“We are also investigating the militants’ nexus because Ahrar had been previously collaborating with the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) in carrying out attacks.”
Source/Credit: The Express Tribune
By ET | February 15, 2016
The deadly suicide attack in Lahore which claimed 13 lives – including those of two senior police officers – on Monday is described as a failure of security agencies as they failed to counter it despite a prior intelligence report.
The government and police are shifting responsibility by terming the intelligence report ‘vague’ and not ‘specific’. However, independent defence analysts are holding the security institutions responsible.
Defence analyst Hassan Askari said the recent statements of the outlawed TTP Jamaatul Ahrar showed their confidence as they were specifying their targets despite being dislocated by the Operation Zarb-e-Azb.
“It seems that the terrorists are reorganising and their next target is Punjab, where a large number of extremists moved to after being dislocated by Zarb-e-Azb. There is therefore a need to carry out a military operation in Punjab to tackle the future situation,” he said.
He said most of threat alerts did not materialise as security agencies did not take them seriously. Questioning authenticity of the alerts, he said they were generated by tapping communication, media reports and information gathered from the arrested suspects. “These are not precise because our intelligence agencies penetration in the militant networks,” he added.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Lahore City Police spokesperson said the police are in a war-like situation. “For the last three weeks we have declared red alert. We have increased number of security pickets in the city and are conducting search operations on a daily basis,” he said.
Before the Lahore attack, the TTP Jamaatul Ahrar had released a video announcing to launch ‘Operation Ghazi’ in memory of Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, who was killed in July 2007 by the Pakistan Army inside Laal Masjid of Islamabad. The video message was clear. It demanded cooperation from other militant outfits that had been scattered after the start of the operation Zarb-e-Azb.
After the Lahore attack, the TTP’s Waziristan faction and the Jamaatul Ahrar claimed responsibility. An intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said,
The TTP-JA has already claimed that it carried out Chaman (Balochistan) attack on the FC jointly with the LeJ Al-Alami. The blast in Kurram Agency on Jan 21, 2017 and the suicide attack in the courts was claimed by IS’s official media outlet.
“This shows a growing collaboration amongst militant outfits. The targets pointed out in the video are all in the cities,” he said. The Taliban’s Mehsud faction and those affiliated with Mullah Fazlullah have already joined hands, according to a statement released on February 02.
By Shahbaz Rana / Mohammad Zafar / Muhammad Shahzad / Iftikhar Firdous
Published in The Express Tribune, February 15th, 2017.
Read original post here: Pakistan: Defence analysts hold authorities responsible for Lahore attack
This content-post is archived for backup and to keep archived records of any news Islam Ahmadiyya. The views expressed by the author and source of this news archive do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of Times of Ahmad. Times of Ahmad is not an organ of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, nor in any way associated with any of the community's official websites.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comments. Any comments irrelevant to the post's subject matter, containing abuses, and/or vulgar language will not be approved.