You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
India-Pakistan
Intelligence failure
2013-12-20
[DAWN] A TRIBUTE is owed to the Rawalpindi policeman who was killed as he attempted to tackle a jacket wallah at the entrance of a holy manbargah where some 700 people were present. His presence of mind is in contrast to the skills of the security agencies that had some weeks ago on Ashura failed to foresee the communal attack on a madressah in the same city. The fact that Tuesday's suicide kaboom occurred close to Nur Khan base in a high-security zone of the garrison town which houses GHQ further exposes the flaws inherent in the security and intelligence apparatus. And that a bomber and his handlers should have felt confident enough to penetrate the security cover with the intention to kill and maim does little to instil confidence in the state's ability to protect. We have a plethora of intelligence agencies, but regrettably they have failed to do their job. Militant organizations operate all over the country. They have training bases and funding and information-gathering mechanisms and are often a few steps ahead of the state's counterintelligence efforts. This is true not just of the Taliban and their religiously motivated affiliates but also of other Death Eaters such as those active in Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
, not to speak of the criminals operating in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
's underworld. The most glaring intelligence failure, of course, concerned the late Osama bin Laden
... who is now neither a strong horse nor a weak horse, but a dead horse...
whose hideout was within the Pakistain Military Academy in Abbottabad
... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden....
.

We don't dispute that there have been successes, such as the arrest of Mullah Baradar and other high-profile figures. But the very fact that Death Eaters can strike almost at will across the country shows the state's ineffectiveness. Developed countries have their own terrorism concerns, but they have in most cases succeeded in giving security to their people by having foolproof cyber-age intelligence systems. It is time that Pakistain's various security and intelligence outfits too coordinated their efforts to stall what has become an increasingly bloody trend.
Posted by:Fred

00:00