Quetta yet again became the target of terrorism, with another attack being carried out in the vicinity of a five-star hotel in the provincial capital of Balochistan. The last incident took place in April when a powerful bomb exploded in the parking lot of the establishment, targeting the Chinese Ambassador who was staying there but not present at the time of the attack. The IED that went off on Sunday was strapped to a motorcycle that targeted a police vehicle, killing two policemen and injuring at least 12 people. Terrorist activity in Quetta has risen substantially over the past few months with security personnel being primary targets. As the situation in Afghanistan continues to worsen, fears that effects of the conflict would spill over into Pakistan are slowly but surely being realized. Emboldened by the success of the Taliban in taking over an increasing number of districts following US troops’ abrupt exit from Afghanistan, groups such as the TTP have issued fresh threats to Pakistan, with its new and current chief Wali Mehsud, in an interview to CNN stating that the group’s primary target is to fight against Pakistani Security Forces and gain control over the country’s tribal regions. The TTP has claimed responsibility for at least 32 attacks in Pakistan in the first two months of the current year.
While the threat from such groups and others was never completely eliminated, it was being managed to an acceptable degree whereby the frequency of deadly attacks in major cities and sensitive locations had gone down significantly after the success of various consecutive military operations. However, the volatility of the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan where provincial capitals have started to fall and Afghan pilots are being assassinated by the Taliban to eliminate the Afghan army’s aerial dominance, a situation is developing whereby Pakistan may start seeing terrorism numbers similar to what they were almost a decade ago, when it was a bloodbath on an almost daily basis. While it is very difficult to thwart all possible attempts being made by terrorists to attack, efforts to gather actionable intelligence must still be ramped up to preempt and stop as many as possible. It would be impractical at this point to hope for any negotiated peace deal and therefore all regional countries, especially Pakistan, must prepare for what seems like an eventuality: a heightened threat level and sensitive security situation leading to more violence.
