At 11:25am on March 7, a boy in his late teens tried to force his way into a court premises in the Shabqadar town of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He shot and killed a constable who tried to stop him, and detonated his suicide vest as a second policeman pounced on him.
The six kilograms of explosives killed 17 people, and another 30 were injured. Jamaatul Ahrar, a faction of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack. “The bombing was revenge for the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri,” the group’s spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said in an email message sent to reporters. Mumtaz Qadri was hanged last week for killing Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer in 2011 after he called for reforms in Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. The statement suggests the attack was planned and executed in days.
At the court in Shabqadar, Mondays are reserved for hearings of family disputes. There were around 300 people inside the compound, said Deputy Inspector General of Police Saeed Wazir. “We would have had more casualties if the attacker had gone towards the family court,” he said. “Our policemen demonstrated exceptional bravery and gave their lives to save others.”
The Shabqadar town is close to the Mohmand tribal region – one of seven semi-autonomous tribal areas in Pakistan’s northwest. Militants affiliated with TTP and Al Qaeda, many of whom are now gravitating towards ISIS, are believed to have strongholds in the region.
On February 18, TTP militants killed nine security forces personnel in two separate attacks in the region. On March 1, an IED explosion killed two local employees of the US Consulate in Peshawar.
These attacks follow a major terrorist raid on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda – not too far from Shabqadar – on January 20, which shocked the country and the government as it reminded them of the Army Public School massacre in December 2014.
According to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Home and Tribal Affairs Department, a threat alert issued before the Bacha Khan University attack had warned of an attack on a girls’ school or college. An official said the target was changed because of high security at educational institutions for girls.
“Dozens of suicide bombers are lurking in the region,” said the official. “Thirteen of them are hiding in Peshawar.” Many of them are said to be affiliated with Umar Naray, the mastermind of the APS and BKU attacks.
Since the beginning of this year, threat alerts have been increasing in frequency. “Prior to the Bacha Khan University attack, an alert had been issued regarding 13 terrorists crossing over from Afghanistan to Pakistan through Torkham and Shalman,” another official said. “It was confirmed that these terrorists will be provided arms, explosives and suicide vests at Jamrud, Shakas and Ghundi. That happened prior to the attack on BKU, which became an easy target for militants because of lack of security and foggy conditions at the time.”
Lawyer Sher Qadir, who is the president of the Shabqadar Bar Association, said they had been receiving threats “for quite some time”.
“We had asked the administration for closed-circuit cameras and walkthrough gates, but our demands for better security were ignored,” he said. He believes this lack of action signifies a failure on part of the police and security forces.
Bushra Gohar, a former lawmaker belonging to the Awami National Party (ANP), blames the government and the security forces for the recent series of attacks. She says Mohmand region has been cleared in military operations several times. “There was a time when the terrorists were regrouping and they could be stopped,” she said. “But the two parties at the helm in the province – Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) – support them,” she alleged. “They talk about opening offices for the Taliban.”
PTI and JI were proponents of negotiations with the Taliban before a countrywide campaign against terrorism began in 2014, but have since shown support for the military operation Zarb-e-Azb and the prime minister’s National Action Plan against terrorism and extremism.
Bushra Gohar believes intercepting attackers at the gates of the buildings they want to target is a failure of the government’s security strategy. “There has been a lack of coordination between institutions right from the beginning,” she argues. “I don’t think it’s the police’s responsibility to tackle the terrorists.”
A government official in the province says the police are not trained to take on hardcore militants, since their primary job is to ensure law and order. “There are threats of attacks all over the region all the time,” he says, “but I don’t think we quite have the mechanism in place to tackle all the threat alerts that we are sent.”
There is a need to develop and streamline such a mechanism, he says, and to enhance coordination between the relevant institutions to make the counter-terrorism machinery more effective. “As things stand, securing potential targets involves a lot of guess work.”
“We are told that educational institutions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are under threat. I believe the entire country knows that,” he says. “It is important to be specific about the threats, and for all institutions to be on the same page to counter them.”
