Moving targets

Terrorists everywhere are clever, inventive and innovative and constantly in search of new ways to bring pain and death to the innocents around them. Those whose job it is to fight terrorism face an uphill task as their own countervailing systems and technologies are often behind those employed by the terrorists. An obvious example of this in global terms is the rise and rise of crude methodologies to mount attacks — the driving of vehicles into crowds and the increasing use of knives to inflict mass casualties. At the other end of the spectrum of sophistication there are reports that local terrorists have found a work-around for the jammers that are used on police vehicles.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) police department had equipped patrol vans, especially those used in rural areas, with frequency jammers that are effective against roadside IEDs that are remotely triggered by radio. Successful attacks reduced as a result. Inevitably the terrorists have responded and are now triggering IEDs using GSM signals through cell phones as detonators. The K-P police cannot use the anti-GSM devices as they are only available to the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) or other security agencies which puts them at a considerable disadvantage.

Further layers of complication are added by the intra-group fighting involving members of Da’esh that are targeting members of the Afghan Taliban present in the area as they scrap it out for dominance, bringing the battle to the suburbs of Peshawar. Such is the level of risk faced by the police that some officers have resorted to purchasing their own devices on the open market. They are available for as little as Rs10,000 and are quite literally lifesavers. In the scheme of things this is peanuts, and the police deserve every assistance in the fight against terrorism. Providing them with the means to counter an evolving threat ought to be a priority and whatever the system of procurement and disbursal of these vital devices it needs updating to meet emergent threats. We await developments.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2017.

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