Terror Revisits Lahore

In yet another ghastly incident highlighting the deteriorating security environment in Pakistan, a group of gunmen attacked a Police Training Academy at Manawan near Lahore and rampaged through it for hours on March 30, 2009, throwing grenades, seizing hostages and killing at least 11 officers before being overpowered by Pakistani security forces in armoured vehicles and helicopters. In this operation at least 13 officers were also killed.

It is believed that fighters loyal to Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud were suspected to be behind the attacks. Six militants were arrested and eight others were killed in the eight-hour battle to retake the facility on the outskirts of this city in eastern Pakistan. More than 90 officers were wounded by the attackers, some of whom wore police uniforms.The highly coordinated attack underscored the threat that militancy poses to the US-allied, nuclear-armed country and prompted Pakistan’s top civilian security official to say that militant groups were “destabilising the country.” The attack on the Manawan Police Training School began as dozens of the officers carried out morning drills. About 700 trainees were inside at the time.The forces had surrounded the compound, exchanging fire in televised scenes reminiscent of the militant siege in Mumbai in November 2009 and the attack on Sri Lanka’s cricketers in Lahore earlier on March3, 2009.

Part of Terror Wave
The incident is part of the terror wave which began from the North West Frontier Pakistan (NWFP). This is against the country’s sovereignty. The attack was carried out by elements who want to destabilise Pakistan. The terrorists were well-organised. One of the terrorists captured trying to target police helicopters was an Afghan national.

Combined with anti-American sentiments and India-centred conspiracies, this has ensured that the Pakistani State remains strangely paralysed as the country is being repeatedly attacked from all fronts. In the past three months alone, Pakistan has experienced a terrorist attack almost every five days. Over the years, Pakistan has sought to distinguish among militant groups fighting in Kashmir, those seeking to restore the Taliban in Afghanistan and those who have carried out attacks against the Pakistani State.

Given that it was only three days ago that the US President Barack Obama outlined his new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy — the thrust of which was rooting out Al Qaeda and the Taliban from the region and redoubling efforts towards this goal — the Manawan attack can be seen as a sharp response by jihadi groups asserting that they have no intentions of surrendering or going underground. Also, the fact that the terrorists chose to brazenly target a police academy on the periphery of one of Pakistan’s most important cities can be viewed as a direct challenge to the security establishment of that country.

Pakistan has endured scores of suicide bombings and other attacks in recent years and faces tremendous US pressure to eradicate Al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents on its soil. Most of the violence occurs along the country’s northwest border with Afghanistan, but attacks have occurred in all major Pakistani cities, including in eastern Punjab province of which Lahore is the capital.

Threat to Zardari Administration
The attacks pose a major threat to the weak, year-old civilian administration of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, which has been shaken by political turmoil in recent weeks. The Obama administration has warned Pakistan that militancy poses a threat to the nation’s very existence while US officials complain of the country’s spy agencies still keep ties with some of the insurgent groups. The terror movements might be responsible, listing the groups Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.

The question is — from where are they getting grenades, guns and rocket launchers in such large numbers? The March 30 attack bore the hallmarks of the November 2008 strike on Mumbai, blamed on the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba. Meanwhile, in Miranshah, a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a military convoy, killing five soldiers and wounding four in the restive tribal area. The attack took place near Bakakhel village when the convoy set out from the town of Bannu for North Waziristan’s main town, Miranshah. in the semi-autonomous tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Fall-out of Pakistan’s Own Policy
It is said that the present terror attack on the police training centre in Lahore is a fall-out of Pakistan's own policy of nurturing and harbouring fundamentalist forces. It is their own creation that has overtaken them. Pakistan has been supporting fundamentalist groups, Islamic groups and jihadi groups over the years. Now they have turned against them. They have now combined and are taking over the State of Pakistan.

Pakistan has been using these groups in Afghanistan, Kashmir and later in the hinterland of the country. It is going to be a big problem. These jihadis have created their own support base. The education has been completely handed over to Madarsas. If therere one lakh madarsas, how many students they would have churned out in past 30-40 years. Pakistan no doubt has been supporting fundamentalist groups and recent attacks show that establishment has lost control over them. There could be a spill over effect of these events on India too.

Such attacks are clearly aimed at hitting where it hurts most; but the militants are also making it very clear as to where they stand, what values they espouse, and steering public opinion in the right direction. There is, in the end, something in the Lahori soul that will not give in to intolerance and extremism.

Whichever way one looks at it, the recent spate of terrorist attacks in Pakistan comprehensively proves that Islamabad is totally incapable of dealing with terror groups operating out of its soil. For the sake of regional and global security, it is time for donors nation to abandon their soft line on Pakistan and force that country to act before it is too late. Democracy-building is fine, but it must follow the destruction of terrorism. If that means freezing funds and giving the green signal to an international force to conduct military ground operations to destroy terror camps in Pakistan, so be it.

Chronology of Major Attacks in Pakistan

Following is a chronology of some of the major terrorist attacks in Pakistan since 2007:

October 18, 2007: At least 139 people were killed and nearly 400 injured in a suicide bombing in Karachi near a motorcade carrying former Pakistani Premier Benazir Bhutto when she returned to the country after eight years of self-imposed exile.
December 21: At least 50 were killed in an attack on a mosque in Pakistan’s northwest.
December 27: A gun and suicide bomb attack kills Bhutto and more than 20 of her supporters as she leaves a party rally in Rawalpindi.
February 16, 2008: Suicide car bomber attacks a PPP rally in the northwestern tribal town of Parachinar, killing 37 people.
February 29: At least 44 people were killed in Mingora, the main town in the restive Swat valley.
March 2: Suicide bomber kills 43 at a meeting of anti-militant tribal elders in the northwestern district of Darra Adam Khel.
March 10: The Federal Investigation Agency building in Lahore attacked by suicide bombers killing 26 people.
July 6: Suicide bomber kills 15 people in an attack in Islamabad during a rally to mark the first anniversary of army raid on the radical Red Mosque.
August 21: Twin suicide attacks kill 57 people outside Pakistan’s main arms factory in Wah.
September 20: At least 60 people were killed when a suicide attacker rammed a massive truck bomb into the gates of the luxury Marriott hotel in Islamabad.
March 3, 2009: Eight persons were killed and several injured when terorrists ambushed the bus of Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.
March 27: A suicide bomber attacks a mosque in the northwestern town of Jamrud, killing 100 people.