Attacks on navy buses

Such blasts can only be prevented when agencies know when they are going to take place and who is planning them.

Until just a year ago, it was widely believed that Karachi had been spared the wrath of the militants, possibly because the city was the main hub of fundraising for these groups. But now there can be no doubt that militant cells in the metropolis have been activated. Yesterday’s twin blasts at navy buses in Baldia Town and Defence Housing Authority Phase II are only the latest in a series of attacks to rock Karachi, following deadly explosions at the Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine and the DIG Crime Investigation Department (CID) late last year. It is believed that roadside explosives were used in the two blasts, killing four people and injuring as many as 50 others. A third bomb was found and defused in Baldia Town.

While it is too early for the police to apportion blame for the attacks, it may not be a coincidence that the blasts took place just a day after the CID had arrested a leader of little-known terrorist group al Mukhtar for a blast at a gambling den in Lyari on April 21. Police chief Fayyaz Legahri claimed that the group had links to the Taliban in South Waziristan and that the arrested suspect, Yaqoob Commando, had received training there. If there is indeed a link between the arrest and the naval bus attacks, it shows how the militants are capable of reacting and taking revenge with extreme swiftness.

There will inevitably be talk of security failures but, as Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah pointed out, it simply isn’t possible for more than 25-30 per cent of vehicles to be checked. Thus, even though the chief minister confirmed that they had prior information of threats in the city, it simply isn’t possible to thwart these attacks without specific intelligence. Additionally, the bombs in Baldia Town were hidden in rocks, making them hard to locate, while navy buses are clearly marked and hence easy targets. Blasts such as these can only be prevented when intelligence agencies know exactly when they are going to take place and who is planning on carrying them out. That, sadly, is lacking in Pakistan, making repeat attacks all over the country a virtual certainty.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2011.