Why is it so hard to admit that the enemy, no matter how insane and ignorant, has outsmarted us?
Like an expert predator, the terrorists swooped down on Badaber airbase in Peshawar last week, killing 30 people, including an army officer, and wounding many more. Without counting the numerous smaller attacks that afflict two to three individuals every time, the jihadists have carried out their third successful major strike in the last one month. Put another way, we have lost three times against the extremists within a month.
A few days ago, on August 16, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) sent two suicide bombers in retaliation for the killing of its leader, Malik Ishaq, in police custody. Their target was the interior minister of Punjab, Shuja Khanzada, a vocal critic of banned sectarian organisations. According to reports, the suspects entered the facility without going through any security check points and zoomed in on the victim in the meeting place, moving closer, stealthily, avoiding attention. Once they had ascertained the former military officer stood in their range, they detonated the explosives. The ensuing blast was huge, causing the entire building to collapse. The roof gave way, entrapping dozens of people, most of whom died under the rubble, their bodies still buried.
What makes the situation worse is that the minister was warned before the assault to take appropriate precautions. I am not sure if he beefed up his security to prevent such a tragedy or not but, even if he did, those measures failed as he went to meet his maker in the attack.
After targeting Attock, the northern district of Punjab that borders Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the terrorists jumped over to Multan, a southern district, slaughtering more than 30 people in a bomb explosion. We were still recovering from its shock when they pounced on Peshawar again, like a master planner who pays attention to every detail and ties all the loose ends before the event. The question is if we, in response, are tackling this war as skillfully as it should be tackled. Or we are playing ‘the Hulk’ who gets angry and starts destroying everything that comes in front of him, shoots indiscreetly and bombs the area in jet planes without a specific target? I am not sure. What I am sure about is that the enemy eludes us and stays way below the radar, underground, well connected and well organised yet we fly thousands of feet above the ground in the air, aloof and oblivious. For us to win though we have to change that culture. We need to penetrate its organisation from within before we can destroy them through an overt military operation, a strategy that they are already working on and we may have ignored.
Our strategy till now has been to belittle jihadi groups and consider them imbeciles, lunatics with no agenda, criminals without any moral conviction. That policy of course has not yielded good outcomes. Sometimes, trivialising the enemy to boost the morale of the people and to ward off fear from their minds works, I agree. On the downside though, underestimating the enemy can induce laziness and inculcate overconfidence, an attitude that we come across everywhere. All over Pakistan people believe it is a matter of days — not even weeks — to uproot every terrorist hideout once the establishment has made up its mind. And since no one knows what the establishment in fact wants, the failure that mocks us through these killings is either attributed to the involuntary complicity of the agencies or is because of the involvement of ‘foreign hands’. In other words, we refuse to consider these attacks as our genuine inability to handle the situation, a capacity issue more than an issue of intent. Why is it so hard to admit that the enemy, no matter how insane and ignorant, has outsmarted us?
Do you not think it is time that we recognise the strengths of our adversary, which keeps on orchestrating such assaults, the resilience of its network that stays unscathed after a year of nationwide military operations, its determination to fight back even in the most unfavourable circumstances and its outreach from one corner of the country to another? We must focus on the pluckiness of these gangs, rather than deriding their weaknesses and appreciate their commitment rather than scoffing at their beards and outfits. That, in turn, can help us launch a better, smarter and more vigorous counterinsurgency campaign and prepare us for a war that will be stretched over years, not days or months as we expected. It may also pull us out of a looming defeat while we dream of a victory in our oblivion.
Remember, last year too, after the Peshawar school massacre, we thought the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be converted into a castle, a fortress that could not be penetrated, heavily guarded and religiously protected. We were committed to change it from being one of the most vulnerable cities in the world to the safest, united to send a message to the world that we know how to defend ourselves. To show that we are a country with a large professional army consisting of brave soldiers and talented officers. That we have the most powerful spy agency in the world, its significance recognised internationally, and that the time to show patience is over. Even though it took us a long time to conclude how to respond to these offences we are now determined to fight back and we will do whatever it takes to eradicate violence in the name of religion. Anyone from that day, it must be known to every organisation that plans or tries to attack the city, will be dealt with with an ‘iron fist’. Both the military and the civilian administration seemed to be on one page in their resolve. Then, how come a year later, more than a dozen people disguised as soldiers in paramilitary uniforms stormed a mosque located within the airbase and mowed down tens of worshippers? Where is our iron fist? Has it softened up after targeting the wrong spots for so long?
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