Even when overall law and order situation in the country has considerably improved Quetta remains an easy kill by terrorists. They struck it Monday night once again and took heavy toll of life. In the attack on the Police Training College some 62 cadets were killed and twice that number wounded, some critically. In August, 73 persons, mostly members of the legal fraternity, were killed by terrorists at a hospital they had come to mourn the death of a senior colleague who was killed on the court premises earlier during the day. And in between there have been quite a few attacks on policemen, security personnel and members of the Hazara community. Media reports say there was a warning of the impending attack, but as to where and when there was no definite information. The question then is if there was a warning why then there was the lone sentry at the watchtower of the college, who attackers didn't take long to overwhelm - especially when twice before the same institute had come under terrorist attacks. Why no lesson was learnt from the massacres at the Bacha Khan University at Charsadda and Army Public School in Peshawar where the security setup was not equal to the degree of the threat too. According to what little has been officially made public about the attack on the police training institute there were three attackers who entered the cadets' hostel, herded them together and detonated their suicide vests. How come an institution with no less than several hundred students on its roll-call had only one guard at the watch tower? And once he was taken care of by the attackers there was no resistance by the men who were being trained to enforce law and order by handling the emergencies of the kind they themselves became victim. Something must have gone wrong and that thing seems to be lack of familiarity with the size and nature of the threat of terrorism the country is confronted with. Let the concerned quarters conduct the reappraisal if the quality of intelligence available was good enough and why it did not require further probing. And let them also learn a few more things which if challenged should help them rise to the occasion and defeat the attackers. Had this been done the attack on the police training college would not have been as lethal as it was.

If Kalbhushan Jadev's disclosures and Narendra Modi's assertion from the ramparts of the Red Fort are anything to go by then we need to be better prepared to fight foreign-funded terrorism in Balochistan - a challenge all the more critical given Kabul rulers' readiness to deploy anti-Pakistan proxies. According to Inspector General FC Major General Sher Afghan, the intercepts of communication suggest that the attackers, belonging to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi-al-Alami, were taking orders from handlers in Afghanistan - that's almost a replay of the attack on the Army Public School, Peshawar. Having lost ground to military operation in tribal areas most of the terrorist outfits have shifted to Afghanistan in areas bordering Pakistan. Of course Balochistan has been home to a long-running insurgency by ethnic insurgents, who are still hooked to the Greater Balochistan conspiracy. But the latest spurt of violence is essentially the product of the foreign-funded proxies, who are willing to be hired. Their market value has gone up all the more now that India is out to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). New Delhi seems to be nurturing the idea that violence like the one at the Quetta Police College would undermine the Chinese resolve to go ahead with the CPEC. Also, it would like to make Balochistan what Occupied Kashmir is to India. Rightly then securing peace and maintaining stability in Balochistan is essential on the part of the government of Pakistan not only to foil Indian designs but also to augment confidence in the viability of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.