Daily Times

Army Chief, Gen Bajwa is a man of his word. He assured the Hazara of Quetta earlier this month that the security apparatus would take severe action against all militant groups targeting this ethnic and religious minority.

Fast-forward to this week and this is exactly what happened. Pakistan’s armed forces took out Salman Badeni, the head of the Balochistan chapter of the rabid anti-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ); as well as two suicide bombers. By the following day, the security apparatus had killed five more of the outfit’s foot soldiers as they were readying a revenge suicide attack against the military.

This is to be welcomed. Naturally it is regrettable that Military Intelligence officer Col Sohail Abid died during the counter-terror offensive. Indeed, Hazara activists took to social media to join others to praise his bravery, while condemning the loss of life.

Yet we need to remember that the Pakistani citizenry needs answers as to how groups like the LeJ continue to operate here in this country. Especially considering that the latter was banned back in 2002 under the directives of then President-General Pervez Musharraf.

Some reports indicate that the banned group enjoys strong links to the Afghan Taliban — an outfit that Kabul insists is the recipient of Pakistani largesse. Islamabad, for its part, contends that the LeJ is running training camps across the western border. That this may be happening under the watchful eye of US and NATO forces raises important questions as to the latter’s seriousness in flushing out those terrorist groups that attack the Pakistani state. After all, the LeJ has also grown operationally close to ISIS in recent years; with both claiming responsibility for the Quetta Police College attack back in 2016.

Having said that, the Pakistani state must take ultimate responsibility for LeJ remaining fully loaded some 16 years after being proscribed; back when it went under the name of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). For the fact that the terror outfit behind the raid on Pakistan Army GHQ back in 2009 has not been entirely decimated does little to instil confidence in the citizenry. That being said, the civilian leadership also needs to share the burden on this front. For the SSP, in its subsequent political reincarnation as the Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), has been contesting elections on equal footing with mainstream parties going as far back as 2002; including the last ones in 2013. This suggests that the militant mainstreaming project may have kicked off far earlier than previously believed.

It is thus hoped that gains made this week will be consolidated in the future. And that this was not a one-off. In the meantime, we salute the courage of Col Abid who personifies the will of our military high-command to fight militancy and clean up our beloved country. *

Published in Daily Times, May 19^th 2018.