There was not a fraction of this kind of security provided to ensure the visiting team’s safety in Lahore when they were promised all of it. Six policemen were killed by the terrorists before they proceeded to attack the tourists’ bus, but there was no sight of reinforcement units on call. Even the Lahore mayor enjoys a much better security when he’s out and about town. The lapse is reminiscent of the so-called security provided by Musharraf to Benazir Bhutto.

The fact that Islamist terrorism has arrived in our cities in a big way cannot be denied anymore. The perpetrators of violence are well-trained and armed with latest weapons. The attacks are planned for precision targeting; they have an exit strategy after creating mayhem, and they strike at the time and place of their own choosing. The September Marriott Hotel bombing in Islamabad and the Mumbai siege in November last year are the latest cases in point. The assaults followed the attacks on Benazir’s rallies in October and December the year before.

And what has the government done to contain the terrorists? Practically nothing, besides clamping another ban on the same extremist organisations which had been banned a long time ago by Musharraf. It is not only the lack of will to act decisively against the rogue elements, it is also the contrasting and shocking will to placate them by extending them an olive branch, as has been done in Swat. Despite the overwhelming public mandate given to this, one of the most secular-based governments in recent years, it is choosing political expediency over public and national interest.

... contd.