If over 7,000 Taliban have, indeed, entered Karachi, the situation is a dangerous one in so volatile a city. We also need to ask how infiltration on this scale was possible and what our security apparatus was doing.
Following reports of this influx, the Supreme Court bench hearing the case regarding law and order in Karachi has ordered the Sindh police chief to give in a report on the mass infiltration. The IG has also been asked to submit a report on the release of 150 convicts on parole. Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, who is heading the five-member bench, also asked about the presence of cars without registration plates in Karachi, warning that this could lead to a worsening of the situation in Karachi. The Supreme Court bench has been looking into killings, which continue to take place in the city, as well as the factors that contribute to them, including the presence of mafias of various kinds. Quite obviously, the addition of thousands of Taliban insurgents into this volatile mix will not help matters at all.
The performance of law-enforcement agencies and the security agencies that should back them is becoming a crucial one in our country. It seems obvious we need better information about the movements of the Taliban and other extremist forces. We need insight into how they plan, what their intentions are and their actions. Given the long time span over which intelligence forces have been active against militants, at least in theory, this should not be an impossible task for them. They have the resources and manpower to play a far more effective role than what we have seen so far.
The last thing Karachi needs is more violence. Given what we know about the Taliban, their reasons for entering Karachi can only be linked to reasons that will do us no good. It is, therefore, important that the report sought from the police be submitted to the Court and an effort also be made to track down where these militants are and what elements they are linked to in a city that needs peace above all else.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 3rd, 2012.
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