Attack in Peshawar

To safeguard our security, policemen and paramilitary officials risk their lives daily.

Over the last year, there has been a relative lull in the extremist violence that had become a part of daily life in Peshawar and other urban areas in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. This is partly because military operations had weakened the Taliban to the point that they couldn’t attack high-value targets at will which would then lead to mass casualties. The other reason is that the Taliban have become smarter and are only carrying out attacks which make strategic sense. Hence, most Taliban attacks in urban areas seem designed to show the military its security and intelligence weaknesses. That was the purpose of the attack on two check posts on the outskirts of Peshawar on October 14, which killed five security personnel and injured 10 others. This attack told us that the Taliban are active and ready to attack the security apparatus. We should not confuse the lack of attacks with weakness. The Taliban are as dangerous as they ever were.

As always, the prime target of the attack was security officials, who have borne the brunt of casualties in the war against militancy. Not only do army men have to go and fight the Taliban in the tribal areas, suffering thousands of losses in the process, those in the first line of defence in the urban areas are the policemen and paramilitary officials who man the check posts. To safeguard our security, these men risk their lives daily knowing that if they ever catch a militant ready to launch an attack, they can protect the intended targets only by throwing themselves into the lion’s den.

The army leadership, however, has not shown anywhere near the sacrifice of its juniors. Even while soldiers are dying daily while fighting the militants, the military is equivocating on just how much it needs these former allies. The Afghan Taliban are being left alone, while the Taliban in Punjab are not being pursued either. Some are of the view that in its quest for ‘strategic depth’, the military still considers these fighters useful. It is time for the establishment to pick a side and stop this double-dealing. We are in a struggle for our very existence but some of us seem content carrying on with business as usual.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2012.