A suicide attack on the convoy of a senior police official of Malir, Karachi, SSP Rao Anwar on Thursday has broken the lull that emerged after last November when in a suicide attack two policemen had lost their lives. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the deadly attempt on the life of SSP Rao, who luckily escaped unhurt as due to prior intelligence alerts, he was not travelling in his Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) targeted by the suicide bomber in the attack. However, four other policemen accompanying the police official were killed when a suicide bomber standing by a road stall blew himself up in front of the APC near Malir Halt intersection. Earlier, in the wee hours, over 15 armed men riding motorbikes and two cars sprayed bullets on a Ferozabad police car at point-blank range and killed three policemen in the area of PIB Colony on the same day. The killing of seven policemen on a single day in two well-planned attacks, as it appears to the naked eye, might have a possible connection. However, no evidence confirming a link between the two has so far been found except the fact that both were successfully executed with impunity. A proper hit squad launched an ambush attack on the PIB Colony’s police car, reflecting that the terrorists’ activities have reached another level. The suicide attack on SSP Rao’s convoy has also given birth to a serious security concern about whether a new pattern of targeting police has emerged in Karachi. There has been no such precedent in Karachi during recent years. The terrorists have been targeting policemen who are actively battling against them in the war on terror, but a suicide bombing on a police convoy in Karachi is a new phenomenon. Last year also, militants had shaken up not only the whole city by attacking the residence of a frontline police official in the war on terror, Chaudhry Aslam, but security agencies too, which could not pre-empt the well-anticipated bid on his life. It is no secret that the members of TTP and other militant groups are very much present in Karachi, the country’s largest city, which remains a constant theatre of political and ethnic violence. However, there had been silence on the militancy front for quite some time. It seemed that the security agencies had been successful in curtailing their activities but the lull was ephemeral as the latest attack on SSP Rao suggests. They seem to have become active once again, targeting policemen who are or have been a part of the state’s combat against them. Interestingly though, they targeted SSP Rao despite the fact that he has never served as a frontline official in the war on terror but has been associated with SP Chaudhry Aslam in his endeavours. It is pertinent to mention that he is one of the last surviving police officers involved in the 1990s clean-up operation in Karachi. Leave aside the security of the general public, Thursday’s attacks on the police draw attention to the precarious security arrangements for police personnel fighting against terrorism. Who will protect the protectors, poses another serious question to the authorities. *