Teams of terrorists unleashed attacks on three law enforcement facilities in Lahore on Oct. 15, even as car bombs exploded in two cities of Kohat and the NWFP capital, Peshawar, killing 40 people. A day after these multiple attacks, terrorists struck again in Peshawar on Oct. 16, targeting a CIA office, killing another 16 people.
The terrorist attacks, the 5th major terror strike in Pakistan in the past 11 days, came just days after a dare-devil storming of the headquarters of the powerful army in the garrison city of Rawalpindi which killed many army personnel.
The first and worst hit city in the Oct. 15 terror attack was the Punjab capital of Lahore where Taliban terrorists, in a wave of audacious attacks, stormed a Federal Investigation Agency building and two police establishments – the Manawan Police Academy and the Elite Police Training Institute on Bedian Road - almost simultaneously, triggering fierce exchanges of fire, killing at least 23 people and injuring over 10 others.
Elsewhere, a suicide bomber struck at a police station in Kohat and an explosion took place in Peshawar.
In Lahore, the attack is believed to have been carried out by three groups of terrorists in a span of 20 minutes. The gunmen held several people hostage for hours in the FIA building in a busy thoroughfare and indiscriminately opened fire. Ten of the attackers were gunned down by security forces or blew themselves upon, while one was captured alive.
The attacks in Lahore are once again bound to focus attention on the extent of the connections and alliances between Al-Qaeda operatives, the Taliban in the NWFP and tribal areas and Punjab-based militant groups. Last week end’s attack on the GHQ in Rawalpindi was carried out by a group of 10 men, five of whom were from South Waziristan, and the remaining five from Punjab. But, at a press conference, Rana Sanaullah, the Punjab Law Minister, dismissed suggestions of linkages between the Taliban and Punabi jihadists.
Despite denial by Rana Sanaullah, the Pakistan Army has made stark admission of the scale of the threat it faces from a nexus of Punjabi, Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants whose attacks are increasingly being coordinated. The Army spokesman, Maj.Gen. Athar Abbas, described how the ten attackers of the Army Headquarters in Rawalpindi, came from different sets of backgrounds. Five of them came from Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and wealthy province. The other five were from South Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold at the southern end of the tribal belt.
“…the Pakistan Army has made stark admission of the scale of the threat it faces from a nexus of Punjabi, Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants…”
The Pakistan Army has claimed that Taliban were running terrorist training camps in Koh-e-Suleman mountain range on the Afghan-Baluchistan border to destabilize the country’s heartland. A top paramilitary official, Maj Gen. Yaqoob Khan, head of the Pakistan Rangers in Punjab Province, said these camps were being used to infiltrate terrorists into the Punjab province through Dera Ismail Khan town in the restive NWFP. He said, the terrorists trained in the “Farari Camp” in the Koh-e-Suleman area had links in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Hardly had the authorities recovered from the multiple attacks that the terrorists struck again in Peshawar on October 16. A suicide attacker targeted a Crime Investigation Agency office. When his car was stopped from entering the building, he detonated the bomb at the entrance and the car blew up, killing 16 people. Three suicide attackers, including a woman, were believed to be involved in this attack.
GHQ siege ends
Earlier on Oct. 11, a siege lasting close to 24 hours ended at the Pakistan Army’s headquarters as military commandos stormed the complex, freeing 42 hostages from Taliban terrorists whose two-day assault left a total of 19 people dead. Firing by terrorists led to the death of three hostages, while two commandos of the elite Special Service Group died in the rescue mission. A fifth terrorist, identified as Aqeel, alias Dr. Usman, who is understood to be behind the attack on the Army HQ, was captured in injured condition. He is also linked to the March 3 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore as well as failed attempts to assassinate former President Pervez Musharraf.
Pak losing war to terror
The brazen simultaneous suicide attacks at separate places accompanied by guerilla-style operations clearly demonstrate that the Taliban can take on the State on several fronts despite setbacks in Swat in Pakistan’s northwest. The most worrisome factor, however, for Islamabad is that the attacks bear the fingerprints of the Punjabi terror outfits which are rallying around the Taliban to make things worse for the Pakistan regime. The Government is finding itself helpless in the face of destabilizing attacks that have intensified after the militia regrouped after the death of its ruthless commander Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone attack in August. Lahore has become a prime target. The Punjabi terrorist outfit, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi with strong links with the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda, is believed to have masterminded the attack. The Punjabi terrorists and Taliban nexus means that Pakistan has to fight the war on many fronts and it cannot be won just by driving militants out of Swat.
The rise in the terrorist attacks comes in the backdrop of the Pakistan military preparing for yet another military operation against the militants in South Waziristan after having cleared Swat of most of the Pak Taliban activists. The attacks by militants is a response to the expected ground offensive by the Pak Army against an estimated 10,000 hardcore Taliban in their traditional stronghold of South Waziristan. By first launching a brazen assault on the Army headquarters Rawalpindi and then on the police establishments in Lahore, the militants seem to be throwing an open challenge to the might of the Government and warning it not to launch its anticipated assault on the Taliban by sending in ground troops. They have also vowed violence in revenge for the killing of their leader, Baitullah Mehsud in a US missile attack in August.
Pakistan’s difficulty is that most of the Frankenstein which is now mounting a challenge to its very existence happens to be its own creation. They have turned against their mentors following the US drive against them. The US has made its frustration known to the Pakistani authorities over their failure to eliminate Taliban sanctuaries on its side of the border and the latter has now no choice except to go along with the American offensive. That was bound to cause reaction against its own forces.
“Pakistan’s difficulty is that most of the Frankenstein which is now mounting a challenge to its very existence happens to be its own creation.”
According to a former US military general, Pakistan, rather than Afghanistan, was emerging as Al-Qaeda’s centre of gravity. “The Al-Qaeda centre of gravity is not Afghanistan. It is Pakistan”, said Gen. [retd] Jack Keane, former Vice Chief of Staff of the US Army. He warned, “A loss of Afghanistan is a victory for the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda in Pakistan with potential serious consequences for Pakistan.
Preparing for military assault in South Waziristan
During the past three months, the Army has been preparing to attack the strongholds in South Waziristan of Hakimullah Mehsud and his Uzbek allies from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which was led by Tahir Yuldeshev. Yuldeshev had close links with the ISI since the 1990s, when the ISI facilitated his links with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and used his Uzek forces to target the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance led by Ahmed Shah Masood. Yuldeshev was reportedly killed in a US drone attack on Sept. 26. The Pakistan Army has now amassed around 28,000 soldiers for an assault, backedby air power and American drones in South Waziristan. The assault by the TTP on the Army Headquarters in Rawalpindi is a clear warning to the Pakistan military establishment that the TTP will hit at targets across Pakistan if the Army attacks it.
Hakimullah’s overtures – To focus on India after Pakistan
In what is seen as desperate last minute efforts to stop the Pakistani Army’s offensive into his group’s stronghold in South Waziristan, TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud has said, “We are fighting the Pak military and militia because they are following American orders. If they stop following their orders, we will stop fighting them.”
In a footage aired by British Sky News channel, Hakimullah threatened to dispatch terrorists to fight India once a hardline Islamic State has been set up in Pakistan. “We want an Islamic State. If we get that, then we will go to the borders and help fight the Indians”, he said.
