Bolan barbarism

Another daredevil attack on the security forces in Bolan is a moment of serious introspection. Reports say a suicide bomber allegedly rammed his vehicle into a police van frequenting Balochistan Constabulary personnel, killing and maiming more than a dozen policemen. The reserve force is deputed at special security details, and is considered as a contingency at sensitive installations. Like previous attacks, this one too had been planned minutely as is evident from the ease with which the bomber picked the target at a faraway location on the Kambri Bridge bordering the restive Sibi and Kachhi districts. With no one claiming responsibility for the attack, it is widely assumed that the residual non-state actors are behind it, as they are nursing a nefarious agenda to bleed the province, and plunge the country into a renewed crisis. The fact is that authorities have not been able to surf through the messy tracks of the desolate province to this day to identify and exterminate the sleeping cells and their abettors. So we are found wanting to the dreaded elements, as silent spectators, who are at impunity to decide on death and destruction.

This new barbarism should not see another conventional ending, as we vow and resolve to punish the culprits but go silent with the turn of the calendar leaf. Police, Army and Constabulary have been under an attack for years, and they have dispensed their duties with utmost resilience in their meagre resources. So is the case with the hapless and resource-starved people of Balochistan who have held their heads high hoping that the multi-billion dollar CPEC will turn their lives around. But it seems clandestine forces funded by foreign elements and black sheep in the country hold a sway, and all efforts to exterminate terror are still unrealised. This necessitates a twin-dimensional approach, wherein pro-development and political empowerment must follow suit with a neo-orchestrated clampdown on terror outfits. Balochistan can sooner find a solution, if the people are instantly taken on board by shunning prejudice.