Daily Times Editorial April 15, 2013

Taliban offensive? Three events on Saturday have given rise to fears that the Taliban may be beginning an offensive, either connected to the severe fighting in the Tirah valley of Khyber Agency, and/or to disrupt the upcoming elections to the maximum. First, a bus was bombed at Mattani near Peshawar on the Peshawar-Kohat Road, resulting in nine dead and about the same number injured. The bus was shattered, police speculating whether it was a suicide bomber on board the bus or a magnetic bomb attached to the vehicle. The dead and injured included women and children, once again demonstrating the monstrous indifference of the terrorists to innocents caught up in their dastardly actions. No claim of responsibility has yet emerged, but the possibility of the bus attack being in reaction to the pressure the terrorists are feeling from the concentrated offensive of the military in Tirah valley remains a viable explanation. On the other hand, the fact that the election office of an independent candidate was bombed in Miransah, the main town in North Waziristan, conveys the message that the Taliban may be concentrating in the month left to the elections on maximum disruption through sowing fear amongst participants and voters. This suspicion is strengthened by the fact that the candidate in question, Kamran Khan, is a former legislator from North Waziristan who sided with the previous government led by the PPP. Again, no claim of responsibility has surfaced so far. The icing on this terrorist cake is the destruction of another boys’ primary school in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency and setting on fire of the houses of two members of the anti-terrorist peace militia. Educational institutions are already closed in Bara because of a curfew connected to the fighting in the Khyber Agency. The terrorists have destroyed 70 schools and educational institutions in Khyber Agency in the last three years. Whether the apprehension that the Taliban may be starting an anti-election offensive is correct or not, the security forces and the people cannot let their guard down, especially in the run up to the polls. Not that being vigilant during the next few weeks will make the problem of terrorism go away, but this is a crucial and sensitive few weeks. Of course the anti-terrorist struggle, protracted and difficult as it will be, lies ahead and transcends the limited window related to the elections. But no amount of effort will succeed against the terrorists (and risk many more lives of the security forces into the bargain) unless the critical elements required in such a struggle are put in place as soon as possible. First and foremost, without an overarching anti-terrorist body that encompasses civilian and military, federal and provincial authorities under one roof is created at the earliest, the anomalies and gaps in the security structure will always remain vulnerable to exploitation of its shortcomings by the terrorist enemy. This body must house a comprehensive and unified data base that enjoys input from all intelligence sources, whether civilian or military, federal or provincial, No turf territoriality can be allowed if this effort is to succeed against a wily and tenacious enemy hardened in guerrilla and asymmetrical warfare. Whether the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) brought into being in the dying throes of the last government serves this purpose is open to question, since it is not clear whether all the stakeholders are on board and accept the role intended for NACTA. Second, intelligence should first and foremost be geared to tracing out the structure, devolved and scattered as it is, of the terrorists with a view to infiltrating their ranks, garnering real time intelligence and using it to pre-empt terrorist acts rather than always be reacting to them. Turf wars delayed and may have rendered toothless the final product produced over five years in the shape of NACTA. Without getting bogged down in trying to create another agency, it would be in the fitness of things if all the stakeholders examine the efficacy of NACTA and its mode of operation without waiting for the next government to arrive. This is a task that transcends who is in power since the struggle promises to be long and bloody.