The terrorist attack in which four policemen lost their lives last Thursday was the second strike on the Quetta police within a span of just one week. During the same period, five members of the Shia Hazara community were shot dead. A few days earlier, terrorists stopped two buses going from Pishin to Karachi, checked the identity papers of the passengers, and took away 22 Pashtun passengers to be executed. So far no one has claimed responsibility for killing the policemen. The city police chief told journalists that 33 suspects arrested following the earlier June 6 incident, in which four policemen were killed, had divulged some information which would help nab the terrorists behind the two attacks.
The banned sectarian outfit Laskhar-e-Jhangvi, affiliated with the TTP, has been mercilessly killing members of Quetta's Shia Hazara community. The TTP terrorists in the other three provinces remain focused on two targets: the minorities and the law enforcement agencies. However, up-till now they had spared the Balochistan police. It is also worthwhile to note that the Baloch and Pashtuns have, for long, lived peacefully together except for an aberration two years ago when some migrant workers from the KPK were killed by unknown assailants. A splinter faction of one of the several separatist groups calling itself United Baloch Army had claimed responsibility for the Mastung massacre. But two top leaders of the insurgents, Brahmdagh Bugti and Hyrbyar Marri, had strongly condemned the incident, offering condolences to the affected families. In short, targeting of Balochistan police does not fit the pattern of extremist violence in other parts of the country. Nor does the Mastung carnage conform to the province's ethnic environment.
So who could be behind a new wave of violence against the police and the Pashtuns of Balochistan? The provincial police chief thinks India is behind the killing of his men; he even identified a motive saying it was "part of a plan hatched by the enemies [of Pakistan] against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor." As a matter of fact, the signing of the CPEC agreement has elicited a strong reaction from New Delhi. During his recent visit to China, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his displeasure over the project before his hosts, and upon return home started a campaign against it on the pretext that the route passes through Kashmir. If that was not bad enough his defence minister openly threatened to resort to terrorism against this country saying "we have to neutralise terrorism through terrorism only." The purpose, of course, is to create chaos to undermine the project, and destabilise the country too. Mindful of the security issue, Islamabad already has plans for a special security division of the Pakistan Army to provide security to CPEC and other projects involving China. Also, the year-long success of the Zarb-e-Azb operation is fast shrinking operating space to this country's enemies. But Balochistan, because of its special strategic significance, is going to go on attracting unwelcome attention for a while. It is imperative therefore that the powers that be do all that is necessary to appease/defeat insurgents, making internal security impregnable.