Attack on 'peace' committee

Terror seems to have no end as infiltrators, sleeping cells and abettors are at work to bleed the nation. The recent suicide blast in Dera Ismail Khan at the residence of Noor Alam Mehsud, head of a local peace committee, that killed five and injured more a dozen people, is a reminder of pestering unrest. This attack should be read in continuation of similar incidents in the same district which sits at the crossroads of three provinces, and is prone to Taliban militancy.

The terrorists, mostly from across the western frontier, after having carried out numerous attacks on security forces, now seem to be targeting civilians in an attempt to broaden the war of attrition. It is also noteworthy that the Mehsud clan has previously been a victim of terrorism as they came under onslaughts in South Waziristan, and in DI Khan in 2022 too. The vulnerability of the district is evident from the fact that last month, three police officers were killed in a bomb attack targeting their vehicle and in November last year, six policemen, including trainees, were martyred. On top of that, there was a daredevil takeover of a Police Training School by unscrupulous elements.

The pattern of revulsion in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan confirms a master plan at work to destabilise the country. A 46% surge in violence in 2025 is a case in point. At least 900 lives of civilian and security personnel were lost during that period. There were 330 incidents in the year which were responded to with thousands of IBOs, and quite successfully at that. This calls for a more coherent counterterrorism strategy, and one that takes the locals, armed forces and a broad-based intelligence input into work.

The modus operandi through which unarmed peace committees are at work in K-P deserves some astute reconsideration. It is a fact that local revulsion and difference of opinion can be better tackled in a political manner, but the point is that the province is infected with well-entrenched foreign terrorists. Taking them out must be done under a kinetic strategy, and exposing civilians to the wolves is no wisdom.