Pakistan: Times of terror

The price we are paying as a result of the terrorism that has over the years grown and seized hold of our country is a horrendous one. Within 24 hours we have lost at least 37 lives, 17 of them when the Jaffar Express was targeted at Sibi on Tuesday apparently by Baloch nationalist forces, at least another 20 when an explosion at the Sabzi Mandi near the Pir Wadhai area bordering Islamabad and Rawalpindi early Wednesday morning created yet more havoc. According to reports, a massive device packed with 13 kilograms of explosives was defused in the PECHS area of Karachi on Wednesday before it could create the mayhem intended. It is difficult to believe this was not somehow linked to the Islamabad blast, where five kilograms of explosives had been placed in a box of fruit. We are facing an onslaught that hits us from many directions simultaneously. A separatist group calling itself the United Baloch Army has claimed responsibility both for the Sibi train bombing and the Islamabad attack. One of the many shadowy entities that operate in Balochistan, the group says the attack was intended to seek revenge for a military operation that killed 30 militants a day earlier. As has been the case before innocent civilians have paid the price for this conflict that rages on.What began as unjustified attacks on Punjabi teachers and other professionals, derided as outside settlers within Balochistan, has now been expanded to include all civilian targets.The Taliban, while denying any role in the Islamabad attack and condemning it, said it is against the principles of Islam to target civilians, although that hasn’t stopped the militant group in the past. It has killed thousands of innocent people. There is no reason yet for us to assume it will stop doing so now because the UBA has entered the stage.

The response of the government to these multiple attacks leaves much to be desired. Rather than looking inwards, its first instinct is to wash away all responsibility. After the Sibi blast, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique blamed the attack on foreign elements. While it may be true, it does not exonerate the government from its failure to protect people. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, meanwhile, found a scapegoat in the last government saying that two scanners meant to detect explosives which were imported by the PPP government were not working. Even if that were true, he was unable to explain how just these two scanners would have been able to find a bomb in the haystack that is Islamabad. The Hyderabad blasts are most likely the work of the banned Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz group, which had also called for a strike after the murder of their activists, while just about anyone could be behind the Karachi attacks. The attacks themselves may not have anything in common but they do show how the legitimacy of the state has been slowly eroded by different groups seeking power through violence. The truth also remains that it is impossible to scan every foot of our country, to examine all packages loaded onto a train or every box of guavas off-loaded at a wholesale market. Essentially we have been caught inside a trap, cornered like an animal surrounded by hunters. The edifice of the state has been shaken by the storm. As a result we have grown far too accustomed to death; attuned to the fact that it comes in big doses again and again. This is not a good place to be at. We must find a way to escape, but, right now, no routes seem available to make a getaway from the bloodshed that has closed us in.