The death toll in Friday’s twin blasts that ripped through a congested market and a taxi stand in Parachinar town, increased to 57 when on Saturday another 12 injured persons succumbed to their injuries. According to reports pouring from the Parachinar, the main town of Kurram tribal area bordering Afghanistan, almost all the dead and injured were Shias. Following the sectarian clashes, in 2007, Parachinar, situated 250 kilometers west of Peshawar, comprises a population of 50,000 had been given an elaborated security blanket by army and paramilitary forces on all roads leading to the town. But on Friday all security checks proved futile, when back-to-back blasts rocked the town. Another 50 terrorists unleashed another attack on a check post of paramilitary Frontier Corps soldiers, leaving five of them seriously injured. In a retaliatory firing six militants were perished in Hangu district situated in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Over the years, the Pakistan army and its paramilitary forces have launched hot pursuit against the terrorists and Al Qaeda operatives. Withering all crackdowns of the army and paramilitary forces, the terrorists rip through the all security walls at will, dismissing all tall claims of the Pakistan and the US led forces, making frequent drone strikes in the tribal belt, to have attained any significant success against terrorists. The militancy seems far from being over. In repeated mass massacres in the tribal belt and Balochistan, the human blood is continuously going down the drains.
The number of the war victims is growing an alarming rate. Poverty in the region is constantly growing; hence encouraging the foreign media to air the reports about Pakistan inability to enforce the writ of the state. Some of them have gone to the extent of talking about, God forbid, another Dhaka like debacle. Strangely enough, the ruling PML-N is yet to react to these reports in public. In the election run-up, the ruling PML-N attached top priority to the militancy and energy crisis but after swearing in earlier last month, the rulers seemingly has put in all its focus on power shortage, making quick clearance to the circular debt in the first week of the term, leaving the fighting against militancy to backburner.
The incumbent rulers are yet to announce measures aiming at strengthening the provincial governments to tackle the issue. Despite suffering massive loss of men and material in war on terror, the Pakistan army is fighting the war on its own, without taking the nation on board about its inability to root out terrorism.
Now the time is ripe for the armed forces to go for all-out war on terror, shunning aside the reliance on outside forces active in the region, taking it for granted that none of them is working for the cause of Pakistan. As a last resort, the Centre, provincial governments and the military top brass should sit together to chalk out a joint strategy afresh to save lives of the countrymen, keeping the frontiers of the state in tact.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Pakistan: Saving the people & the country
The death toll in Friday’s twin blasts that ripped through a congested market and a taxi stand in Parachinar town, increased to 57 when on Saturday another 12 injured persons succumbed to their injuries. According to reports pouring from the Parachinar, the main town of Kurram tribal area bordering Afghanistan, almost all the dead and injured were Shias. Following the sectarian clashes, in 2007, Parachinar, situated 250 kilometers west of Peshawar, comprises a population of 50,000 had been given an elaborated security blanket by army and paramilitary forces on all roads leading to the town. But on Friday all security checks proved futile, when back-to-back blasts rocked the town. Another 50 terrorists unleashed another attack on a check post of paramilitary Frontier Corps soldiers, leaving five of them seriously injured. In a retaliatory firing six militants were perished in Hangu district situated in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Over the years, the Pakistan army and its paramilitary forces have launched hot pursuit against the terrorists and Al Qaeda operatives. Withering all crackdowns of the army and paramilitary forces, the terrorists rip through the all security walls at will, dismissing all tall claims of the Pakistan and the US led forces, making frequent drone strikes in the tribal belt, to have attained any significant success against terrorists. The militancy seems far from being over. In repeated mass massacres in the tribal belt and Balochistan, the human blood is continuously going down the drains.
The number of the war victims is growing an alarming rate. Poverty in the region is constantly growing; hence encouraging the foreign media to air the reports about Pakistan inability to enforce the writ of the state. Some of them have gone to the extent of talking about, God forbid, another Dhaka like debacle. Strangely enough, the ruling PML-N is yet to react to these reports in public. In the election run-up, the ruling PML-N attached top priority to the militancy and energy crisis but after swearing in earlier last month, the rulers seemingly has put in all its focus on power shortage, making quick clearance to the circular debt in the first week of the term, leaving the fighting against militancy to backburner.
The incumbent rulers are yet to announce measures aiming at strengthening the provincial governments to tackle the issue. Despite suffering massive loss of men and material in war on terror, the Pakistan army is fighting the war on its own, without taking the nation on board about its inability to root out terrorism.
Now the time is ripe for the armed forces to go for all-out war on terror, shunning aside the reliance on outside forces active in the region, taking it for granted that none of them is working for the cause of Pakistan. As a last resort, the Centre, provincial governments and the military top brass should sit together to chalk out a joint strategy afresh to save lives of the countrymen, keeping the frontiers of the state in tact.
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