Pakistan’s growing security challenge
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“The weapons were indeed very sophisticated… making it clear to us that the attacks conducted recently in Balochistan, which killed more than 12 Pakistani security people was not the work of a ragtag force.” This was according to a senior aide to Prime Minister Imran Khan who had accompanied the PM to his February 8 visit to Noshki.
Clearly, a new wave of terrorism, with Balochistan as its primary target, has again descended upon Pakistan. Killings along the Pak-Afghan border plus sporadic IED attacks continue on police stations in Islamabad, Peshawar and Lahore. This latest wave that began with a row of terrorist attacks had initially triggered reactive attacks from Pakistani security forces. Against the backdrop of these growing attacks, security forces are now conducting pre-emptive attacks on militant hideouts. According to military sources, the latest pre-emptive attack on a terrorist hideout in Turbat killed six militants.
Like the past, this time too, terrorist attacks have been launched with the intention of inflicting severe and irreparable political, diplomatic and economic losses on Pakistan. The timing of the Balochistan attacks was telling. The Prime Minister was on an important China visit to promote and expedite CPEC-2 programs and projects, to brief the Chinese leadership on the details of the new administrative, infrastructural and legal facilities developed by the government of Pakistan for Chinese investors. Where these facilities are essential for Chinese industrialists to invest in Pakistan, foolproof security is like the steel-frame of an integrated investment ecosystem- and this is what Pakistan’s adversaries want to see weakened.
They seek weakening of the very factor that Pakistan’s principal strategic partner China seeks the strengthening of. In fact, the Chinese in the past have somewhat discreetly complained about the deadly terrorist incidents targeting the Chinese while publicly expressing solidarity with Pakistan as the target of terrorism. This now appears changed especially after the July Dasu attack in which nine Chinese engineers were killed. Beijing halted work on the Dasu project and demanded that Pakistani authorities provide foolproof security. The Chinese have since also demanded compensation from Pakistani authorities for the death of nine of their citizens.
External threats have actually prompted greater security cooperation to protect CPEC-related personnel and projects.
Nasim Zehra
Nevertheless, the historical and strategic Pakistan and China ties continue to augment despite this security challenge. With a shared strategic vision and growing economic and diplomatic cooperation, it is hard for a third party to undermine robust bilateral ties. Instead, external threats have prompted greater security cooperation to protect CPEC-related personnel and projects.
Pakistan remains convinced, based on the evidence collected, that India remains an unrelenting opponent of CPEC and of a stable Pakistan. And to achieve this goal, India’s principal proven tool remains terrorism.
Hence responding to the heightened security challenges, Pakistan is focusing on strengthening its security apparatus to make it foolproof. Security has to be improved through weapons and intelligence plus the domestic compulsions for Pakistanis to collaborate with external adversaries to undermine security too have to be addressed.
Pakistan’s immediate neighbors Afghanistan and Iran are both part of the geostrategic context from which these security threats emanate. That Pakistan expects greater cooperation from Kabul and Tehran has been conveyed to both at the highest levels. Pakistan’s NSA and Special Adviser to the PM on Afghanistan raised it with Afghan officials during their recent Kabul meeting. The response was as usual: no one will be allowed. From the Iranians too, Pakistan sought enhanced border controls to prevent the slipping in of attackers or slipping out of those wanting to fight the state. Pakistan’s decades-long battle partnership with the US to launch today’s most elaborate covert war in response to the Soviet Union’s 1979 Afghan invasion, let both the terrorist apparatus and its ethos penetrate deep into Pakistan’s landscape. The roll-back on all this, meandering through a variety of policies ranging from improving its own security arrangement, adopting CTD policy and programs, a National Plan of Action (NPA) is still work-in-progress.
Ultimately it’s on its own territory, where Pakistan exercises maximum control, that threats to its security can be effectively tackled and minimized. This latest round of attacks require improved border controls, smarter human and tech intelligence alongside effective governance within and more effective external engagement with neighbors.
- Nasim Zehra is an author, analyst and national security expert.
Twitter: @NasimZehra
