Rajanpur, which lies on the border of Punjab, was struck by ground and air strikes by the security forces during the recent Eid holidays.

The operation started before Eid break began; in the backdrop of the carnage in Quetta that took more than 70 lives when a suicide bomber attacked a gathering of protesting lawyers at a government hospital. "The intelligence-based operation targeted militants, particularly from outlawed separatist groups of Balochistan like the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), and was mainly led by the southern command of Pakistan Army," a security official says.

"Hundreds of military troops with gunship helicopters targeted the particular border area," says the official. At least four suspected terrorists were killed, dozens wounded and around 50 alleged terrorists were captured. One solider lost his life, according to the ISPR statement which was released after the offensive.

Rajanpur, a massively underdeveloped district in southern Punjab, is situated on the west side of River Indus. On the north, it is connected to Dera Ghazi Khan and to the west it is linked to Dera Bugti in Balochistan -- a conflict zone where the army is pitched against the nationalists and separatists.

South Punjab is known as the hideout and nurturing ground of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi -- a hardcore anti-Shia sectarian group that has been aligned with al-Qaeda, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and other extremist groups at various times.

An intensive military operation in different areas of Naseerabad and Dera Bugti districts in Balochistan is already ongoing along the border areas of Dera Bugti and Rajanpur. Besides, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Punjab police has recovered weapons from the Kacha Jamal area of Rajanpur, during an operation a few days ago. The recovered haul included anti-aircraft guns, rocket launchers, AK-47 assault rifles, hundreds of bullets and more than 100 kilogrammes of explosives, according to the CTD officials.

"Following the Quetta attack, the government has seriously resolved to deploy Rangers when and where needed to help the provincial law enforcement agencies against terrorists, banned outfits and their facilitators," says Rana Sanaullah, the Punjab Law Minister while talking to TNS. "Paramilitary forces are called in the province to ‘designated areas’ only."

After every big incident of terrorism in the country, respective provincial governments and security forces boost their efforts in cleaning up their jurisdictions, and subsequently make claims of hitting extremist elements with refreshed resolve.

The first major offensive against militants began after the bloodshed in Army Public School, Peshawar on December 16, 2014. That act of terrorism forced the army and the government to urgently draw up the 20-point National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism. A similar reaction was seen after the deadly terrorist attack on Gulshan-e-Iqbal in Lahore that killed more than 80 people in March 2016.

After several days of operation against the criminal gang, paramilitary forces and Pakistan Army joined the offensive. The gang leader Chotu surrendered himself before the army. Paramilitary forces began an investigation against the gang. However, five months have passed since the investigation began and nothing has been shared with the media yet -- about the operation and its details.

Now, following the Quetta blast in August, reports of combing operations, surgical strikes and speedy action against terrorists are all rolling in. The media is being kept at a distance; they are not given access to see ground realities or check facts in these operations that are led by security forces and the CTD of the Punjab police.

"This spurt of activity after every big incident is seen because we do not believe in long-term thinking which requires difficult decisions like countering extremist ideologies. When the time comes to take decisions on such issues, the political and security establishment is double-minded," says Tariq Pervez, security analyst and former head of National Counterterrorism Authority (NACTA). "Without taking solid steps and preventive measures, it is not possible to eradicate terrorism and extremism from Pakistan."

Citing the example of the boy who recently tried to attack a Shia worship place in Shikarpur, he says the boy was taught at a seminary in Karachi. "Has any action been taken against that seminary?" he asks.

He says there is need for effective coordination with provincial law enforcement agencies -- the police. "The country needs a well-defined and formal mechanism of sharing intelligence, like the one that exists in Washington and London. Other security forces should play supportive roles to help the police."

The Punjab government had launched search and combing operations to curb terrorism in early 2015. However, the deployment of Rangers in Punjab has also been under discussion for some months now. According to some officials, the Punjab government is resisting the deployment of Rangers as it will defame the ruling PML-N’s claims of good governance and its fight against the extremist groups.

According to the Punjab government’s official claims, there have been approximately 50,000 different search-and-combing operations in the province in last two years, to realise the NAP. And there have been more than 1,000 operations of police, CTD, and combined operations of security forces in the past three months. Out of these 1,000 operations, 200 were jointly performed by the police and security forces and 800 by the police and CTD.

"There is no formal approval or deployment of Rangers in the province yet. The government seeks their help when and where needed. We call them in difficult times, for instance for maintaining law and order in Muharram, and when we need them during the combing operations," says Sanaullah. "Rangers were called a few months ago when there was a serious offensive launched by the government against the Chotu Gang in the riverine belt of Sindh in Rajanpur and Rahim Yar Khan, on the border of the province."

Sanaullah claims Punjab is already implementing NAP and there should be no doubt about it. "NAP is not an agenda which is time-barred but it is an ongoing effort."