Suicide attack during volleyball match questions Pak Army’s success claims

WASHINGTON - Friday’s deadly suicide attack at a volleyball match in Pakistan’s northwestern town of Lakki Marwat, in which over 90 people were killed, has raised questions about the Pakistan Army’s claims about its success in the South Waziristan offensive.

According to Abdul Basit, a security analyst at the Islamabad based Pakistani Institute for Peace Studies, the attack highlights that the Army had inflated its claims of neutralising score of militants in South Waziristan and that the key militant commanders have been allowed to slip away into neighbouring regions.

“The Army claims to have killed 600 militants and captured 1,000, but have yet to produce any evidence. No key leaders have been killed or captured. The military is playing hide and seek,” The Christian Science Monitor quoted Basit, as saying.

Another expert, Rifaat Hussain, an analyst at the Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad pointed out that it is difficult for the Pakistani security forces to check the movement of the militants into the other tribal areas.

Hussain warned of more attacks like those in Lakki Marwat in near future unless the Army widens its offensive and get its act together to stop the extremists from sneaking to neighbouring territories.

“The attack (in Lakki Marwat) may give the Army the impetus it requires to make such a move,” Hussain said. (ANI)