A bomb blast in Quetta, which killed three people, carried the signature of sectarian militants, while an attack on Gwadar-Karachi bus, with six passengers killed after checking their ID cards, was the sort of crime that separatists have committed in the past? Coming on the same day, it is probably not a coincidence, and shows that the two types of terrorists are coordinating their activities, and not just in the matter of timing. This came just a couple of weeks after the Jaafar Express outrage, where separatist terrorists hijacked a train and killed passengers belonging to a law enforcing agency. In Quetta, law enforcers, this time policemen, seem to have been targeted. It was an unfortunate coincidence that the Prime Minister was expressing the belief that the young would be a driving force for progress through the adoption of new technology, while speaking at the launch of the Digital Youth Hub.
The vision he has is shared by all Pakistanis, but the setting up of a committee under Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi as was notified on Thursday, probably won’t cut it. The threat is immediate, and while the military deserves full kudos for eliminating the terrorists in the train hijack, Thursday’s attack provided a grisly reminder that the terrorist threat is not over. The attacks are also a reminder that the province faces two different terror threats, which may involve different means of solution. If the National Action Plan has not been implemented, that would not explain how separatism is to be tackled. If the problem is developing a political consensus, then stopping PTI founder Imran Khan from meeting lawyers or family members, as happened at Adiala Jail despite Islamabad High Court orders, is not the way of going about building such a consensus. Whatever the reasons for denying him the meetings, court orders are court orders.
However, whether he wants to be part of the solution or not, he is not part of the problem. The government had claimed he was, and it blamed him for preventing the kind of political stability needed for economic stabilisation and growth. Such activities as the Digital Youth Hub do require political stability and peace, but it not just freedom of movement that is needed, but being alive also counts. The challenge must be met, as the shadows of Paltan Maidan have not been dispelled.
