Of choosing softer targets
The government states security levels at educational institutions have been enhanced
A man stands amid the debris of a bombed school in Landikotal, Khyber Agency. PHOTO: FILE
PESHAWAR:
Following a plethora of rumours and threat alerts, a university was attacked by terrorists on Wednesday. Still mourning the victims of Army Public School Peshawar, the nation is again crippled with grief, wondering why schools and education institutions are being targeted.
Low-cost, high-impact targets
Senior security officials say the attacks are a sign of mere frustration by terrorists whose command and control system has been dislodged. Like the NADRA office, they now look for softer targets.
One of the security official said, “The bomber’s target would have been elsewhere but with heightened security, the bomber chose a place where casualties could be high.” He added since security of all education institutions in and around Peshawar and Mardan saw a phenomenal increase, terrorists chose Charsadda.
Urbanised warfare
Taking a look at the trajectory of attacks around schools in K-P and Fata, ground zero was closer to tribal areas. More specifically in the years following 2005 when the Taliban first emerged, the initial targets were empty schools, mere buildings.
In the following years, with the spillover of militancy into settled areas, the first incident saw two children and a teacher injured in Palosi, on the outskirts of Peshawar in 2010. With more schools being razed to the ground, the fear of whether buildings would be targeted with children inside, came to the fore but gradually.
Former ISI Brigadier Asad Munir who served in K-P and Fata in the formative years of violence in 2001, says Al-Qaeda and the Taliban fought a war of territory in initial days; they were not strong enough to carry out attacks on schools and kill children. He believes in the subsequent years, after being pushed out of its stronghold by the military, the Taliban capitalised on other territorial gains and geared up for a more urbanised warfare.
“Targeting schools is a tactic to show their [Taliban] presence, create mistrust and demoralise our army troops,” Munir told The Express Tribune.
Grasping media attention
But there is a pattern to this anarchy; a method to this madness.
Author of The Muslim Extremist Discourse: Constructing Us versus Them, University of Peshawar Professor Faizullah Jan says terrorists target schools to gain the attention of national and international media. His apt analogy, “It’s like targeting the soft underbelly of the state,” a tactic to attract public anger aimed at the state, holds much weight.
But Jan believes while the initial targets, schools in Swat housing security men, were a crude form of terror, APS Peshawar and Bacha Khan University Charsadda revealed a more refined warfare.
He says since the Taliban have no coherent ideology but that of terror, the way to deal with the problem is for the state to secure education institutions and acknowledge the fact terrorists can strike again.
Long-lasting repercussions
Terrorism is now aiming at the ideological destruction of the next generation – the fear of not wanting to attend school is rising in the province.
“Buildings can be reconstructed but children cannot be forced back,” one of the parents said.
The government states security levels at educational institutions have been enhanced. However, Defence Analyst Khalid Munir said, “You cannot convert schools into forts,” – striking at a stark reality that we are in the middle of war.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2016.
Following a plethora of rumours and threat alerts, a university was attacked by terrorists on Wednesday. Still mourning the victims of Army Public School Peshawar, the nation is again crippled with grief, wondering why schools and education institutions are being targeted.
Low-cost, high-impact targets
Senior security officials say the attacks are a sign of mere frustration by terrorists whose command and control system has been dislodged. Like the NADRA office, they now look for softer targets.
One of the security official said, “The bomber’s target would have been elsewhere but with heightened security, the bomber chose a place where casualties could be high.” He added since security of all education institutions in and around Peshawar and Mardan saw a phenomenal increase, terrorists chose Charsadda.
Urbanised warfare
Taking a look at the trajectory of attacks around schools in K-P and Fata, ground zero was closer to tribal areas. More specifically in the years following 2005 when the Taliban first emerged, the initial targets were empty schools, mere buildings.
In the following years, with the spillover of militancy into settled areas, the first incident saw two children and a teacher injured in Palosi, on the outskirts of Peshawar in 2010. With more schools being razed to the ground, the fear of whether buildings would be targeted with children inside, came to the fore but gradually.
Former ISI Brigadier Asad Munir who served in K-P and Fata in the formative years of violence in 2001, says Al-Qaeda and the Taliban fought a war of territory in initial days; they were not strong enough to carry out attacks on schools and kill children. He believes in the subsequent years, after being pushed out of its stronghold by the military, the Taliban capitalised on other territorial gains and geared up for a more urbanised warfare.
“Targeting schools is a tactic to show their [Taliban] presence, create mistrust and demoralise our army troops,” Munir told The Express Tribune.
Grasping media attention
But there is a pattern to this anarchy; a method to this madness.
Author of The Muslim Extremist Discourse: Constructing Us versus Them, University of Peshawar Professor Faizullah Jan says terrorists target schools to gain the attention of national and international media. His apt analogy, “It’s like targeting the soft underbelly of the state,” a tactic to attract public anger aimed at the state, holds much weight.
But Jan believes while the initial targets, schools in Swat housing security men, were a crude form of terror, APS Peshawar and Bacha Khan University Charsadda revealed a more refined warfare.
He says since the Taliban have no coherent ideology but that of terror, the way to deal with the problem is for the state to secure education institutions and acknowledge the fact terrorists can strike again.
Long-lasting repercussions
Terrorism is now aiming at the ideological destruction of the next generation – the fear of not wanting to attend school is rising in the province.
“Buildings can be reconstructed but children cannot be forced back,” one of the parents said.
The government states security levels at educational institutions have been enhanced. However, Defence Analyst Khalid Munir said, “You cannot convert schools into forts,” – striking at a stark reality that we are in the middle of war.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2016.