[DAWN] MORE than a dozen attackers, some 30 dead, over two dozen injured — the militant attack on a Pakistan Air Force camp in Badaber, Peshawar was a highly orchestrated strike with deadly consequences.
While the military has rightly emphasised the valour and bravery of the security personnel who helped prevent even more carnage — the kind of weaponry the attackers were armed with, as reported in sections of the media, suggests many more casualties and perhaps a lengthy siege was the ultimate aim yesterday — there are an unavoidable set of questions that have yet again been raised by the events in Peshawar.
To begin with, while the Badaber area is close to the tribal region and is densely populated, it is also a sensitive location where past attacks, including the ones on planes landing at the Peshawar airport, have been launched from.
Surely, for more than a dozen armed militants to disguise themselves as security personnel, travel through the Badaber area and arrive undetected at the entrance to the PAF camp is a security failure of some degree.
Moreover, it has already been claimed that there were intelligence reports of a possible strike in the area — who then was responsible for failing to tighten security quickly and adequately enough?
Then, there was the rather astonishing competition between the ISPR and the Taliban spokesperson, Muhammad Khurasani, to shape the narrative of the attack in real time.
While the ISPR was live tweeting the military’s response to the attack, the banned TTP was seemingly live blogging it — repeated messages were received by journalists from Khurasani giving an obviously one-sided though blow-by-blow account of what was allegedly taking place inside the PAF camp.
The basic question then, how were the militants able to use uninterrupted lines of communication to, firstly, communicate between themselves and, secondly, to communicate with the media?
Even if the command centre was in Afghanistan — though this has yet to be proved — it is troubling that the TTP continues to enjoy such direct and untroubled access to communications.
Furthermore, given the number of attackers, there was surely some kind of communication in the run-up to the attack between the perpetrators and the planners.
Why was all of that able to take place unhindered? If there is a plausible answer, the technical and physical limitations should be explained to the public.
It is disturbing that the TTP spokesman or his counterpart in other militant groups can continue to conduct communications with such ease inside Pakistan.
Finally, there is the issue of the National Action Plan. While the KP government and the provincial police leadership provide frequent updates about alleged terror suspects rounded up and various raids made, it still remains fairly obvious that the desirable level of cooperation and coordination between the civilian and military arms of the security apparatus is not there. Will anyone explain why and suggest immediate fixes?
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] THERE can be little doubt Gen Raheel Sharif hasn’t put a foot wrong in the popular perception since being elevated to the position of the chief of army staff and continues to accelerate ahead in approval ratings. What could derail him?
Rather than belonging to the camp of so-called thinking generals who came to represent inertia or ‘paralysis by analysis’ (a term I heard from within the army itself), the general is seen as a ‘doer’ and thus brought welcome relief when brakes were applied to the seemingly unending slide towards anarchy, fanatical, mass-murdering religious extremism and urban terrorism/lawlessness.
Nobody expected the fight to be easy or quickly finished. Neither did one want a tragedy such as the Army Public School, Peshawar massacre to be the spur the authorities needed to finally launch a concerted campaign to counter and subdue a monster that had been left alone for far too long to grow and consolidate.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2015 00:00 ||
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h/t Gates of Vienna
...'The reality is that there is a fragility,' one British Colonel, who cannot be named, reportedly toldThe Sun's David Willetts.
'They are fragile and in a poor position and the day is coming when the house of cards will fall.'
Another British officer, Brigadier James Learmont, who is also based in the country, reportedly added: 'The tide of the battle is turning against IS. That aura of invincibility is not there now.' Of course, that doesn't mean peace---it means the return to Al Qaida methods.
#2
ps - didnt get a chance to comment on the muslim kid bomb story as it disappeared (i think to the next day) as soon as i hit return on the link.
The point of posting that annoying Guarian article was to show the propaganda gold the Islamists and their Internationalist allies like the Guardian make of this
That kid with his clock was propaganda gold for them and the overreaction was nauseating.
This is part of the ideological battle we have to fight within our own countries if we are to defeat IS.
The response should have been, from Government --
GOOD law enforcement did its job
YES Islamofascism is the threat, anybody caught participating in Sharia courts will be deported or tried for treason
YES we will be targeting the muslim community for surveillance because Islamofascists use them as human shields
We are not sorry for this
and Secular muslims will have their freedom of religion protected but while this war lasts they will have to endure additional, discriminatory checks.
#3
Of course there is the report by some 50 intelligence analysts that the reports have been cooked by Champ's administration. If IS is so fragile why not go ahead and put an end to them?
#5
I don't see how a pretty much all infantry army fighting in the desert really stand a chance against a modern Western military force *if* that modern Western military force takes the fight seriously.
#9
It WOULD be amusing if Isis decided to take on the Russians. Course, they probably won't cause they're scared the Russians play rough. Don't worry Isis, the Russians are all fat chekists who can barely tote a rifle! You can stomp them flat in no time.
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