Editorial

Another suicide attack

The setting up of tribal lashkars to challenge militants had seemed like a good idea last year.

Editorial December 08, 2010

Just as there was some sense that militant violence could become a thing of the past, with tribesmen returning to South Waziristan and a peace accord reached between warring Sunni and Shia groups in Orakzai, the killers have struck again — as viciously, as violently and as ruthlessly as ever. Two suicide bombers who struck a pro-government lashkar in Mohmand Agency on December 6 took over 40 lives along with their own. This was followed by another suicide attack in a bus in Kohat on December 8, which killed at least 17 and injured 20. The attacks send out a strong message, making it obvious that the horrible bloodshed we have seen so often in recent months will not easily be ended.

Tragically, a correspondent for this newspaper was among those killed in the Mohmand attack. The extent of the carnage may have been made worse by the lack of medical facilities in Ghalani, the main town in the agency, where the lashkar was struck. This is not the first time such a gathering has been hit.

It is time to ask some basic questions. We need to assess just how effective the military operation in the tribal areas has been. How much has actually been gained and, beyond the rhetoric, has the might of the Taliban truly been dented? Attacks of the kind we have seen in Mohmand throw this into question. More crucial still is the question of what should be done and how we can overcome the threat we face. The loss of so many lives, time and again, is unacceptable. So is the sense of horror suicide bombings of this kind create. The setting up of tribal lashkars to challenge militants had seemed like a good idea last year. It demonstrated how many ordinary people oppose the militants. But now we must ask if it is right to ask these people to take on a highly trained militia of killers who will stop at nothing.

Our strategy needs to be reviewed. It is true that there are no easy solutions. But somehow peace needs to be restored and tribal people given back the life of peace they have lost.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2010.

COMMENTS (2)

khan | 13 years ago | Reply the tribal people are suffering for the last five decades and their miseries are rising every year. i don't understand the government apathetic attitude towards these people who have fought for the sack of this country along with forces on every front. these are the people who proved to be the most sincere as far as the matter of our security is concerned. but still they are not given any chance of development and progress.the government of Pakistan has formulated three constitutions i.e 56,62 and 73 respectively fro the rest of country but there is no constitution for FATA. And the tribal people are put under the one and only fcr since its inception. why? because the bureaucracy and safron does not want it to be under proper law so that they should keep on plunder and loot. millions and millions of dollars have been taken for tribal area on the plea that standard of living would be totally changed and these areas would be brought at par with the rest of country. but no such thing is seen.and there is no whereabouts of those dollars. all of them are gone in wind. if the government is sincere in bringing life to the already poverty stricken area they should not just do experiments. what they should do is to amend this fcr and bring every act of political agent under check and provide the tribal people with the right of appeal in the high court

Syed Nadir El-Edroos | 13 years ago | Reply How ironic that just a day before General Kayani stated that the Taliban had been vanquished from South Waziristan.

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