Peshawar Attacked again
By Syed Kamran Hashmi
Westfield, IN
Like an expert predator, the terrorists swooped down on Badebar Airbase in Peshawar last week, killing thirty people including an Army officer and wounding many more. Without counting the numerous smaller attacks which afflict two to three individuals every time, the jihadists have carried out their third successful major strike in the last one month. Put another way, we have lost three time against the extremists within a month.
A few days ago on August 16 th, Lashkar e Jhangvi (LeJ) sent two suicide bombers in retaliation to the killing of its leader, Malik Ishaq, in police custody. Their target was the Interior Minister of Punjab, Shuja Khanzada, a vocal critic of banned sectarian organizations. According to reports, the suspects entered the facility without going through any security check points, and zoomed in on the victim in the meeting place, moving closer, stealthily avoiding attention. Once they had ascertained the former military officer stood in their range, they detonated the explosives. The ensuing blast was huge causing the entire building to collapse. The roof gave way too, entrapping dozens of people, most of whom died under the rubble.
What makes the situation worse is that the Minister was warned before the assault to take appropriate precautions. I am not sure if he beefed up his security to prevent such a tragedy; even if he did, those measures failed as he went to meet his maker in the attack.
After targeting Attock, the Northern district of Punjab which borders Khyber PakhtunKhwa (KPK), the terrorists jumped over to Multan, a southern district, slaughtering more than thirty people in a bomb explosion. We were still recovering from its shock that they pounced on Peshawar, again, like a master planner who pays attention to every detail and ties all the loose ends before the event. The question is if we in response are tackling this war as skillfully as it should be tackled. Or are we playing ‘The Hulk’ who gets angry and starts destroying everything which comes in front of him, shoots indiscreetly and bombs the areas on jet planes without a specific target? I am not sure. What I am sure about is that the enemy eludes us and stays way below the radar, underground, well connected and well organized yet we fly thousands of feet above the ground in the air, aloof and oblivious. For us to win though, we have to change that culture. We need to penetrate its organization from within before we can destroy them through an overt military operation, a strategy that they already are working on and we may have ignored.
Our strategy till now is to belittle the jihadi groups and consider them imbeciles, lunatics with no agenda, criminals without any moral conviction. That policy of course has not yielded good results. Sometimes, trivializing the enemy to boost up the morale of the people and to ward off fear from their minds, works, I agree. On the downside though, underestimating the enemy can induce laziness and inculcate overconfidence, an attitude that we come across everywhere. Allover Pakistan, people believe it’s a matter of days - not even weeks - that we can uproot every terrorist hideout once the establishment has made up its mind. And since no one knows what the establishment in fact wants, the failure which mocks us through these killings, is either attributed to the involuntary complicity of the agencies or is because of the involvement of foreign hands. In other words, we refuse to consider these attacks as our genuine inability to handle the situation, a capacity issue more than the issue of intent. Why is it so hard to admit that the enemy, no matter how insane and ignorant, has outsmarted us?
Don’t you think it’s time that we recognize the strengths of our adversary who keeps on making such assaults; the resilience of its network which stays unscathed after one year of nationwide military operation; its determination to fight back even in the most unfavorable circumstances, and its outreach from one corner of the country to another? We must focus on the pluckiness of these gangs, rather than deriding their weaknesses; and appreciate their commitment rather than scoffing at their beards and outfits. That, in turn can help us to launch a better, smarter and more vigorous counter insurgency campaign and prepare us for a war which will be stretched over years, not days or months as we expect. It may also pull us out of a looming defeat while we dream of a victory.
Remember last year too, after the Peshawar school massacre, we thought the capital of KPK would be converted into a fortress that cannot be penetrated - heavily guarded and religiously protected. We were committed to turn it from being one of the most vulnerable cities in the world to the safest; united to send a message to the world that we know how to defend ourselves. That we were a country with a large professional army consisting of brave soldiers and talented officers. That we have the most powerful spy agency in the world, its significance recognized internationally. And that the time to show patience is over and even though it took us a long time to conclude how to respond to these offenses but we are now determined to fight back and we will do whatever it takes to eradicate violence in the name of religion. Anyone from that day, it must be known to every organization who plans or tries to attack the city, will be dealt with an ‘iron fist.’ Both the military and the civilian administration seemed to be on one page in their resolve. Then, how come a year later, more than dozen people disguised as soldiers in the paramilitary uniforms storm a mosque located within the airbase and mow down tens of worshippers? Where is our iron fist? Has it softened up after targeting the wrong spots for so long?
