Federal level intervention needed to counter growing terror in Pak’s Punjab

ISLAMABAD - Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s cagey and conflicting statements in wake of the appalling attacks on two Ahmedi mosques in Lahore have done little to alleviate the situation.

The minister has bizarrely claimed that the militants involved in the various attacks have come out of their hideouts after government operations were launched to tackle them.

This seems highly unlikely and on the contrary several terror groups are consolidating and coordinating with one another to step up their offensive.

It is common knowledge in Pakistan that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jaish-e-Muhammad operate freely and without fear of prosecution in the Punjab province.

It is likely that they have fostered strong ties with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Al Qaeda, a Daily Times editorial states.

The disturbing tendency of such individual militant groups unifying and align with the Al Qaeda seems to have failed to find the notice of the blinkered Pakistani establishment.

Malik’s dogged belief that the Punjab administration can effectually prevent further such sectarian attacks is highly irrational in view of the province’s previous record.

According to the paper, Punjab government was painfully slow in responding to the agony suffered by the Ahmedis in the wake of the terror strikes, where no compensation was announced for the victims and no Punjab government official had the decency to visit the scenes of the bloodshed or the survivors in hospital.

It took a member of the federal government to fly in from Islamabad to put balm on their wounds and attempt to address their grievances.

It would serve the government in good stead to take note of these failures on part of the Punjabi administration and initiate a federal level investigation and counter-operation to reign in the problem before it gets completely out of hand, the paper reports. (ANI)