Pakistan is still not ready to realise the true extent of the threat it faces.
JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: In view of threats to the Parliament House, air force and naval complexes and the Benazir International Airport, a number of joint teams comprising air force, navy and police commandos are combing the Margalla Hills, while strict security is being maintained around many other sensitive installations in the capital. Additional police force and Frontier Constabulary soldiers have been deputed at the Karachi and Sukkur central jails, which are thought to be the next targets to release hardcore religious and sectarian terrorist inmates. Security alerts have also been sounded for the protection of other security installations across the country. After the daring jailbreak in DI Khan, everyone in Pakistan is fearing an increase in terrorist activities. It was not only a jailbreak but a success story of safely transporting the released inmates to North Waziristan, which is several hundred kilometres away from DI Khan.
With the kind of terror threat that we face, we cannot provide foolproof security to all our security installations, commercial centres, education institutes, historical monuments, recreational spots, etc. The only way forward is to take the fight to the terrorists themselves, wherever they are.
Regrettably, Pakistan is still not ready to realise the true extent of the threat it faces. After repeated attacks on security forces, numerous jailbreaks, failure of courts to punish terrorists, murders of 50,000 of civilian and security personnel, it is clear that we are on the retreat and that the terrorists are winning. The Pakistani nation cannot move forward until it is able to call a spade a spade regardless of the terrorists’ religious, sectarian and ideological leanings.
Masood Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, August 7th, 2013.
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