Militant strikes ‘are aimed at destabilising Balochistan’

Overall security situation of the country had improved and terrorism-related incidents had decreased, but a single incident like the one in Quetta wiped off the months of hard work by security agencies.” Chaudhry Nisar | Interior Minister

Amilitant attack in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province has shattered government claims it has been successful in its fight against terrorism.

Striking along the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Quetta, three armed men wearing suicide vests broke into a police academy late on Monday in a deadly assault that has since been claimed by the Daesh via a statement published on its Amaq news agency.

“These attacks are aimed at destabilising Balochistan and to create problems for CPEC, which certain countries don’t want to see as a success story,” said retired Brigadier Asad Munir, a defence analyst who served in Pakistan’s tribal regions.

Pakistan claims to have largely defeated militants who had wrecked the nation’s economy by violent strikes in the past two years and killed thousands of people since the South Asian nuclear power joined the US war on terror in 2002.

But such brazen strikes indicate the battle is not over.

“The numbers and the way they were martyred, it has made all efforts of yours and security agencies futile,” Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told newly graduated police officers in Islamabad hours after the attack.

China’s reaction to the attack was low-key, suggesting its economic projects were not the target of the militant attack.

“It’s unrealistic to expect Pakistan’s domestic security situation to undergo fundamental changes in the near future,” said Zhao Gancheng, director of the Centre for South Asia Studies at the state-backed Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.

“The attack on the police training academy last night was a reflection of Pakistan’s internal security risk; it happened in the province that the CPEC passes, but didn’t target the CPEC.” China will cautiously push ahead with its projects and provide a boost in support for Pakistan’s military, he said.

LeJ or Daesh?

Security authorities blamed Al Qaida-linked Lashkar-eJhangvi Al Alami for the attack, state-run radio reported citing Balochistan’s paramilitary force chief. By yesterday afternoon, Daesh claimed responsibility.

The former security chief of Pakistan’s tribal regions, Mahmood Shah, cast doubt on the Daesh claims, saying Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al Alami has a history of attacks in Balochistan and were trained by Al Qaida for urban fighting.

“The government has got to chalk out a new security plan for Quetta, Balochistan, as militants keep coming and attacking it,” he said.

“You want to have CPEC there and raising just a force isn’t enough.”