Pak in grip of terror
Notorious for sponsoring cross-border terrorism over the decades, Pakistan is now itself struggling to rein in terrorist groups. There has been an alarming surge in terror attacks on Pakistani soil in recent months, with the Jaffer Express hijacking in Balochistan being among the most audacious. The security forces killed all the hijackers, who belonged to the proscribed Balochistan Liberation Army, and rescued the majority of the train passengers, but the multi-agency operation is unlikely to deter separatists who are seeking independence for their mineral-rich province. The brazen targeting of Army, police and intelligence personnel by militants is clearly aimed at undermining the authority of the Shehbaz Sharif-led government and the military establishment.
Raising the bogie of the ‘foreign hand’, President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the authorities are aware of the external support and funding being received by terrorists to inflict human and financial losses on Pakistan. The allusion is to India and Afghanistan, two neighbours with which Islamabad’s relations are either in deep freeze or going from bad to worse. At stake are Pakistan’s ties with its all-weather ally, China. Balochistan, bordering Iran and Afghanistan, figures prominently in the Chinese scheme of things. It accounts for a significant part of Beijing’s $65-billion investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which falls under President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative. Prioritising Chinese interests, Pakistan has failed to allay Baloch concerns about rampant exploitation of the province’s resources. This has emboldened insurgents to target Chinese citizens and projects as well.
Pakistan’s Kashmir fixation has blinded it to its own problems. If the beleaguered nation wants to be seen as a victim rather than a perpetrator of terrorism, it must reach out to aggrieved groups and stop blaming foreign players. It should also ensure that its territory is not used for plotting cross-border terror attacks. The ball is in Pakistan’s court.
