Policemen (R) and Ranger soldiers (L) stand outside a prison following a Taliban attack in Dera Ismail Khan July 30, 2013. PHOTO: REUTERS
There could have been no information more detailed than this. Indeed, based on it, meetings were held and the police’s Elite Force assigned to react. But reportedly, the Elite Force did not do so when the time came. The reasons for this need to be examined by the PTI government. In recent weeks, senior police officers have spoken of low morale within the police because of the harsh criticism directed towards it by the provincial government and also because of the PTI government’s ambivalent attitude towards the militants. It is necessary to assess what impact this is having on the security infrastructure, which needs to be working at top gear if we are to curb the militant threat.
This task must be made a priority. Knowing what we now know, the suggestion put forward by the PTI chief that a new intelligence force running under the provincial government be created, is not really valid. The intelligence input coming in from the vast network we already have in place was more than adequate; it makes little sense to set up a new intelligence wing, which could complicate matters. The focus should be on working out why there was so inadequate a response from forces on the ground, so the reasons behind the DI Khan debacle can be understood.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 2nd, 2013.
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COMMENTS (4)
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The place where the Taliban operatives had gathered was pointed out,
The best strategy would have been to call in drones. and had them vaporized.Now Pakistani citizens have to face another 400 odd rabid dogs.
ET all out against PTI...thanks for every bit of it
A new intelligence unit is not the answer but only another drain to limited resources. I would suggest better coordination between the various existing agencies. The money and resources being earmarked for setting up a provincial intelligent wing would be better utilized in training the existing force and improving present work conditions, I wonder why the resistance to the attack was not reinforced by the army personal posted in DIK. Its no blame game but could we start with plugging these gaps in coordination and augmenting existing forces rather than adding new resource draining structures.
"Knowing what we now know, the suggestion put forward by the PTI chief that a new intelligence force running under the provincial government be created, is not really valid. "
Careful. Information may have been selectively leaked just to protect the current intelligence organization from consistent failures. Maybe the chief is right and you do need to start all over...