Failure of the ‘targeted operations’
May 16, 2015 BY Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad
It is the duty of the security agencies to foil RAW’s plots
The killing of over 40 members of the Ismaili community has called into question the effectiveness of the Rangers led ‘targeted operations’. The incident is a reflection on the performance of the security agencies. The PM and the COAS have shown a lot of concern over the issue as they did on the occasion of the terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, initially describes as Pakistan’s Nine-Eleven. As happened in the APS case, the Karachi massacre too is likely to be forgotten in a month or two.
That the ruling elite possesses a short span of concentration on anything is shown by its attitude towards the National Action Plan (NAP). Within a month the resolve to implement the plan began to wilt. The opposition complained that no action was being taken against banned outfits. The hunt for foreign funding of the seminaries was given up with interior minister announcing it was difficult to trace money transactions to seminaries. Despite the reports from police and agencies regarding a number of seminaries involved in transmitting extortion funds to TTP or providing shelter to militants, no action was taken against them. As a respectable national English daily wrote on March 23, “Three months after the unveiling of the National Action Plan (NAP) and more than two months after Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan’s disclosure that perhaps 10 percent of all madrassas were involved in terrorism, it appears that no government agency is ready to own the drive to identify these seminaries”. The hangings of the terrorists stopped within weeks and were replaced with the hangings of common criminals. Gradually emphasis on action against urban based terrorists as defined in the NAP was replaced with action against MQM.
What is the secret behind not fully implementing the NAP reforms?
There is a perception that the main hindrance is the tilt of the PML-N towards certain religious and sectarian networks which are deadly opposed to the 21st Amendment as well as certain provisions of the NAP. They oppose the enforcement of the Amendment because it targets only religious and sectarian terrorists. They want to water down the provision by removing the specification of a terrorist.
There is a perception that the main hindrance is the tilt of the PML-N towards certain religious and sectarian networks which are deadly opposed to the 21st Amendment as well as certain provisions of the NAP
Among the foremost opponents of the amendment is Sajid Mir, chief of Markazi Jamiyat Ahle Hadith (MJAH) who is close to the PML-N leadership. Early this year Mir was once again elected to the Senate on a PML-N ticket. As Mir puts it, “The government did a grave injustice to religious quarters and literally deceived them by defining terrorism with religion or sect only.” The JUI-F, which is a part of the PML-N led coalition, shares Mir’s view.
The PML-N’s allies in the religious parties depend on madrassa funds for their lavish living and rely on madrassa students to make their public meetings and rallies successful. They would not allow anyone to touch the ledger books of the seminaries.
Early this month Fazlur Rehman warned that any attempt to target the religious segment of society in the garb of certain laws would be resisted. “It’s a so-called 20-point agenda of the National Action Plan to fight terror and we believe that the entire objective of the exercise is to target the religious segment of society…The nation cannot be fooled any more. These laws are discriminatory and are against Islamic institutions, our clerics and our seminaries. We don’t accept them,” he said while referring to the 21st Amendment. “We know that there is a campaign under way to turn this Islamic republic into a secular or liberal state, but we will not let this happen.”
Many in the PML-N leadership share the prejudices of the extremist outfits. For instance they believe like Fazlur Rehman that the term secularism means opposition to religion rather than a political system where the state provides equal rights and opportunities to citizens irrespective of their faith.
That is the secret behind reluctance to implement NAP. NACTA, the centrepiece of PML-N’s anti-terrorism policy, continues to remain in the incubator.
Instead of taking the trouble of creating and strengthening a viable national security institution the easier way for Nawaz Sharif is to surrender the space of the civilian authority in national security matters to military and relax. Life could not be put into NACTA because military and civilian intelligence agencies are not willing to pool information.
Another reason is the failure to provide the necessary funds to run NACTA. Nawaz Sharif can procure Rs165.2 billion for Lahore Orange Line Metro Train project because it would bring political kudos at the next elections. Spending money on a long gestation project makes no political sense to the PML-N leadership.
In urban centres a tried and trusted way to succeed against the terrorists and criminals is to strengthen the police and the civilian security agencies. The police force is raised from the local population. A well-equipped police station with its own networks of informants can make better use of the information provided by provincial and federal security agencies.
Instead of taking the trouble of creating and strengthening a viable national security institution the easier way for Nawaz Sharif is to surrender the space of the civilian authority in national security matters to military and relax
As things stand the police needs more manpower and more equipment. Keeping in view the rise of the urban population the size of the police force needs to be increased. The police also has to be provided training and required resources to nab the criminals. That policemen have sometimes to take dangerous terrorists to courts in commandeered rickshaws illustrates the sad state of police preparedness to deal with the TTP and other lethal networks.
Police has to be depoliticised in all provinces particularly Sindh and Punjab where incompetent blue eyed boys occupy top posts as well as at those at the thana level.
The Rangers and the Army are handicapped in dealing with urban crime and violence as unlike police they are not close to the communities and their handling of people sometime leads to resentment. They can succeed in sparsely populated tribal areas where the population is scattered and it is possible to use air force and heavy guns which cannot be deployed in Karachi or Lahore.
Despite the best efforts of the Rangers, which are performing duties in Karachi for nearly twenty years, they have failed to put an end to target killings or grave incidents of terrorism. It is understandable that RAW would create ugly incidents to vilify Pakistan. It looks for opportunities to destabilise the country. Instead of chest thumping what is needed is to collect solid evidence against the secret agency and share it with friends and allies and present it before concerned UN forums. Inside the country the focus has to be on foiling RAW’s plots. The test of the efficiency of the counter intelligence bodies lies in an end to terrorist incidents.
It is the duty of the security agencies to foil RAW’s plots. Any successful RAW activity inside Pakistan is a blot on the name of these agencies and requires rolling of the heads. Among the reasons why RAW continues to succeed is because there is no neutral oversight and no accountability of these agencies. Their performance will improve if a mechanism of parliamentary oversight is put in place and every failure on the part of the agencies is followed by action against those found napping.
Raw must not however be treated as a fig leaf to cover up the intelligence agencies’ unforgivable failures.
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