Jailbreak in Dera Ismail Khan: ''Pakistan's Intelligence test''

A couple of days after the incident, more details are emerging about the Taliban jailbreak in Dera Ismail Khan. We now know with reasonable certainty that the attack wasn’t the result of an intelligence failure. In fact, the commissioner, deputy commissioner and other police officials at the prison were told on July 27 that an attack reminiscent of the Bannu jailbreak last year was imminent. The information was also passed on to the Khyber Pakthunkhwa government. This directly contradicts the KP chief minister and information minister’s claims that they received no intelligence warnings. This is no time to mince words and spare those in power. They must be forced to account for their deceit, something the PTI chief may look into seriously and quickly. The provincial government cannot become complacent and react to this attack as it has to all others by simply suspending a few officers for a short time. We must find out why security at the jail wasn’t heightened when there was advance warning of a threat. If it was because elements in the police were cooperating with the Taliban, then they must be identified and put on trial as terrorists. If it was simply incompetence then there are a lot of police officials who should be out of a job very soon. Given the number of intelligence agencies we have, we should be doing much better in our efforts against militants. Instead we seem to have ended with a sort of muddle, with no one apparently doing anything. We cannot hope to get very far if the major intelligence agencies are reluctant to work together or locked in some foolish sense of competition that prevents them from sharing information with each other. A divided force cannot succeed and the suggestion made by Imran Khan that a separate intelligence force be set up to deal with the militant threat does not really address the problem. We have too many intelligence agencies already and, in addition, police intelligence units as well. What we need to do is build cooperation between these various entities rather than establishing a whole new force working on its own and possibly contributing to the mess instead of helping sort it out. Certainly, the entire intelligence structure needs to be reviewed. There can be no doubt at all that good intelligence is vital to defeating militancy. Simply blocking mobile phones at specific times is not something that can resolve the security threat we face. We need an expert analysis of why our intelligence system has failed so badly, in the north, in Karachi, in Balochistan and elsewhere so that we can begin to take measures to correct all that has gone wrong, and thereby build a solid foundation on which to construct the strategy for a battle against terrorism. It can only be called criminal collusion when intelligence reports were available and the administration failed to act. The political parties also need to stop blaming each other and look inwards. All of them have contributed to the security challenges we face today. The PPP government abdicated all responsibility for security in the country, essentially indulging in leisurely inactivity and allowing the military to set the security agenda. The PML-N government still refuses to acknowledge that a sectarian war is being waged on the country’s Shia population and many of its most vicious practitioners hail from Punjab. The PTI, meanwhile, has not been sobered by its first couple of months in power. It still takes a head-in-the-sand approach to terrorism. The Dera Ismail Khan jailbreak should come as a shattering reality check to everyone in power – from the political parties to law-enforcement officials. All of them have failed the country and it is time they paid the price for that.