Postcards from the Edge: Pakistan

Pakistan rocked by fresh attacks

A series of attacks on security forces in Pakistan has killed at least 38 people. In Lahore, militants attacked offices of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), as well as two police academies. At least 26 people died.

In the northern town of Kohat, 11 were killed in a car bomb attack on police. Then a bomb in the city of Peshawar in the north-west killed a child. Suicide attacks in Pakistan in the past two weeks have killed more than 150 people. The Peshawar car bomb went off outside a housing complex for government employees. A number of people were wounded.

Thursday's attacks come ahead of an expected military offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in their South Waziristan stronghold on the Afghan border.

Pakistan: The South Waziristan Migration

Pakistan has been a busy place over the past few weeks. The Pakistani armed forces have been conducting raids and airstrikes against the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other foreign Islamist fighters in Bajaur Agency, a district inside Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), while wrapping up their preparations for a major military offensive into South Waziristan. The United States has conducted several successful missile attacks targeting militants hiding in areas along the Afghan-Pakistani border using unmanned aerial vehicles.

Threatened by these developments — especially the actions of the Pakistani military — the TTP and its allies have struck back. They have used larger, vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) in attacks close to their bases in the Pakistani badlands to conduct mass-casualty attacks against soft targets in Peshawar and the Swat Valley. They have also used small arms and small suicide devices farther from their bases to attack targets in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, the respective seats of Pakistan’s military and civilian power.

Pakistan Taliban bombing spree could spur backlash

Facing a looming assault from the military, the Al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban launched a spree of brazen attacks and a media blitz over the past week that appeared to say "bring it on. Today, the military responded by bombing the Taliban's hub in South Waziristan as government forces prepare for a ground offensive there.

The Taliban have recently killed at least 112 people – including United Nations workers, peacekeeper recruits in the restive Swat Valley, and a general and two colonels in the Pakistani Army. They also infiltrated Army headquarters over the weekend. But experts on the conflict sense an underlying insecurity behind their tactics.

"For [the militants], it's essentially a battle for their survival. If they lose the sanctuary in South Waziristan, that's pretty much the end of the game for them," says Rifaat Hussain, a security expert at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad. "For them, offense is a defensive strategy."

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Taliban claim suicide attack on UN Food Program

Summary

On 5 October, 2009, a suicide bomber disguised as a soldier killed five staff of a United Nations World Food Program (WFP) building in Islamabad. The blast exploded in the office lobby in a fashionable residential district of Islamabad. An Iraqi and four Pakistani workers were killed in the explosion and several more were injured. The WFP has been at the forefront of providing relief aid to Pakistanis displaced by anti-Taliban operations, including the two million persons who had been evacuated from Swat earlier this year. The bomber was dressed in the uniform of the Frontier Corp paramilitary force and asked to enter the building to use the restroom.

Analysis

This bombing has been claimed by the Tehrik-e-Taliban saying international relief work in Pakistan was not in "the interest of Muslims." It may also be in retaliation for Pakistani Army’s offensive in the Northwest Frontier earlier this year. There are also reports that the army is preparing for another assault against the Taliban’s Waziristan headquarters, and this may take place within the next few days. The Taliban may have tried to use this latest attack to discourage the new offensive.

Whatever the motivation, this technique of using terrorists dressed as soldiers has ramifications for all countries involved in fighting terrorism. Most security personnel would be reluctant to turn away military members from using a bathroom. Critical examination of identification and correct wearing and display of uniform may help prevent such an attack.

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