Pakistani Cities Under Siege

More than 300 people killed in October as number of terror attacks rise

By Amir Zia

Targeted killings, bomb explosions and suicide attacks – some of the major Pakistani cities are literally under siege. As Taliban and al-Qaeda linked terrorists select and hit targets mainly in the federal capital Islamabad, garrison city of Rawalpindi, Lahore and Peshawar, never before in Pakistan’s history, such an organized, extensive and sustained reign of terror had been unleashed.
The successful military operation in Swat this May and killing of the Taliban kingpin Baitullah Mehsood in a U.S. drone attack on 5th August had brought a relative decline in terror attacks in the country. But the extremists returned with a vengeance in October following fiery new chief of Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsood, consolidated grip on the terror network.
In more than dozen major attacks in October, more than 300 people were killed and around 500 wounded. This is a sharp rise compared with the months of August and September in which around 50 and 80 people were killed respectively.
In October, the extremist not just went for what security officials term as soft civilian targets, but also staged the stunning attack on Pakistan Army’s General Headquarters in Rawalpindi in which a brigadier and a colonel were also killed. The ferocious GHQ attack underlined not just the determination and boldness of the terrorists, but also their willingness to raise the bar of conflict by throwing the gauntlet at Pakistan’s most mighty institution.
From the suicide attacks at the offices of U.N. food agency in Islamabad and Saddar Bazzar of Peshawar to the brazen storming of FIA and Manawa Police Centers in Lahore – terrorists ensured that the entire nation remain in the grip of fear and uncertainty. The atrocious twin suicide bombings at the Islamic University Islamabad only heightened the sense of dread as educational institutions were shuttered across Pakistan.
If one key aim of terrorists was to create maximum fear and draw media attention, the Taliban, their al Qaeda allies and supporters certainly remained successful. Their second achievement is that the conflict remains far from over. The longer the conflict prolongs the better for the terror network. By not allowing the state to win, they are making their mark.
However, the upping of ante by the Taliban and their allies finally resulted in the launch of the much-delayed military operation in their power centre of South Waziristan. Barring Jamaat-e-Islami and its likes, all the major political parties and public opinion backs the South Waziristan operation -- achieving a rare consensus on a thorny issue in a highly politically polarized country.
But consensus in no way means that the battle is half won. Top security officials say it will be a protracted and a bloody conflict. For a country, where historically and traditionally, the state never established its writ on vast chunks of territory called the tribal areas and for decades supported and promoted Islamic extremists, controlling this monster undoubtedly will prove an uphill battle.
In the tribal areas, lawlessness and militancy has become a way of life – part of the system. From Islamic seminaries to the tribal code of conduct – all supplement extremists, who have economic stakes in the conflict and the business of terrorism. The links of local extremists with foreign militants, hiding in their area, as well as with various shades and brands of terror groups and cells spread across the country, make them a mammoth and a complex fiend whose strength and uniqueness is in the fact that each part remains connected yet operational on its own. Eliminating one leader or tier of leadership brings the second in command. Even without the central authority, the active and sleeping terror cells across Pakistan can stage attacks on their own. All terror groups – whether Pushtun or Punjabi dominated -- share more or less similar flawed interpretation of Islam, murky political goals and highly distorted worldview.
The concepts of modernity, democracy, constitution, women rights, tolerance or mutual co-existence remain not just alien, but these forces are hostile to them. The lethal ideology, which is infused into minds by hard-line Islamic seminaries and terror groups from a young age, justifies and approves elimination of those who disagree with their worldview. And those, who got killed in these efforts, are promised the rosy gardens of heaven not just for themselves, but also for their families.
The simmering hate toward the proclaimed “enemies of Islam” and the promise of paradise are the two motivating factors for which many youngsters –as young as 13 to those in mid 20s -- get recruited in the death squads, which carryout suicide attacks. Thousands of veterans and young guns of Afghan and Kashmir battle fronts and tens of thousands studying at the Islamic seminaries provide a huge pool of human resource to terror masterminds from which they pick the best of the best.
The presence of such a huge terror network and the single-minded zeal of its members undoubtedly is a nightmarish situation for any army. Pakistan’s army and rest of its security apparatus -- ideologically and practically trained to fight on the eastern front -- faces the twin challenge of a grueling guerilla war as well as of terrorist attacks.
The terrorists just not aim to win publicity for their cause but trying to replace the state writ in many parts of the country as well as force their values in cities. Their immediate target is -- freedom to use Pakistani territory for regional and international terrorism and the long term goal to change the very structure of Pakistani state. Both these objectives are highly detrimental for the state and its people.
As the security forces press hard to weed out tentacles of terrorism in the tribal areas, the militants are trying to ward-off the pressure by targeting major cities. As security officials say that terrorists and guerrilla fighters always get the advantage of selecting the time and the target. They can wait and hide when the security forces look for them and strike where least expected.
The task becomes more difficult when it comes to stopping the suicide bombers. Nothing but their death stops them. And in even then, they have the capability to inflict damage. A senior security official admitted that terrorists have a huge support base and network in almost every city and major town. “When you have a social and financial support network … it becomes easy to operate. Only accurate intelligence can deter them from implementing their plans,” he said.
While terrorists have strong basis in the tribal belt of NWFP, they also have pockets in Punjab -- specially the poverty-hot southern parts of the province -- Sindh and Balochistan.
In recent terror attacks, the extremists effectively changed tactics. In GHQ assault they donned military uniform. They did a thorough homework before attacking the place under the command of their ring-leader, who himself was a low-ranking defector of army’s medical corps.
Going for the soft targets including 20th October’s unprecedented attack on an educational institution – Islamic University in Islamabad and 28th October’s car bomb attack in Peoples' Mandi Peshawar -- underlines the desperation of militants. They can go to any length and commit any atrocity to create waves and avenge the military operation at the tribal areas. Security officials do not even rule out the possibility of militants taking students hostage or kidnapping school or college bus --- especially belonging to the secular and liberal institutions of any major city.
The challenge before the government is not just to tackle the militant threat using force. The bigger challenge is to defeat them ideologically and to dry those pools from where they get recruits. For this, not just the government should go ahead with the long awaited Madarssa reforms, but also open main stream free-of-cost educational institutions for the children belonging to the poor families who mostly end up in Islamic seminaries.
The political parties will also have to come forward openly and forcefully to confront the extremist ideology. Ironically, while the military is now seems geared toward confronting this menace in its own enlightened self-interest, the political leadership are found wanting. Only political leadership can provide a long term and effective solution to the problem of extremism and terrorism by not just taking a candid political stand against them, but educating and organizing the people against them. Their failure to do this, will keep Pakistan on the boil and its soil a hotbed of extremist and terrorist forces.

ENDS