The attack on a police college in Quetta late on Monday night is a continuing series of well-organised attacks by terrorists on the Pakistani establishment. Three suicide bombers killed at least 59 cadets and guards, in an attack that was claimed by Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). It was no coincidence that this latest attack was on the day when a judicial commission started to investigate an earlier attack on the emergency ward of a Quetta hospital. Quetta is the capital of the Balochistan province and it has suffered from attacks not only by a variety of militants, but also from Baloch separatists and both types of attacks have very different purposes because the separatists seek to break away from the Pakistani state and their actions are targeted at trying to make that happen. The religious radicals have a very different agenda as they seek to destabilise their state and create hatred, which is why some of the radicals’ attacks have targeted mosques and pilgrim buses in a clear attempt to foment sectarian strife. The attack in Quetta was part of a different strand of terrorist activity, focusing on professionals within the state of Pakistan. Successive bomb attacks have been targeted to kill large numbers of people who work for the government or support the system in some way through their profession or career.
This strategy of intimidating the state and its officers has become increasingly clear with attacks that have killed tens, if not hundreds, of military cadets, lawyers, university students, Frontier Corps personnel, police and many others, including the infamous attack on the Peshawar school in 2014. Such attacks also include Al Qaida personnel capturing the Pakistani frigate Zulfiquar in September 2014, which was recaptured before Al Qaida managed to carry out their plan of attacking US Navy vessels in the Arabian Sea.
The answer to this ongoing wave of violence has to be multi-faceted. Most importantly, the government must not be intimidated but continue to fight back and support the rule of law. There also needs to be the obvious maintenance of security and a determined crackdown on militant groups that are behind such violence.
In addition, there has to be cross-border efforts as well as the terrorists are aware of the advantage of operating from safe havens in Afghanistan. The current heightened tensions in the region will not help finding a solution.