The six kilograms of explosives killed 17 people, and another 30 were injured. Jamaatul Ahrar, a faction of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack. “The bombing was revenge for the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri,” the group’s spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said in an email message sent to reporters. Mumtaz Qadri was hanged last week for killing Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer in 2011 after he called for reforms in Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. The statement suggests the attack was planned and executed in days.
At the court in Shabqadar, Mondays are reserved for hearings of family disputes. There were around 300 people inside the compound, said Deputy Inspector General of Police Saeed Wazir. “We would have had more casualties if the attacker had gone towards the family court,” he said. “Our policemen demonstrated exceptional bravery and gave their lives to save others.”
The Shabqadar town is close to the Mohmand tribal region – one of seven semi-autonomous tribal areas in Pakistan’s northwest. Militants affiliated with TTP and Al Qaeda, many of whom are now gravitating towards ISIS, are believed to have strongholds in the region.
"Thirteen suicide attackers are hiding in Peshawar"
On February 18, TTP militants killed nine security forces personnel in two separate attacks in the region. On March 1, an IED explosion killed two local employees of the US Consulate in Peshawar.
These attacks follow a major terrorist raid on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda – not too far from Shabqadar – on January 20, which shocked the country and the government as it reminded them of the Army Public School massacre in December 2014.
According to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Home and Tribal Affairs Department, a threat alert issued before the Bacha Khan University attack had warned of an attack on a girls’ school or college. An official said the target was changed because of high security at educational institutions for girls.
“Dozens of suicide bombers are lurking in the region,” said the official. “Thirteen of them are hiding in Peshawar.” Many of them are said to be affiliated with Umar Naray, the mastermind of the APS and BKU attacks.
Since the beginning of this year, threat alerts have been increasing in frequency. “Prior to the Bacha Khan University attack, an alert had been issued regarding 13 terrorists crossing over from Afghanistan to Pakistan through Torkham and Shalman,” another official said. “It was confirmed that these terrorists will be provided arms, explosives and suicide vests at Jamrud, Shakas and Ghundi. That happened prior to the attack on BKU, which became an easy target for militants because of lack of security and foggy conditions at the time.”
Lawyer Sher Qadir, who is the president of the Shabqadar Bar Association, said they had been receiving threats “for quite some time”.
“We had asked the administration for closed-circuit cameras and walkthrough gates, but our demands for better security were ignored,” he said. He believes this lack of action signifies a failure on part of the police and security forces.
Bushra Gohar, a former lawmaker belonging to the Awami National Party (ANP), blames the government and the security forces for the recent series of attacks. She says Mohmand region has been cleared in military operations several times. “There was a time when the terrorists were regrouping and they could be stopped,” she said. “But the two parties at the helm in the province – Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) – support them,” she alleged. “They talk about opening offices for the Taliban.”
PTI and JI were proponents of negotiations with the Taliban before a countrywide campaign against terrorism began in 2014, but have since shown support for the military operation Zarb-e-Azb and the prime minister’s National Action Plan against terrorism and extremism.
Bushra Gohar believes intercepting attackers at the gates of the buildings they want to target is a failure of the government’s security strategy. “There has been a lack of coordination between institutions right from the beginning,” she argues. “I don’t think it’s the police’s responsibility to tackle the terrorists.”
A government official in the province says the police are not trained to take on hardcore militants, since their primary job is to ensure law and order. “There are threats of attacks all over the region all the time,” he says, “but I don’t think we quite have the mechanism in place to tackle all the threat alerts that we are sent.”
There is a need to develop and streamline such a mechanism, he says, and to enhance coordination between the relevant institutions to make the counter-terrorism machinery more effective. “As things stand, securing potential targets involves a lot of guess work.”
“We are told that educational institutions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are under threat. I believe the entire country knows that,” he says. “It is important to be specific about the threats, and for all institutions to be on the same page to counter them.”