Another suicide attack
The setting up of tribal lashkars to challenge militants had seemed like a good idea last year.
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 9th, 2010.
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 9th, 2010.