Another ambush

Security forces are on the receiving end as an uptick in terror incidents has been in vogue since the collapse of a truce with the dreaded TTP. A suicide attack on Saturday claimed the lives of seven soldiers in Mir Ali area of district Waziristan, and has come as a grim reminder that unscrupulous elements are out to destabilise the country. The martyrdom of our brave soldiers is in need of being eulogised and held in high esteem as they are not only fighting a faceless enemy in one of the difficult terrains but are also trying to unmask them in the cahoots of their abettors in settled areas. It is, however, a consolation that six terrorists were taken out, sending across a message of zero-tolerance to nuisance and coercion.

Mir Ali’s ambush has come close on the heels of a similar failed attack this month in the same district, and the earlier killing of 23 soldiers in Dera Ismail Khan. The modus operandi of terrorists, as they resort to suicide attacks and ramming of explosive-laden vehicles, is a testimony of their bizarreness and defeated mentality. It also hints at their incapability to take on the brave armed forces, and in the last few months were seen taking refuge behind booby-trapped incidents to make their presence felt. The fact that Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are theatres of terrorism points a finger at Afghanistan, as the neighbouring country has not been able to live up to its promise of cleaning its soil of non-state actors.

TTP, and the likes, are an existential threat to Pakistan, and must be put down. Previous efforts of talking it out with them for the sake of regional harmony were apparently taken as a sign of weakness of the state, and the countrymen have paid a big price for it. This dilemma must come to an end, and all gun-running segments be exterminated for the sake of civic peace, and sovereignty of the state. Time to make it clear for Kabul that it’s now or never, as they keep on changing the goalposts when it comes to acting against terrorism.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2024.

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