The Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies has shown that incidents of terrorism have risen sharply in the first half of this year, 2023, when compared with the corresponding period last year, 2022. Whereas there were 151 attacks in the first half of last year, killing 293 people and injuring 487, this year, so far, there have been 271 attacks. With 389 killed and 656 injured. The number of suicide attacks has gone from five to 13, with the number of deaths rising from 77 to 142, and the injured from 225 to 309. The increase is not only alarming, but it indicates that there is a failure by the law enforcing agencies to control what is becoming an increasingly worrisome problem.
The reason for militancy was supposed to be Taliban, but once they had taken power in 2021, they not only failed to pacify Afghanistan, but all those anti-American fighters who had gone to Afghanistan apparently returned to Pakistan, where the Tehrik Taliban Pakistan attempted to replicate the Afghan model in the tribal areas and the rest of the country, with the Pakistan Army cast as the US Army. The pity is that the influx of hardcore militants was predicted. One thing also evident from the rise in incidents is that the intelligence agencies are asleep on the job. They should have been gathering intelligence in advance about militant activities, and helping to foil attacks. Instead, it seems they have not gathered enough information after the fact to be able to catch the perpetrators.
Another problematic element are the Afghan Taliban. They have not been cooperating with Pakistan, even though its establishment backed them fully after 9/11. Instead of preventing the TTP from using their soil for terrorism, as was expected by those Pakistanis who celebrated the Taliban victory, they have instead made Afghanistan a safe haven. There are wheels within wheels. An important TTP target has been Gawadar, and generally Chinese investment in Pakistan. This suits India and the USA, and there have been lines drawn between India and the TTP. This makes it all the more essential for Pakistan’s agencies to get down to the serious task of eliminating a militancy that now has no apparent reason. The time for taking the KP government to task, which the PTI held until this January, and accounting for the vast sums spent on counter-terrorism, only for militancy to rise, must come, but it can wait until the more immediate task of eliminating the terror menace is carried out.
