Counter terror successes

Too little, too mysterious

SUCCESS took its sweet time coming, but the counter terrorism department (CTD) has finally ‘gunned down’ four terrorists involved in the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team all those years ago. But it wasn’t quite that straight forward either. It turns out that the police was escorting the four to some place – used for bomb assembly many years ago – when it ‘came under a barrage of fire’. And when the dust settled, the four in question had been killed. The episode shares vague parallels with the Malik Ishaq killing a year ago. One similarity, at least, is the police taking credit for a job well done.

The Punjab government will have a slightly more difficult time trying to sell this as a big success. For one thing, seven-and-a-half years is a long, long time for such an important case to linger. For another, since two is a trend, the government must now explain just why high profile terrorists, in police custody, have been intercepted and killed by their friends. Even as the file on these four is closed, the police’s handling of the case remains ambiguous at best, and it cannot really be said that justice, in a legal sense, has been served.

Not too long ago Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif claimed that the Punjab police was more than capable of meeting the threat of terrorism and needed neither Ranger nor army help. Since then there have been numerous embarrassments; like the chotu gang incident, the failure to implement NAP, and now the news of important and sensitive cases remaining open-ended indefinitely. There is a clear need to improve the performance of the police force, especially as Zarb-e-Azb combing operations are bound to enter Punjab sooner rather than later. It is also important for its operations to be transparent. The CTD will have to pull its socks up or the responsibility of keeping the peace will simply pass on to others.