Insecure cities: the militant threat
A report has once again underlined the growing threat that Pakistan's cities face from the Taleban and militant activity - a threat that the media has been highlighting without having been able to motivate the state into action. Karachi, Peshawar and Que
It is the state’s virtual abdication of its responsibility for ensuring law and order that the militants exploit, filling the vacuum with their own ideas and systems. In a report this week in Dawn on the virtual takeover of some parts of Karachi by the Tehreek-i-Taleban Pakistan and affiliated militants, the complicity of the police, or often just their unwillingness to take on a threat that is organised and lethal, with the militants possibly better armed than the law enforcers, is revealed in stark detail. In Peshawar, where brave police officers have laid down their lives fighting on the frontlines of the militant threat, the underlying problems have long been laid bare. Inadequate resources, political interference, lack of effective intelligence and treating militancy as a law and order problem instead of using specialised counter-terrorism expertise are only some of the reasons why the law enforcers are unable to meet the challenge.
