Quetta saw another tragic bomb blast, in which two policemen were killed and 21 injured. This has become an all too frequent occurrence ever since the civil war in Afghanistan has intensified. Attacks such as the one in Quetta—low effort and potentially high reward for the terrorists—have been seen time and again. What is more troubling is that the number of such incidents is not decreasing. Only three months ago, we witnessed one of the most secure establishments in Quetta, the Serena Hotel, targeted. This time an IED was planted on a motorbike in the vicinity of the same hotel, only the target on this occasion was a police van. A grenade was also thrown at a roadside stall, injuring the vendor.
Terrorist activity in Quetta has risen substantially over the past few months with security personnel being primary targets. As the situation in Afghanistan continues to worsen, fears that effects of the conflict would spill over into Pakistan are slowly but surely being realized. Emboldened by the success of the Taliban in taking over an increasing number of districts following US troops’ abrupt exit from Afghanistan, groups such as the TTP have issued fresh threats to Pakistan, with its new and current chief Wali Mehsud, in an interview to CNN stating that the group’s primary target is to fight against Pakistani Security Forces and gain control over the country’s tribal regions. The TTP has claimed responsibility for at least 32 attacks in Pakistan in the first two months of the current year.
The problems of Balochistan have been left to simmer for far too long. As a result, they have become more complicated and difficult to resolve. It is also important that Pakistan deal with the problem immediately, given that the unrest currently rocking Afghanistan could so easily spill over into Balochistan. Pakistan has long maintained that India and Afghanistan provide aid and shelter to militants who carry out attacks in our country. That belief was given some weight with the capture of Kulbhushan Jhadav. With rising uncertainty, it is essential to understand that the cancer of violence that infects the region can only be defeated if all governments work together. For this, a comprehensive strategy is needed to neutralise all militant groups.
The fact that these attacks keep occurring shows the need to intensify security and diplomatic approaches. We will skip Afghanistan for now because Kabul could lose control over the Balochistan border in a matter of days. As for India, simply calling out the country’s alleged support of terrorism or announcing we have presented dossiers showing its involvement with terrorist groups is not enough. If India doesn’t back down, we need to push harder to get the world powers to punish them.
While the threat from such groups and others was never completely eliminated, it was being managed to an acceptable degree whereby the frequency of deadly attacks in major cities and sensitive locations had gone down significantly after the success of various consecutive military operations. However, the volatility of the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan where provincial capitals have started to fall and Afghan pilots are being assassinated by the Taliban to eliminate the Afghan army’s aerial dominance, a situation is developing whereby Pakistan may start seeing terrorism numbers similar to what they were almost a decade ago, when it was a bloodbath on an almost daily basis.
While it is very difficult to thwart all possible attempts being made by terrorists to attack, efforts to gather actionable intelligence must still be ramped up to preempt and stop as many as possible. It would be impractical at this point to hope for any negotiated peace deal and therefore all regional countries, especially Pakistan, must prepare for what seems like an eventuality: a heightened threat level and sensitive security situation leading to more violence.
