Exploding bombs and our apathy

I haven’t written on the exploding bombs around us s far, thinking one day we would draw up a strategy to beat back the miscreants, the militants, the Taliban, the Al Qaeda, the mercenaries or whoever these people are. But it seems while the bad guys are getting wiser and experienced, we are moving the other way around, earning nothing from their tactics and innovative techniques.

The last nights bomb blast in Karachi, where a CID building located in densely populated locality almost in the heart of the town is a case in point. It has been reported that some arrested bad men were kept in the building, providing their aides a chance to hit back. And the collateral damage was more than the actual intended targeted building. Many a residential house collapsed, killing and injuring women and children under the rubble of their own houses.

The tactics adopted was the same as in Marriot Hotel Islamabad or an attack on Lahore’s security agency office off the Mall Road. They came, sprayed hundreds of bullets on the check post and then rammed the explosive laden truck into the entrance. This is what they did before and what they repeated last night. And I am afraid it may be repeated as well.

So why don’t we learn anything from such acts? Why we have such sensitive installations or offices of agencies involved in keeping and interrogating their men? Why can’t we take out such offices or so called safe houses outside the city or safer locations where collateral damage could be avoided? Why our intelligence gathering agencies always fail to pre-empt and catch these people before they act? And why is it always that after the blast the agencies arrest a few “Mashkook” or suspected people from the scene of the incident? I think it is more to please the people to show their efficiency and less to do anything with the blast as it would be naïve on the part of the bad guys to leave their people at the crime scene to be apprehended. It seems the War on Terror is becoming a War on Error for us, as we are erring more rather than learning and countering.

Our check posts and entrances lack any meaningful blockage to the bad guys and their motives. We do not have strong barriers that could stay firm even if rammed. Our check posts with sand bags are too vulnerable and readily succumb to the tactics of incessant firing by the scouts. Even our security cameras are so badly placed that except for a general overview of the scene, these do not aid in recognition of the people involved.

Pending evolving any worthwhile counter strategy, the concerned departments should be asked to shift their offices/assets immediately to safer and secure locations, lest any repetition hurts and kills more innocent people living around these explosive and targeted sites. We also need to learn on countering these bad guys and install equipment and gadgets to beat back any such moves in future. One must know his enemy well to beat him. Even very well placed and organized defenses give in to a determined and well prepared enemy, remember the crumbling of the Maginot and the Bar Lev Lines?

Posted in: Al Qaeda,Bomb Blasts,Taliban,Terrorism,War on Terror