A 63% drop! The operation in Swat and the adjoining areas seems to be bearing fruit…
PESHAWAR: Security situation in the NWFP has improved remarkably and terrorist attacks are receding against the backdrop of concerted operations against militants in Malakand and tribal areas.
Statistics compiled by the NWFP Police and CID reveal a 63 per cent decline in the number of terrorist attacks across the province. The number of suicide attacks, road-side bombings, rocket strikes, ambushes and other subversive activities which stood at 83 in January this year, dropped to 30 in August, a decline of 63 per cent.
Swat, the hub of militant and terrorist activities, registered a remarked improvement with the number of attacks going down from 39 in January to just four in August. This improvement of 90 per cent is a far cry from the situation which prevailed before the military operation was launched in May. Nearly half of the terrorist attacks in the NWFP in the month of January took place in Swat. This turnaround in security environment in the province largely came due to the success of military operation in Swat and other areas. However, government and security officials acknowledge that political ownership and public support were major factors behind the recovery of the security environment.
‘What was more critical was public support and political ownership. Without these two, the military operations would not have achieved the kind of success that we see today,’ a senior government official said.
There were a total of 524 terrorist attacks in the NWFP between January 1 and August 31. Swat topped the list with 145 incidents, including bombings, missile attacks, firing, suicide bombings and attacks on CD shops and hair-cutting saloons in the eight months.
Peshawar with 109 terrorist attacks ranked second, followed by Bannu 55, Dera Ismail Khan 45 and Kohat 32.
Non-combatants suffered the most, with 271 casualties, followed by police with 104 casualties — most of them in Swat.
‘There has been one hell of a difference, a vast improvement in public support. We are picking up militants and a large number of them are surrendering,’ Additional Chief Secretary Home Fayaz Ahmad Toru said.
‘And there is better coordination, nexus and equation between the political, civil and military leadership. This has had an impact on the situation on the ground,’ he said.
There have been sporadic terrorist incidents here and there, including the suicide bombing on a police station in Mingora for which investigators have blamed negligence.
But security officials say such attacks do not represent a sustained trend, though they may take place occasionally for some time.
‘We cannot sit back, light up a cigar and pretend that everything is hunky dory. Of course, there will be attacks every now and then and this may continue for some time,’ a senior security official said.
‘But the steep rise that we saw as a sustained trend seems to have come to an end. I think we are over the hill now. Their (militants) decline has begun,’ the official said.
But some officials warned that it was still too early to declare victory.
The number of kidnappings for ransom in Peshawar has shot up from 33 between January and August last year to 55 in the corresponding period this year, an increase of 22 cases, said a government official, requesting that he should not be named.
Mardan, the second largest city in the NWFP, is next with 21 cases of kidnapping for ransom, up from 10 cases in the eight months last year.
Most of those kidnapped were affluent traders and businessmen, who ended up paying millions of rupees in ransom to secure freedom.
Security officials blame militants for most of these kidnappings, saying their objective was to raise funds for their operations. They point out that wealthy individuals were kidnapped in cities like Karachi and Lahore and brought to tribal areas.
‘These cases alone pose a serious challenge to law-enforcement agencies,’ the official said. ‘Everyone and his aunt are involved in kidnappings,’ a senior police official remarked.
But some officials were optimistic that the paramilitary operation in Bara and Khyber Agency would help to prevent incidents of kidnapping.
Target killing has emerged as another serious challenge to law-enforcement agencies, with the southern district of Dera Ismail Khan bearing the brunt of such sectarian-motivated attacks.
According to available figures, 77 sectarian-motivated killings were reported in Dera Ismail Khan over the past seven months.
But there has been some respite in the city as well with no incident of target killing reported there in August.
Some security officials, however, are worried that the seeming lull in terrorist attacks could be a prelude to bigger and more spectacular attacks.
‘One can interpret this lull in many ways. This may herald the beginning of a lasting peace in the NWFP and this may also lead to more sinister attacks. So you don’t know which way the cookie crumbles’, one official said.
‘Our biggest concern is that the militant leadership is intact and alive,’ a senior government official said.
‘It is akin to a snake, you chop off its head and you kill the beast but if you chop off its tail it develops a new one,’ an analyst remarked.
DAWN.COM | Provinces | Marked improvement in NWFP security situation