In a macabre reminder that the terror threat is alive and well in Pakistan, a car bomb attack in Darra Adam Khel killed 18 people and injured scores more on Saturday. The site of the attack was the headquarters of a local lashkar (pro-government, pro-peace body), which was opposed to all militancy related to the Taliban. No doubt, their beliefs and ideology had attracted the Taliban’s ire as they saw it fit to cause wreckage and bloodshed to hurt the lashkar’s cause. The authorities are still trying to establish whether the blast was remote-controlled or carried out by a suicide bomber, but the death and destruction that has followed in its wake is indisputably the sign of violent fanatics who use bombs and guns to impose their narrow and misconceived ideology. Darra Adam Khel is the traditional epicentre of the gun trade in Pakistan, manufacturing and selling guns of all kinds. It has always been off the beaten track just off Khyber, and is home to some of the fiercest opposition to the Taliban and their brutality.
This particular attack has once again brought into focus the army and state’s limitations. It has highlighted the need for a far more proactive approach to dealing with the militants. We have relied for far too long on the Pakistan Army — which has managed to clear certain areas of militant elements, but their approach has just allowed them to run and regroup elsewhere — and on our intelligence and law enforcement agencies. All these bodies have been tackling the Taliban threat but, even at the best of their abilities, they are proving to be no match for the bloodlust of the militants. It is time anti-Taliban lashkars, such as the one targeted on Saturday, are backed by the state. They need to be armed and provided with intelligence and security as they are obvious targets. Some of these lashkars have spontaneously sprouted up in response to the militant threat, taking up their own arms to protect their lives, their families and their communities. Some have been formed with the tacit approval of the state in areas where the army does not venture too far. However, these lashkars, while being enough of a threat to the Taliban to be attacked by them, are not organised and armed enough to fight the real fight. For that they need to be equipped as miniiarmies, defending the state alongside the efforts of the Pakistan Army and law enforcement agencies. It is evident now that the militants have spread out throughout the country, present in our cities and our northern areas, our urban centres and far flung towns. Such a force requires more than the army and the state, which have been stretched too far in trying to defeat it from one area only to have it recoup in another. And while a valid argument remains that arming private militias can have its own downside — with them turning on the hand that feeds them at any stage — desperate times call for desperate measures. Adequate programmes can be arranged so that there is a method to training and equipping the lashkars. The tribal areas are rife with people willing to sacrifice life and limb to be rid of the Taliban menace. It is time to use them.
With attacks in Afghanistan reaching an all time high, the Pakistani Taliban claiming refuge across the border and with attacks increasing in our own territory, it is time no stone be left unturned. Young girls are attacked for wanting education, civilians are bombed in their shrines and market places, pro-peace rallies and bodies are attacked and Taliban cells operate in each city. Our armed forces and law enforcement agencies cannot shoulder this burden alone.
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