Resurgence of terrorism: A real threat or just a ploy

Islamabad : It was after a long time that an act of terror happened in Rawalpindi in PirWadhai Bus Stand, quite close to the Inter-Junction Principal (IJP) Road, dividing federal capital from the province of the Punjab.

Besides the foreign funded acts of insurgency in Balochistan, which are continuing despite best efforts of the intelligence organisations backed by the law enforcing agencies (LEAs), this blast in Rawalpindi, that resulted in one unfortunate death and injuries to seven others, is indeed needed to be taken very seriously.

The warnings against possible occurrence of such acts of terror issued quite so often by the intelligence agencies have always been there.

So, did this blast in Rawalpindi happen because we let our guard down enough to give space to the terrorists or were these terrorists smart enough to sneak through the security net laid out to prevent and arrest them.

It has been witnessed over the last couple of decades how deeply these terror outfits have penetrated into our society and even very sensitive institutions. There were times when they were openly hurling threats and then executing those threats to reality, inflicting such deep wounds that scars have still not healed.

They martyred our politicians, including one of our great leaders, Ms Benazir Bhutto and many prominent ones especially from Awami National Party (ANP). There were times that a brave leader like Asfandyar Wali preferred to abandon country and leave for abroad after having survived attacks from these terrorists, which indeed was a wise move.

They attacked our soldiers and even martyred officers of the ranks of Generals. It was indeed a long battle that the nation, led by its law enforcing agencies and intelligence agencies found and eventually won. Almost!

But this latest bomb blast in Rawalpindi is a warning that should be taken seriously. One may like it or not, but this clearly indicates that someone responsible to closely monitor the moves and actions of these dastardly terrorists somewhere in the system has dozed off.

There were times during the ‘Afghan Jehad’ against former Soviet Union in Afghanistan, not a day passed when we did not confront a bomb blast in one part or the other of the country especially in the then NWFP.

In those days these explosive devices were usually transported in fruit and vegetable crates and bags. The then Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in Islamabad, Pervez Rathore, devised a very successful strategy to deal with the problem.

Knowing that it was not possible to check each and every vehicle bringing merchandise to Islamabad, especially from the then NWFP (now KP), SSP Rathore employed the policy of random checking of vehicles coming to Fruit and Vegetable market in Islamabad.

Islamabad Police started randomly picking a truck or transport vehicle, would off load the merchandise to the last crate or bag, will strip all the compartments and crevices and only then will let it go. This strategy worked very effectively in those days.

Now, however, this monitoring and checking has become much easy and fast. In those days there were no metal detectors, scanners or X-Ray machines available for such checking. But these gadgets are now available with the police and other law enforcing and monitoring agencies, making their task much easier.

But at the same time these terror outfits have also have access to such materials and explosives that could not be detected with the help of these devices. So, in face of the new threats of terrorism and sabotage there is a dire need to immediately come up with a better strategy, both in intelligence as well as checking/monitoring fields to prevent such acts of terrorism.

The fact that amidst prevailing political scenario the opposition is declaring these terror threat alerts and warnings as a ploy to disrupt their campaign against the sitting government, we have seen in the past the serious implications of such disdain and sarcasm. And we have suffered dearly.

Will this be too much for the government to take the political opposition in confidence, present evidence substantiating these threats to them and then seek cooperation to jointly fight this resurgence of terrorism to prevent any serious damage to the political leaders in particular to the innocent general public in general.