Couple of days ago the Counter-terrorism Department, Lahore police and intelligence agencies killed four suspected militants in an early-morning raid on a house in Sheikhupura district. Intelligence agencies had earlier alerted security forces to the possibility of militants from Waziristan crossing into Lahore with the intent to carry out attacks on the provincial capital and Raiwind. Acting on the tip-off, security forces raided on the Ferozewala house situated on Kala Shah Kaku Road. four suspected militants were killed in an exchange of fire with security forces, while one suicide bomber blew himself up during the confrontation. Four, including a policeman, were injured. The four terrorists who were killed also appear to have been major players in our games of death. The provincial home minister tells us they were Al-Qaeda operatives, rather than the Taliban’s as had been previously thought. One of those killed was reportedly the head of the organisation in Punjab. Getting rid of the top guns is of course important.
The militants had allegedly travelled from Wana, South Waziristan, to Lahore to attack multiple targets in Punjab, demonstrating yet again that the long war against militancy is a national war that will ebb and flow until the state has both a winning strategy and the relentless determination to implement it. The basic difference between a long-term winning strategy and the recent successes against militancy — since Operation Zarb-i-Azb began last year, the counter-insurgency campaign in Fata has been actively complemented by counterterrorism operations in the provinces — is that the state has not really gone beyond the disruption and dismantling of terrorist cells. Where the intelligence learns of an imminent terrorist attack or uncovers a cell of militants, action is duly taken — and as a result several attacks have been foiled and many militants captured or eliminated. Yet, that approach does little to address the militancy threat in its many dimensions. The raid outside Lahore unsurprisingly found elements of TTP and Al Qaeda collaborating. The only option to eradicate militancy is zero option against militancy.
pk.shafaqna.com