Daily Times

My heart comes to my mouth when I see the panelled pictures of ten personnel belonging to the armed forces martyred by the terrorists striking at will in Dera Ismail Khan and Awaran area of Balochistan. Besides the fact that martyred personnel were too young to die, they sacrificed their lives so that their compatriots sleep peacefully with their families. Brazenly shocking it is that the terrorists struck with daring impunity with a purpose to undermine the writ of the state and its cash-ability with the Americans no sooner than the skipper had returned home to a tumultuous welcome on wining what he described World Cup a second time.

As I was searching for some material for this article I ran into the diligently proud rendering of a balance sheet of the performance by the law-enforcers in the war against terrorism by ISPR DG Major General Asif Ghafoor. It was, indeed, a moment of great satisfaction to know from the mouth of a competent authority that much of war against terrorism has been won, vital areas within Pakistan have been cleared off terrorist hideouts and their armed depots, their safe heavens have been dismantled, location in the periphery of our rugged and treacherous borders have been secured. Indeed, this scorecard laid bare by Major General Asif Ghafoor was no mean achievement. It was something big to be really proud of.

Lo and behold, while our spirit of elation was still euphoric, suddenly it came down with a big bang as if everything was too good to be true. Two Suicide attacks killing commissioned officers and brave soldiers with injuries to scores of innocent of people reminded me of the laughing hyenas who kill and gloat.

These tragic incidents must be a rude shock for Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, his trusted lieutenants-DG ISI Lt general Faiz Hameed and DG ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor-who the Americans gave 21 Gun salute. He was extended an unprecedented welcome when the underrated prime minister who could at best be described ‘as among those who accompanied General Bajwa separately in a commercial flight to a minimal protocol and a ride to Washington in a comfortable and perhaps air conditioned public transport that prime minister showed his preference to use to make his visit look austere.

It is another thing that his party PTI and its rich supporters including its ATM machines spent billions to transport, feed and look after over 20,000 to 30,000 crowd of enthusiastic Pakistanis who had travelled from far and wide to see for the first time a cricketer turned politician. President Trump’s Brigitte Bardot-like daughter Ivanka Trump too was so enamoured by the tall, handsome man, Tarzan-like Athlete as the President described his guest. Had she had her way she would have liked to put him in a glass cage to look at him in her admiration.

Indeed, the suicide bombers by conducting their well coordinated strikes having timed the explosions with IK and Gen Bajwa’s twin summitry in Washington, drained it of all the gold and glitter, pomp and glory, putting their reputation of carrying out successful war against terror rendering into an abysmally long face. It is very clear that the master minds of suicide bombers wanted to undercut the bargaining position of the Pakistani leaders vis-a-vis American President Trump on Afghanistan regarding negotiations with Taliban. The big question that is being raised post-visit in DC think tanks is what sort of weak influence Pakistan has over Afghan Taliban that they could not get a moratorium from them not to strike in Pakistan while they were on Washington Yatra. Such a moratorium would have strengthened Pakistan’s bargaining position with the Americans.

These incidents have once again brought into focus the invincibility of militant threat despite Pakistan’s repeated claims of having scotched their heads. The frequency of attacks has exposed the hollowness of the efficacy of National Action Plan as having achieved wonders. In the two suicide attacks responsibility has been claimed by TTP that was claimed to have been eliminated by us. Whatever-it has been noted that unlike previous occasions ISPR has not blamed our two next door neighbours and their notorious intelligence agencies.

One would not like these failures to undermine the anti-terrorist efforts of the armed forces. Rather, these set backs call for a stocktaking in the right earnest as to where we faulted in dealing with the militants and our failure to undermine their strategic out maneavouring of our counter-insurgency planners. The fact that cannot be denied is that there are too many crooks out there to fish in Afghanistan’s troubled waters and unfortunately Pakistani powers that be continue to have their favourites and preference for running with the Afghan hares and American hounds. Besides, we must not forget that in the Afghan currents and cross currents are ethnic and sectarian undercurrents playing havoc. Besides, drug lords have their own business interests worth over 20 billion dollars to protect. One also agrees with the broader expert view that ‘different ideologies and strategies’ have to be dealt with in a comprehensive manner that eliminates the threat at its roots in the region.

The fact that cannot be denied is that there are too many crooks out there to fish in Afghanistan’s troubled waters and unfortunately Pakistani powers that be continue to have their favourites and preference for running with the Afghan hares and American hounds

With all said and done, we have yet to hear any group claiming responsibility of suicide attack in Kech though the area has witnessed a long-running separatist insurgency by Baloch militants only recently declared as terrorism by the Americans to warm shoulder Geneal Bajwa for whom Balochistan insurgency is of major concern. The insurgency has indeed been going on since quite some time and the recent attack – if investigations do lead to some conclusive proof and not old mantra of seeing our neighbours hand in it –would clearly prove that Baloch militants are virile and do pose a serious threat to the federation. Military’s description of it as the handiwork of “inimical forces … attempting to destabilise Balochistan” is easier said than done.

As accepted by them TTP has claimed responsibility for the attack in Dera Ismail which was allegedly apparently launched from across the border in Afghanistan. Notwithstanding the much hyped peace and tranquillity as seen in recent elections, it is a clear indication that the law-enforcers attempts to bring the area into the national mainstream have almost succeeded. Unfortunately, our rulers have yet to learn how to deal with PTM and its increasing number of supporters to win them over by redressing their grievances rather than treating the Pashtoons like Bengalis. It is an oversensitive area and its people have suffered a lot and they need a long healing process and not danda-shahi. Lets go after winning their hearts and minds by opening up our coffers to alleviate their sufferings. First step should be to release PTM MNAs and other leaders.

The writer is former High Commissioner of Pakistan to UK and a veteran journalist