...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...
airport attack refuses to subside quickly and the numbing questions the attack has raised refuse to go away, this much is clear: the state, both civil and military, has failed to reassure the public or demonstrate that it really does have a plan to keep the country safe. Even the post-attack restoration of calm has been shattered. How, for example, did the security forces declare the airport secured when there were still some civilians to be recovered? How was it possible for a second attack -- rejected as an attack altogether by some sections of the security forces -- to be launched and for all the attackers to simply melt away hours after the initial attack? Where has the leadership been at the provincial and federal levels? For the Sindh government to foist all responsibility on the federal government simply because airports fall in the federal domain of responsibility is absurd. Surely, with the central leadership so shockingly absent, a quick Sindh government response would have been both appreciated and accepted.
Yet, much of the attention must rightly turn to the two principal actors in the state's fight against militancy: the army and the federal government. Start with the army -- if only because it seems keen on action against some krazed killers, where the government is not. For days before the Karachi attack, military action in North
Wazoo had targeted hubs of foreign krazed killers. Then, elements among the foreign turbans turned around and hit the Karachi airport. Can anyone be surprised by this? And yet, it seems the military was, even though, after the split in the outlawed TTP, military officials themselves talked privately of the threat to Karachi. So, was the army-run intelligence apparatus in Karachi put in overdrive? Were all decks on hand and every spare resource dedicated to monitoring and intercepting communications among turbans and movement of terrorist cells? Even now, what exactly is the plan? More retaliation it seems, according to media reports sourced from army officials. If retaliation didn't work before, why will it work now? And does more retaliation mean the army will this time put its vast intelligence network on the highest state of alert to try and thwart another Karachi airport-style attack?