Quetta train blast

The heinous blast on a shuttle train in Quetta yesterday – which claimed at least 14 lives amid fears of rise in casualties – underscores the terrorists' callous agenda to spread terror and inflict maximum suffering. The martyrs also include three Frontier Corps personnel, indicating that security forces may have been targeted intentionally alongside civilian passengers – in a nefarious attempt to not just shatter public peace but also to shake the resolve of the guardians of peace.

Earlier, repeated attacks on Jaffar Express and its audacious hijacking in March last year underscore the calculated strategy of the terrorists to disrupt vital transport links to sow fear. And this has come amid ongoing security concerns, as the whereabouts of the Gwadar University vice chancellor and his three associates are still a mystery. The VC, along his staff officer, driver and the pro-VC, had gone missing on May 15 while travelling from Quetta to Gwadar.

That the yesterday's train blast and other mentioned incidents are the handiwork of Fitna al-Hindustan goes without saying. Foreign adversaries, operating in tandem with these domestic collaborators, are seeking to bleed the country, with the restive Balochstan province, along with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, being the main theatre of violence. Of a total of 5,397 terrorist incidents reported during the last year, Balochistan witnessed 1,557, nearly a third. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, meanwhile, recorded more than twice as much, at 3,811.

While in an unmatched display of valour, the security forces condemned to hell a total of 2,597 terrorists during the same time period, the use of kinetic force alone has apparently not been successful in realisng the target of restoring peace and stability by scaring the dissidents to drop arms and fall in line. The situation does warrant more coordinated measures to exterminate the menace of terrorism – but not without taking conciliatory steps simultaneously to win back the reconcilable elements.