Pakistan - Attacks in Chaman

There is no let up in terror in the country. Sometimes the attacks are so huge their tremors are felt for months afterwards, reverberating through this nation. Sometimes, also, attacks take place on a smaller scale, far away from our centres of comfort but they too are just as important, just as terrifying. The town of Chaman in Balochistan has been hit by two bomb blasts in as many days. On Tuesday, explosives planted on a bicycle went off in a market area killing one person and injuring eight others. Just two days before this, another bomb detonated in the town killing a child and injuring some nine people. It is worth mentioning here that Chaman is a main crossing point for supplies going to Afghanistan for NATO and US troops. Obviously, therefore, this town has strategic importance and, although no group has come forward to claim responsibility for the strikes, the message is loud and clear: militants are spread far and wide, attacking at will and spreading fear into the heart of every citizen, no matter where they are.

Two blasts in two days; this must mean that there is a terror cell operating within the town, able to strike at will. If Chaman is a major crossing point for NATO supplies, should there not have been more security and awareness about the danger and threat to life of ordinary civilians? The death tolls in these attacks may not have been huge but they were intended to cause damage. It is shameful that the authorities and the security forces did not prick up their ears after the first attack that killed a child; maybe a little less negligence could have saved the town the grief of having to witness another terror attack, and that too in a crowded market.

Implementing the National Action Plan (NAP) means to look into and rectify all gaps in the system that allow for the impunity with which these attacks take place. The fact that our intelligence agencies were unable to pick up suspicious signals in the strategically sensitive town of Chaman after the first attack speaks volumes for the kind of priority we are assigning fighting terror. There is a lot that needs to be done by both the government and the security forces but the point that really needs to be driven home is that no attack, big or small, should be ignored.