Lessons from Wagah: The fight against desperadoes

The suicide attack by a youth on the Pakistani side of the Wagah check post on November 2 in which more than 60 were killed is too daring in audacity for either country to ignore. The 20-year-old boy had evaded several checkpoints before reaching the site. According to one account, the boy’s ultimate destination was the Indian side of the border, and the explosion occurred a few minutes earlier than planned. There are also reports that there had been an intelligence warning of a possible attack, and certain precautions had, in fact, been taken. 

The incident would amply illustrate what we already know regarding the might of the modern terrorist: a determined intruder can hoodwink the authorities, however many layers of security one may lay on. This is no advocacy in favour of doing nothing just because no arrangement is foolproof and the terrorist has always an advantage over those who are trying to outwit him. Any despondency and just pro forma precautions against attacks will only add to our woes.

A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban called Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has claimed responsibility for the incident. Simultaneously, another terrorist outfit, Jundallah (which was involved in the attack on a Peshawar church in September 2013) was also quick to make a similar claim, one that was ridiculed by the Ahrar. Whatever be the truth, the fact is that the two groups are not hostile to each other and had actually collaborated in the past in a few other raids. 

Despite the huge loss of civilian lives, the Pakistani government remains brazen. This is evident from no major reaction from it to the contents of a recently revealed US study 'Progress towards Security and Stability in Afghanistan', tabled in the Senate by the Pentagon. The document chides Pakistan for using terrorist groups as proxies in Afghanistan and India “to hedge against the loss of influence in Afghanistan and to counter India’s superior military.” This almost amounts to a charge of promoting State-sponsored terrorism. Pressed further this could end in UN sanctions against Pakistan. The seriousness of such an outcome does not seem to have sunk in on those in the government or in the Pakistani army. Some evidence of casualness was found in the manner in which, a few days ago, a former Pakistani defence official, taking part in an Indian TV debate on the Wagah outrage, brushed aside the projected implications of a UN move on these lines. 

The Wagah attack reaffirms the belief that we just cannot afford to relax our vigil, either on the border or deep in the heart of the country. I am not tired of repeating that our innocent Muslim youth are fodder for the desperadoes in our neighbourhood. A very recent example is that of one of our boys from Kalyan (Maharashtra), who went to Iraq a few months ago to fight for ‘jihad’, but lost his life in action. We do not yet know what happened to three of his friends who accompanied him. I don’t think our intelligence agencies have a clue as to how many more had similarly gone to West Asia. 

The lure of fundamentalism is immense and limitless. Cutting across religious lines, it is the duty of every one of us to scout for misguided youths in our neighbourhod and draw them back to their families and friends. The difficulty lies in both identifying such elements and convincing them that ‘jihad’ is not for them. That their near ones need them more than those people who are leading them up the garden path.

The writer is a former CBI Director