Pakistan has been in the grip of brutal and senseless attacks by militants using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) for some time now. In the latest attack, 27 security personnel were martyred and 38 others injured when a private vehicle pressed into service for military duty and, wired with an IED, exploded near Aamandi Chowk, Razmak Gate on the Bannu-Miranshah road.
The prime minister has done well to cancel his visit to Davos but this should not be a one-off affair and he should seriously consider imposing a voluntary moratorium on his foreign visits for a reasonable duration and lead from the front in this fight against terrorism. As he himself said, extraordinary situations demand extraordinary actions. In any case his repetitive addresses at international forums seeking foreign investment are a contradiction in terms with the poor law and order situation at home.
The IED, along with suicide bombers, has been an enduring threat in our fight against terrorism and has been used effectively by the terrorists across the length and breadth of the country. Our security forces have been working on a counter-IED (C-IED) strategy for a while and prevented many such attacks in the past but the recent attack in Rawalpindi’s RA Bazaar, shows the lag between our inadequate capacity and the adversary’s increasing prowess and capability. There has also been progress in monitoring production and distribution of Calcium Ammonium Nitrate (CAN) based fertilisers in the country but the terrorists just switch over to other methods.
It is thus unfortunate that it takes one such attack to put the focus back on those responsible for preventing them. The spotlight this time will also inevitably fall on the hiring of private transport for military duty so close to the conflict zone, as in the Bannu incident – ‘failure at too many levels’, which is the crux of the problem, is likely to be swept under the rug.
Some initiatives have been taken to strengthen the involved legal framework by enacting IED-specific legislation, but the process is either stagnated or moving at a snail’s pace. Likewise, there seems to be little or no progress on the much-needed amendment to the Explosives Act 1882 to include IEDs, framing IED rules, extension of existing Private Armies Prohibition Act, FIA Act and ATA Acts to Fata and the provincially administered tribal areas (Pata) and insertion of section 121 of PPC (waging war against the state) in the schedule of FCR – to mention just some aspects of the legislation.
The US has provided $50 million to deal with this threat since a significant amount of fertiliser was believed to be entering Afghanistan from Pakistan for use in the IEDs but with the withdrawal of Isaf this year, this interest (of the Americans) is likely to wane, more so if Pak-US relations continue to follow their present trajectory. The formation of a regional military C-IED forum proposed by former army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, supported by a wider forum to benefit from global experience, has yet to take off mainly because it doesn’t hurt others so much as it hurts us. But this menace has to be brought down to a manageable level – whatever it takes.
Details of the security policy under deliberation at the interior ministry for some time – and recently presented to the cabinet – have yet to emerge but it is hoped that it will be an all encompassing document. By the looks of it, though, it calls for mobilisation of huge resources in times of an economic crunch, political effort from politicians with conflicting interest and is stretched over an unacceptably long period.
One also doesn’t hear much about the predictive intelligence in the envisaged security policy which is so crucial since it is unbelievable that terrorists succeed in getting their vehicles rigged with explosives without even a whiff of it reaching someone who mattered. From the invariably speedy actions taken after the incident, it appears there is ample potential to get proactive if there is sufficient motivation.
The government’s dilemma on whether or not to launch an operation in the strife-ridden areas is now well-known and understandable. The public also realises that there are no quick solutions and it is going to be long drawn affair. But the people are also getting disillusioned with the government, which seems to be stuck in a reactive mode indefinitely.
There is, as such, a feeling that the government can surely initiate actions to hit at the source from which it is all emanating, the ideological front. The growing groundswell of public opinion against terrorists and supporters of their ideology in one garb or the other should make it possible, for example, to close down the ubiquitous ‘universities of Jihad’ – those madressahs that are strongly suspected of spawning brainwashed individuals. It is time the government stares down the political mentors of terrorists who have long been running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif badly needs to change his government’s direction in this fight against terrorism. Entrusting the already difficult task of negotiating with terrorists to individuals with unsavoury monikers was a non-starter. The uninspiring press conferences of his interior minister from a citadel of safety, with his family comfortably ensconced in the US, are now offending people.
But if leading from the front is expecting too much from a third-time prime minister, now accustomed to a laidback style, there is a chapter in Nelson Mandela’s autobiography on how to ‘lead from the back’. He narrates an important lesson that he learnt as a nine-year-old child from herding cattle. “When you want to move the cattle in a certain direction, you stand at the back with a stick, and then you get a few of the cleverer cattle to go to the front and move in the desired direction. The rest of the cattle follow the more intelligent and energetic cattle”.
Pakistanis need safety first – the prime minister’s hare-brained projects like the Rawalpindi-Islamabad metro can wait. There is just too much inertia in this government and its present course is leading it nowhere.
Mandela mentioned that the herd’s lesson worked for him in public life’ it could work for Nawaz Sharif as well. Identifying a few ‘cleverer cattle’, as in Mandela’s herd, to lead a different path shouldn’t be difficult for Sharif, considering that his election symbol in the last elections was a lion, which we all know is the king of the jungle.
Tailpiece: It is unfortunate that the ordinary public is facing difficulties in getting treatment at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology, Rawalpindi due to the extraordinary security arrangements there for General (r) Pervez Musharaf. If his farmhouse could be turned into a sub-jail, the authorities may seriously consider changing a part of it to a ‘sub-hospital’ if his hospitalisation is needed for much longer.
The writer is a retired vice admiral.Email: tajkhattak@ymail.com
Taj M Khattak, "Curse of the IEDs," The News. 2014-01-22.Keywords: Political science , Political issues , Social issues , International relation , Pakistan-United States relations , Security policy , Drone attacks , Foreign investment , Military-Pakistan , Society-Pakistan , Terrorists , Politicians , Terrorism , Nelson Mandela , PM Nawa Sharif , Gen Kiyani , Pakistan , United States , Afghanistan , Rawalpindi , IEDs , CAN