Another bombing

To stop such attacks, all agenci­es, all securi­ty force person­nel must demostrate their will, commit­ment.

There seems to be no end to death in our part of the world. As has happened scores of times before, another ANP leader was targeted on March 11. Khushdil Khan, the deputy speaker of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa narrowly escaped death when a bomb exploded minutes after he left a funeral on the outskirts of Peshawar. A teenaged suicide bomber detonated 10 kg of explosives as the funeral ended, soon after Khan had walked away having offered his prayers. Fifteen other persons were killed while 37 people are reported to be wounded. There have been many other incidents of a similar nature where ANP leaders have primarily been targeted repeatedly, but as is inevitable, several other people have unfortunately died as well. What makes this attack even more agonising is the fact that it happened at a funeral, victimising those who were already in mourning.

The message the Taliban want to send out is a clear one. They disagree with ANP’s vision for the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and are ready to use the only means they know to prevent the party from curtailing extremism. Others who have pursued peace have also met a similar fate. One recent case is of the pro-government tribal elder, Malik Waris Khan, who had been awarded the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz for his efforts to combat militants and restore peace in his area, but was gunned down a few days ago in the Orakzai Agency. The strategy of the Taliban is quite clear. Their purpose seems to be to impose the rule of terror everywhere and destabilise the lives of people in the region, and the country at large.

So far, they have succeeded to a frighteningly large extent. The question that arises is how to stop them. All the plans worked out in the past have failed miserably; the question is whether a new one can be devised. Any such plan must be one backed by the will and commitment of all agencies and all security force personnel. Otherwise it can never succeed and we will only see more and more killings of the kind which left Peshawar’s streets stained with blood on March 11 as a suicide bomber struck once again.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2012.