The brazen attack on Pakistan’s largest civilian airport in Karachi has dealt a body blow to the nascent peace talks with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the country’s main militant group, and will increase pressure on the government over its strategy to curb Islamist militants.
The audacious attack killed at least 28 people, including 10 militants, after gunmen penetrated the security cordon of Pakistan’s busiest airport during a night-long assault. The attackers, wearing suicide vests, carried assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades and accessed sensitive areas of the airport, using a service gate near a terminal used by VIPs. The TTP said the attack was revenge for the killing of its leader Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone strike last November. Security measures at the airport had been criticised in the past and the attack came just three years after a similar one on the Mehran naval airbase, about five kilometres from the airport, when a team of militants killed 10 military personnel and destroyed two aircraft.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has tried to open peace talks with the Pakistan Taliban since coming to power, but without the full backing of the army. In doing so, he has also ignored critics who believe that militants have to be brought under control by force. The talks fell through after the initial enthusiasm and recently, a major faction of the Pakistan Taliban said it had split from the militant outfit. The militants have now dismissed the Pakistani government’s recent offer of a new round of peace talks as a ruse and threatened more attacks. The government and the army need to be on the same page for any peace deal with the militants. The army recently launched an operation to flush out militants from north Waziristan. But on-off peace talks coupled with intermittent military operations is not a panacea for lasting peace. The militants have zeroed in on soft targets, causing maximum damage to both civilian life and general morale. Indecision on the part of the government will only result in continuing violence.
The government and the army must together decide on the best way forward to restore peace and protect the lives of the people. There are no issues that cannot be sorted out if both sides are willing and committed to peace. At the end of the day, it will be the country that will benefit from such endeavours.
