asked people to accept such tragedies as 'routine' incidents. Thereafter, he did what he has been doing all along - offer half a million rupees to the survivors of each victim. Can such compensations make up for the loss the survivors suffer when their loved ones are killed by terrorists? This reaction reflects the Chief Minister's concern for human lives. Isn't it a fact that the Army and the Rangers stepped in to contain organised crime and terrorism because provincial governments failed to maintain a rational relationship between the rise in population and the police force? Worse still, they politicised the police force instead of enhancing its delivery capability, keeping in view the escalating threat to public security.
That said coming in the wake of the ongoing anti-terrorism operation, while this tragedy reflects a backlash thereto, it also raises questions about the focus and efficacy of this operation. An image-damaging view gaining support is that the operation is focused more on a political party, far less on the terrorists trying to materialise their (or foreign powers'?) nefarious designs.
The disclosures by SSP Rao Anwar about RAW's links with the political party being targeted, did one good for a start; it forced the otherwise silent key state office holders to openly blame RAW for its role in the terrorism going on in Pakistan, although India's intention to destabilise Pakistan was known for decades - the country's break-up in 1971 being its un-ignorable warning.
In October 2014, after three terrorism incidents in Quetta in a day shocked everyone, in an interview to an Indian TV channel, General Musharraf (Retd) had accused India of inciting trouble on Pakistan's western borders saying "It's very unbecoming that you are trying to take advantage of Pakistan's internal problems that we are trying to confront, especially terrorism."
Over the years, besides the many consular offices set-up by India in Afghanistan (overtly to co-ordinate with the Afghan government in infrastructure development projects but, in reality, to sponsor terrorism in Pakistan's KP province), the 1,300km long Makran coast is the other vulnerable stretch that can be (in fact, is being) used to provide the separatists with lethal resources.
The delay in pointing to India's role in terrorism in Pakistan instead of blaming TTP (a front for RAW) all the time, for whatever reason, was an odd policy. Before General Musharraf's (Retd) above-referred comments on the Indian TV, only once in a long in-camera session of the Senate back in April 2009, Rehman Malik officially admitted the role of RAW in terrorism in Pakistan.
For unknown reasons, Pakistan's establishment rarely disclosed the origin of the weapons used by the terrorists. How seriously was terrorism taken up at the top level (Agra and Sharm el-Sheikh?) wasn't disclosed; nothing thereabout appeared in the media. SSP Rao Anwar deserves credit for highlighting the subject, but how fair he was in linking RAW to a political party, remains to be seen.
Narendra Modi's well-orchestrated "love" for non-Hindus and Pakistan should have left none in doubt that after he becomes the Prime Minister, Pakistan will be targeted in a variety of ways to destabilise it politically (bickering that will ignite violence) and economically (tragedies that will undermine business confidence, halt economic growth, and encourage capital flight).
That this is happening now is visible, though the Federal Finance Minister appears delighted at the economic 'progress' Pakistan is making - the latest hint thereof being a forecast about slower GDP growth this year. Economic instability that triggers social chaos is the new mode of waging a war against enemies because the stigma for instability can be pasted on them.
Not highlighting the role of countries involved in terrorism in Pakistan was a serious lapse because the world didn't come to know which elements were making Pakistan progressively a graver security risk. We didn't learn any lessons from the way India has been damaging Pakistan by accusing it of involvement in the cleverly-staged terrorist acts in India.
In July 2013, Satish Verma, an ex-Indian home ministry official told an Indian court investigating terrorist attacks beginning 2001, that these tragedies were perpetrated by India's secret agencies for two state-defined purposes - justify drafting of India's anti-terror laws and blaming Pakistan. That's why both BJP and Congress regimes orchestrated these attacks.
Passage of the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act followed the 2001 attack on India's parliament, and changes in the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in 2008 followed terrorists' siege of Bombay's Taj Mahal Hotel. India used these incidents to label Pakistan as the 'epicentre' of threat to South Asia - a line vocally supported by America's Richard Holbrooke.
What the US also overlooked was that, despite US sanctions against Iran, India kept importing oil from Iran, and also invested heavily in building Iran's Chabahar Port. Perhaps because India worked hard to create a gulf between Pakistan and Iran - both neighbour Muslim states - by backing terrorist attacks on Pakistan's Shia Hazara pilgrims travelling to Iran.
It seems that this Indian trickery wasn't pointed out to the US defence experts directing its war-on-terror despite these experts' marginalisation of the contribution of Pakistan's defence and intelligence services in this "crusade". Finally, we have realised the need for exposing not just India but other states as well, that are involved in destabilising Pakistan.
A clear indication thereof is terrorists' targeting of Pakistan's civil and military forces. Never before were so many soldiers and policemen targeted by the terrorists. That's why, while pointing to India's role in terrorism is a welcome change, many others are needed to ensure that the civil law enforcers are assured of security while preventing tragedies like the May 13 tragedy. This is the job of the provincial governments. Until now, what have surfaced are Sindh government's controversial contracts to buy armoured vehicles and drones - hardly the start that is needed. Yet the Chief Minister insists that he is supervising the security issues very well.
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