Specter of terror

A gunfire attack on a police mobile patrol in Lakki Marwat area in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province last week is yet another reminder that militants are returning to their erstwhile sanctuaries. At least six policemen, including a sub-inspector, were killed in the attack. This is the second incident in Lakki area in less than a month. Late last month, four policemen on patrol near a hotel on the outskirts of Laki Marwat city were gunned down by miscreants riding a motorbike. There have been several other attacks in the southern KP region – including Kohat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan and the Waziristan region, causing unrest among the local populations.

Government officials, in keeping with the past trends, have been quick to respond to the latest attack, condemning it and vowing to identify and punish the attackers. KP Chief Minister, Mehmood Shah, in a statement termed it an “unfortunate incident” and said that “sacrifices of the martyrs will not go in vain”. In a separate statement, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said, “terrorists are enemies of Pakistan and every possible step will be taken to safeguard the country.” He urged the KP govt to announce a Shuhada package for the families of the martyred policemen.

But such gestures hardly ring a bell with the people who are directly exposed to such threats, and who find themselves on their own while making efforts to alleviate potential threats to their immediate society. Public demonstrations are one way they can register their protests, and such demonstrations have been spreading across the KP ever since Taliban captured power in Kabul last year, followed by reports of the so-called “peace talks” between the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Pakistani officials whose identity still remains undisclosed.

Public demonstrations broke out in various areas of KP when militant attacks resumed despite reports of a ceasefire agreed to by the TTP in May this year. The largest protest gatherings started in the Wana area of South Waziristan district, and still continue, but they are not being reported in the local media. However, massive protests that broke out in the tourism hub of Swat valley following some assassination incidents there last month could not go unnoticed by the national as well as the international community. As unrest in affected areas continues, questions are now being raised on how Taliban can cross over into Pakistan despite heavy military deployment along the border. Have the TTP and other militants been given a green signal to return to their former sanctuaries on Pakistani soil? If yes, on what conditions? Also, how can the state forgive and make up with the groups that carried out the horrific terror attack on Peshawar’s Army Public School in 2014, killing more than 140 people, most of them students?

As is evident from the successive terror attacks in southern KP, after the local populations, the police force remains the most vulnerable group given the nature of its duties that require it to have a 24-hour presence on roads and streets. After the latest attack in Lakki, the only top government official who rushed to the scene to condole with the bereaved families and raise the morale of the police force was none other than the KP Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Moazzam Jan Ansari.

Abandoning vulnerable people and certain state institutions for the sake of protecting interests of the more powerful elements of the state is a policy that is sure to bring more harm to an already troubled state of Pakistan. If the rulers of the country are serious in solving the problems faced by the country, they have to start by making clear the terms of engagement with the banned terror groups. Secondly, they must address the concerns of the citizens of the country. People in the former tribal districts have directly suffered death, destruction and displacement not only during the era of the militants’ supremacy but also during the subsequent military operations there. By allowing them to slide back into that era of death and destruction, the state will be failing in fulfilling its Constitutional duty to safeguard the interests of the people, who are the real owners of the state.