- Quetta killings underscore need for prompt action against terrorists as well as development projects
Gulf News
Editorial
The killing of 70 people on Monday in Quetta, the capital city of Pakistan’s largest but most underdeveloped province of Balochistan, belies the claims by the government and the security forces that they are winning the war against terrorism and that they have brought it under control. The gruesome incident in the garrison town gives a clear indication that Pakistan is still vulnerable to planned terrorist acts, despite its long and ongoing fight against terrorists. It also shows the failure of what the government claimed to be “intelligence-based operations”, targeting these extremists across the country.
The killing of senior lawyer Bilal Anwar Kasi, president of the Balochistan Bar Association, by gunmen early on Monday morning, was the beginning of the mayhem. His killing acted as a ‘bait’, leading to a planned massacre of members of the legal fraternity.
A suicide bomber blew himself up at the gate of the emergency ward of the Quetta Civil Hospital, where the body of the slain lawyer was brought and hundreds of lawyers had gathered to receive it. The attack left more than 110 people wounded. Two television journalists also lost their lives in the line of duty. Though such a major attack occurred after several months, there have been indications that extremist groups were once again active in the province.
This is the first time that two terrorist groups claimed responsibility for the attacks simultaneously. The Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the killing of advocate Kasi and the subsequent blast. Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) has also claimed responsibility for the suicide attack. This has again left the security agencies baffled as they always claimed that there was no existence of Daesh in Pakistan. Going by history alone, violence in Balochistan is perpetrated by groups including separatists, religious extremists and some outside elements trying to destabilise Pakistan.
In this case, the motive behind the mass killing of lawyers could have been the legal proceedings backed by the lawyers against people accused of terrorism. It could have been a reaction by the militants against the state for launching massive military operations against them in North Waziristan.
Whatever the case may be, Pakistan’s security agencies must act promptly to stop such attacks, with massive crackdowns against terrorists across the country and without any discrimination. Launching massive development projects in Balochistan is also a must to end the feeling of deprivation amongst the people of the economically and socially backward province — a situation that is being exploited by terrorist groups.
