In the unfortunate city of Quetta, at least seven persons were martyred and 16 injured in a suicide bomb attack on a bus carrying the personals Balochistan Constabulary who were returning from a security duty of Balochistan Assembly wherein a no confidence motion was to be tabled which was withdrawn after the Chief Minister Nawab Sana Ullah Zehri tendered his resignation. The vehicle was struck by a suicide bomber riding on motorcycle on Zarghon Road at general Post Office Chowk. The dead include five personals of Balochistan Constabulary and two civilian. Extraordinary securityarrangements were in place because of Provincial Assembly session but even then the suicide bomber managed to sneak into that area which is a big question to be pondered over.
Balochistan is the worst hit province by terrorist attacks and sectarian strife. Hazara Shia community has been most often targeted by the terrorists of Lashkar-e-Janghvi and other banned outfits that mostly infiltrate into the province from Southern Punjab and Interior Sindh and neighboring country Afghanistan. Security personals from police, Balochistan Constabulary and Frontier Crops are particularly vulnerable to such attacks. A group of terrorists stormed the police training institute, Quetta, killed 61 policemen and wounded 117 on 16th November, 2016. Deputy Inspector General of Police Hamid Shakeel was killed by a roadside bomb in Quetta on November 8, 2017 and on November 16 SP Muhammad Ilyas and his three family members lost their lives when their vehicle was ambushed by terrorists. In all 42 police personals including seven high ranking officials were killed in 2017. In addition to this, a number of personal of other security forces also fell prey to the terrorist attacks and lost and embrace martyrdom in the line of duty.
Gallant personal of security organizations and civilians are being killed in terrorist attacks but the ruling elite is least bothered about improving the inland security to provide protection to the people and even they have forgotten the sacrifice of the 150 young and small students who were martyred in terrorist attack on Army Public School Peshawar in December 2014. The federal and provincial governments did not implement the most the important points of the National Action Plan (NAP).The required amount of funds were not allocated to strengthen National Counterterrorism Authority (NACTA) and other security agencies. In a myopic vision and ridiculing mode, the former disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif blams the surge of terrorism on the Supreme Court verdict of 28th July, 2017. But on the contrary Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal used to claim that the back of terrorist has been broken and law and order has been restored in the country, blurring the fact that PML-N government was not in favor of launching “Operation Zarb-i- Azb” in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas adjoining the province of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa. The provincial governments of Punjab and Sindh are averse to effective clean up operation against the sleeper cells of banned outfits in Southern Punjab and Interior Sindh for fear of losing vote bank in the next general elections. Politics is given preference over humanity. Peoples’ security should be considered a prime responsibility. It is time that government should wake up from the deep slumber and focus attention on the issues of inland security for which NAP provides a viable framework. Mere condemnations of terror attacks and hollow statements of bringing terrorists to justice will not change the grim situation on ground.
