Terror threats in 2011: ‘Check posts cut down civilian casualties’

Decrease in number of deaths has been far more than decrease in attacks.

ISLAMABAD:

Data collected by the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies shows that in the year 2011, Pakistan suffered fewer casualties from terrorist attacks than in previous years.

While the total number of attacks have also decreased, the decrease in the number of deaths has been far more than the decrease in the attacks. Part of the explanation may be the efficacy of security check posts that have sprung up across the country of late.

A security official at a security check-post at Jinnah Avenue in Islamabad explains how vital these can be in deflecting an attack for which there was no foreknowledge.

“Check posts are usually located at the entry and exit points of cities and in areas where there aren’t too many offices and houses,” he explains.

Hence, according to him, even if an attacker blows himself up or tries to detonate the bomb he is transporting, chances are it will potentially be caught and civilian casualties will be far fewer than they would have been had the check-post not impeded the bomber.

However, the security official asserts that there are more ways to improve the efficacy of security check-posts.

“We cannot crosscheck the identity of people and it is very rare that we fully search a car. You never know, terrorists might have explosives hidden in their fuel tanks.”

Then there are problems with the equipment used at check-posts.

In 2010, Pakistan imported two large bomb scanners from China for $3 million, an amount that was loaned by the Chinese government. The scanners were meant to be deployed at the entry points of Islamabad but, according to an official in the Ministry of Interior, they were plagued with problems from the start.

“It took months before we could even get the scanners to function. Then once they started working after expensive repairs, we found out that no one was trained to use them,” the official told The Express Tribune, asking not to be named. Eventually a team of Chinese experts came to the country and trained about 10 Pakistanis security officials to operate it. Even then, says the Interior Ministry official, the large scanners could only be used to detect explosives on trucks — rendering their use limited.

He said the interior ministry was working towards introducing bio-metric check-posts, where people’s identification cards could be scanned instantly by the machine. He said that this would first be introduced at checkpoints on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, but was unable to give a timetable for their implementation.

Other tools include sniffer dogs, smaller scanners that provide a cursory check of vehicles, and as a last resort, if a vehicle refuses to stop at a check-post, security officials can shoot at it.

A security official says: “We are told to first shoot at the tyres, which reduces the chance of setting off any explosives in the vehicle.”

Ultimately, though, according to the security official, they are just sitting ducks. “Our job is to be ready to die to save other people’s lives.”

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