Wave of Terror- Bannu Blast, Mastung Killing, and it goes on…

At least 24 Shia Muslims, mostly Hazara community pilgrims, returning from Iran were killed and 35 more wounded when a bomb struck a passenger bus in Mastung yesterday. (Source)This was added to the wound of the Bannu attacks on Sunday, and the wave goes on…

The Bannu attack added fuel to the already burning issue of the negotiations with the unyielding TTP, which is probably behind the  Mastung Attack too, hitting on the sensitive Shia/Sunni faultline of the country but the Bannu attacks need our attention due to their political significance.

Twenty security personnel were killed and thirty were injured in a bomb attack in Bannu Cantonment, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.The Inter-Services Public Relations said that an explosion took place in a civilian Toyota Hiace van inside the Bannu parade ground at 8:45 AM on Sunday. It was a rented vehicle used by the Frontier Corps for moving its troops. The blast took place when the men were seated inside the van and ready to leave in a convoy for North Waziristan Agency. (Source) Bannu has been the site of several attacks targeting security forces in the past.

Sources said that six bodies among the dead were unrecognizable due to the blast and DNA tests were being conducted to identify them. Fifteen of those critically injured were taken to the Combined Military Hospital in Peshawar. Twenty soldiers died on the spot while thirty others suffered injuries. The death toll could rise as fifteen of the injured soldiers admitted to military hospitals in Bannu and Peshawar were critically wounded. It is not yet confirmed whether the Bannu blast was a suicide attack or the result of a planted bomb. (Source)

The blast has been condemned by all leaders and political parties. Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has decided to cancel his visit to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum in the wake of the fresh spear in terror incidents and the Bannu explosion.Reports are that Shahidullah Shahid, Spokesperson for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), told a foreign news channel that the TTP claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on the troops and that they would continue to target security forces. (Source)

Questions are being raised about why private vehicles were hired for moving the troops and the Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has sought details of the incident. Before that, the Taliban also caused a massive explosion in Karachi, killing the head of the counter-terrorism operations Chaudhry Aslam Khan and his gunman and driver.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chief Imran Khan had on Friday demanded another All Parties Conference and asked the government to update the parties on the fate of the dialogue with the Taliban. He called it match fixing by the government and alleged that if no dialogue was started, how could the government claim failure and abandon the dialogue process. Leader of Awami National Party, Asfandyar Wali Khan, has also condemned the terrorist attack on the convoy of security forces. He has also expressed grief over the loss of precious lives in the incident.

The interior minister said that an army team would probe the Bannu attack. Reports are that Pakistan Army helicopters fired missiles, killing three militants on Sunday, in retaliation for a Taliban bomb attack that killed 20 soldiers in Bannu blast. (Source)

All eyes are set on the National Security Policy, which is supposed to be implemented this year. But it depends on our government how they actually plan to eradicate this nuance, especially after the shameful history in this regard, as to how Pakistan’s Interior Ministry and its other departments used counter-terrorism funds for their foreign trips, paying utility bills in millions and sending gifts to important persons and close relatives. (Source)