Security situation is getting precarious as back-to-back attacks are reported on security personnel. The killing of 10 policemen at Chodhwan in Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is too unnerving to report, as terrorists overwhelmed them in a late night operation, leaving behind many more injured including the local SHO. K-P as well as Balochistan are in the eye of the storm as periodic assaults have deterred the election campaign too. The list of recent casualties is exhausting: a PTI candidate shot dead in Bajaur; a bomb blast at the party’s rally in Sibi; an ANP activist killed in Qilla Abdullah; and last but not least a grenade attack at PPP election camp in Quetta. All this goes on to establish that there is a vicious plan at work wherein dreaded elements are out to spread chaos and mayhem.
The Chodhwan attack coincides with a similar ambush a month ago wherein 23 soldiers of Pakistan Army were martyred in the same district as militants rammed an explosives-laden truck into a security forces’ post. Similar incidents in Waziristan, Chitral and Gwadar as well as in Punjab province establish that there is a serious security threat, and there are foreign elements in cahoots with abettors to fan unrest. The influx of homeless people from Afghanistan in the last two years is at the root cause of this revulsion. At the same time, it goes without saying that we had blinked somewhere as priorities to target unscrupulous elements were put on the backburner. This has provided terrorists a chance to regroup and take on the security forces that had valiantly put down the insurgency in tribal and settled areas during the war on terror.
Pakistan has a serious geopolitical problem with three of its neighbours, and the new front with Iran is a case in point. The way forward is to up the vigil, and put security at the vanguard of national priorities. It comes as a challenge for local administrations and the security apparatus to ensure peaceful elections, and there shouldn’t be any hiccup in it.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 6th, 2024.
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