Terrorism isn’t quite the undefeated monster that we would like to believe. Not only are entire networks waiting in the shadows to strike, there are also the actual instances of violence. Consider, for instance, the suicide blast that has claimed six lives in KP’s Mirali Tehsil. And then there was the murder of two shopkeepers from the Sikh community in Peshawar from the day before.
The real question does seem to be whether anyone is minding the store. Former federal information minister Fawad Chaudhry was quick to link the second incident to the ‘imported government’ of Shehbaz Sharif. Not realizing that his party runs the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province; law and order was always a provincial subject, even before the 18th Amendment. It would do the former minister well to also sort things out with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan before going off on social media.
Yes, the ISKP has claimed responsibility for the incident in Peshawar. And yes, Mirali is part of the former tribal North Waziristan district. Those two details of each of the two incidents mean that the federal intelligence agencies are also expected to be more proactive and that they were caught off guard. Whereas it is not becoming for a representative of the ruling PTI to try to absolve the party of responsibility, others are certainly well-placed to ask the intelligence apparatus whether they have their hands full with matters political and whether the hapless residents of the Pashtun belt have to fend for themselves.
It is the need of the hour for there to be a concerted effort not only by the federal and provincial governments but also by the military intelligence networks to ensure that terror networks are completely disrupted. There also needs to be accountability of the military and other law enforcement agencies by the political governments to ensure that there is effective, objectively verified progress in the larger war against terror. Only then could we be on the path to normalcy. Devoid of the aforementioned accountability, the occasional half-victories on the terror front that the public sees in opaque, hastily read out press releases, will only be treating the symptoms of the terror problem, at best.
