Carnage in Quetta

In another gory terrorist attack in Quetta heavily armed militants wearing suicide vests stormed a police academy. In result of the one of the deadliest terrorist attack at least 61 people were killed and dozens more seriously injured.
According to details, three gunmen burst into the academy, where at that time of night around 700 recruits aging between 16 and 25 were sleeping, terrorists opened indiscriminate firing. Most of the deaths were caused when two of the attackers blew themselves up. The third was shot dead by Frontier Corps troops. Two terrorists entered the premises after shooting at the guard manning the checkpost near the front gate, while the third reportedly climbed the rear wall of the police centre. Targeted police training college is situated on Sariab road which is considered one of the most sensitive areas of the city. Since escalation in extremism in the country, this area of the city became sort of hub of militants and security forces quite often were targeted in the same area. Considering the sensitivity of the location and fact that same college was attacked previously in 2006 and 2008 with firing rockets into the college playground, foolproof security should have been provided to the young cadets.
CM Balochistan in a statement said that due to threats of possible terrorist attack in Quetta, his government increased security of the city but targeted college was in the outskirts of the city and became easy target of the terrorists. But the fact is, during his visit of the same College on Sep 6, head of the police training college requested him to allocate funds for the construction of boundary walls of the premises but he did not bother. Had the security measures were improved including construction of boundary wall and increasing security personnel, terrorist attack could have been averted or reduced the deaths. At a time when country is fighting war against terrorism and terrorists are on the run and in search of soft targets, negligence of this scale should held provincial government answerable.
This was second major attack in Quetta over the span of two months, in August this year, a suicide bombing at a Quetta hospital killed 73 people, including many of the city’s lawyer community who had gone there to mourn the fatal shooting of a colleague. Sudden increase in terrorist attacks in the largest province of the country is indeed a cause of concern for law enforcing agencies. This fact has raised question marks on the claims of overall increased security situation. It is need of time to take stern actions in order to secure gains of recent major military operations. By terming the terrorist attacks as efforts of anti-state elements to damage CPEC is an attempt to brush aside the harsh reality that a lot more needs to be done to bring peace in the country. There is dire need to enhance intelligence based operations; all law enforcement agencies in the province should take strict action against banned outfits. Better inter-agency coordination between police, Frontier Corps and intelligence agencies is also required to tackle notorious plans of terrorists.
Fighting war against terrorism is a shared responsibility and better inter-agency coordination is required to tackle notorious plans of terrorists.