In a first significant act of terrorist bombing in the interior of Sindh, two men died and 16 were injured in Dadu's New Chowk area. The bomb also destroyed six shops and damaged several houses. Local police officials have issued contradictory statements regarding whether it was a suicide bomb, or a blast caused by a bomb fixed in the area.
Police initially described it as a suicide bombing, but Hyderabad's acting DIG Jawed Alam Odho later said a bomb, weighing less than one kilogram, had caused the blast. A suspect reportedly hailing from Swat has been arrested. The owner of a hotel where he had stayed with a companion, who managed to escape, was also taken into custody. Another 10 suspects were later arrested from madrassahs in nearby Johi town.
The incident needs to be taken seriously. Religious fanaticism was traditionally never a part of Sindh's culture and people generally followed the teachings of Sufi saints who preached love for mankind, irrespective of the people's religion or creed. This explains the spontaneous protest rallies against the incident in Dadu and a number of towns in the vicinity. The recent wave of terrorism did not initially impact interior Sindh. Things, however, are no more the same, as with the spread of extremism in the rest of the country, the interior Sindh cannot remain an unaffected island, in a sea marked by turmoil.
While most of the religious seminaries may not be teaching extremist views, one cannot rule out individual teachers or some of the madrassahs having a soft corner for the TTP and its various affiliates. In fact, the last chief of a banned sectarian organisation, belonged to Interior Sindh, where he had set up a madrassah. When he was gunned down, along with a companion in August last, the incident sparked riots in interior Sindh and Karachi. Two persons were killed and several others wounded when the personnel of law enforcement agencies opened fire on a mob to stop them from removing the railway track. Another factor that needs to be taken into account is the arrival of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Swat and other areas in Karachi.
While a vast majority, who had been forced to leave their hearths and homes and were looking only for a temporary shelter, returned after the successful completion of the military operation in Swat and adjoining areas, the presence of some terrorists, who chose to stay back in the garb of IDPs, cannot be ruled out. In fact, keeping the possibility in view, Interior Ministry had, in October 2009, issued a security advisory to all the provinces including Sindh, giving the assurance meanwhile that steps had been taken to foil the designs of the militant outfits.
The TTP and its affiliates have been successfully routed from Swat and South Waziristan, while they are presently under pressure in Bajaur, Khyber and the Orakzai agencies. Within months, two of the TTP chiefs have been killed, one after another. The rest of the leadership, which is on the run, is finding it difficult to choose a new head. The terrorists have been deprived of safe havens, where they maintained stockpiles of weapons; sheltered fugitives wanted by the stake and trained terrorists and suicide bombers. They have no more a secure area to set up their command system. All these factors have made them desperate and they are out to take revenge, as a statement by TTP leader Qari Hussain, published on Monday, indicates. He has accepted responsibility for the dastardly twin attacks on Police Lines in Bannu on Thursday, which killed 16 people, including a district police officer and injured 22, others.
"The attacks were carried out to avenge the military operation in Bajaur," he claims. The terrorists are finding it increasingly difficult to penetrate major population centres. They are, therefore, selecting areas, which are in proximity of the tribal region or soft targets like Dadu, where few expect them. Under the circumstances, there is all the more need to raise the level of vigilance in Interior Sindh. An inquiry team headed by Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Ali Mirza is supposed to submit its report within two days. While one wishes the team Godspeed, one expects the home ministry to also devise ways to ensure that terrorists are kept at bay in the interior of the province also.