At around 10:30 pm on May 22, 6 armed militants raided Pakistan Navy airbase, PNS [Pakistan Naval Station] Mehran, in Karachi, about 10 km off the Quaid-e-Azam International Airport. Two P-3C Orion maritime surveillance aircrafts were destroyed in the attack. Eight Pakistan Navy personnel and two Rangers personnel were killed while 15 others¶both from navy and rangers¶were injured in the attack.
PNS Mehran is the headquarters of Pakistan Navy Naval Air Arm commissioned on September 26, 1975 with a current inventory of 27 multi-role aircraft that included the destroyed P-3C Orions.[1] Four people were killed and 56 injured in twin bomb blasts targeting two navy buses in two different areas of Karachi on April 26.[2] On April 28, militants targeted another naval vehicle, killing five and injuring 13 others.[3]
The assault on PNS Mehran, the fourth within days of attacks on navy vehicles exposed the level of its preparedness in relation to the current level of threat from a multitude of militant groups. It was inconceivable for a core military establishment housing sensitive military hardware not to employ round-the-clock electronic surveillance or to run marriage halls for profit in its vicinity.[4] According to the Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, the militants entered the compound using ladders and cutting the barbed wire on top of the perimeter walls of the compound.[5] The fact that the militants were able to secure a rather easy access to the compound is a big question mark on the potential of Pakistan security forces.
Questions are already being asked in the national media about the capabilities of Pakistan Rs. 600 billion a year military machine to defend itself, let alone defending the rest of the country.[6] The western media, on the other hand, have found another excuse to question the security of Pakistan nuclear installations. ‘The discussions raise further questions about the ability of Pakistan military establishment to safeguard its vital assets and nuclear installations,’ wrote the New York Times.[7] As a consequence¶notwithstanding the assurances given by Senator Kerry during his visit to Pakistan earlier this month¶some observers in Pakistan also see the developments as a conspiracy aimed at denuclearizing Pakistan. ‘It is said that a case against Pakistan is cunningly being prepared by the US at the international level with the connivance of the international media,’ wrote Ansar Abbasi, a senior journalist, in the context of the PNS Mehran attack.[8]
Whether it was a conspiracy or a pure brazen act of militancy in the most populous city of the country, four successive strikes on navy targets in Karachi indicate that Pakistan Navy does feature on militants– hit-list. Navy was considered a soft-target by the militants either because of ordinary security measures around naval installations or, maybe, because of relatively better ingress of the militants into navy and air force.[9] The fact that the base serves as a base for the multinational Combined Task Force for sea-borne operations,[10] and the revelation by the Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, that more than a dozen foreigners were also present there at the time of the attack also make it plausible for militants to strike. If we take a look at the larger picture, however, the strikes on navy appear as a part of a continuum of attacks on security forces installations over the past few years. According to a news report, there have been 40 sophisticated hits on military and other security forces– installations since 2007.[11] The most audacious of such attacks was the one on the military general headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi in October 2009. Nine militants had stormed the GHQ taking several persons hostage, most of whom were rescued after a successful military operation leaving more than 20 people dead.
Many of the militant leaders behind the violent campaign inside Pakistan were once used by the Pakistani security establishment as proxies in the wars in Afghanistan and Kashmir. The Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. military, Adm. Mike Mullen, while on a visit to Islamabad in April, alleged that Pakistan Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) still maintained relations with militant groups like the Haqqani Network based in North Waziristan.[12] Amid such speculations, some observers have started questioning the policy of appeasement of the militant groups as strategic assets. Farrukh Saleem, an Islamabad-based political analyst, compares the problem of militancy ´ and Pakistan response ´ to the spread of an autoimmune disease, in which a body own immune system [in this case the perceived strategic assets i.e., Islamist militants] starts targeting its own organs, thus, making it difficult for the organism to rid itself of the disease.[13]
The recent incidents in Karachi also indicate a strong al-Qaeda presence in Karachi, Pakistan commercial life-line. The capture of senior al-Qaeda leader, Muhammad Ali Qasim Yakub alias Abu Shoaib al-Makki, from Karachi on May 17, also alluded to the strong presence of al-Qaeda in the city. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, has claimed responsibility for the PNS Mehran assault, and has called it a revenge of the killing of Osama Bin Laden (OBL). The TTP and al-Qaeda have a strong history of coordination, owing to the common cause that they represent in the region. Amir Mir has called it, ‘the Talibanization of Pakistan and Pakistanization of al-Qaeda.’[14] Mir also suggests the possibility of a nexus between the TTP and the Baloch nationalist militant organization, Baloch Liberation Front.[15]
It would take a long time for the military to salvage its credibility and restore peoples– confidence in the armed forces after the daring strike on PNS Mehran. The incident would also increase the intensity of western noises about the security of Pakistan nuclear weapons, a pre-occupation of the U.S. and other NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] countries. Even NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen¶during a press conference with Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, in Kabul on May 24¶expressed his concern over the security of the nuclear weapons of Pakistan after the May 22 incident.[16]
[1] Mir, Amir: ‘A joint attack by al-Qaeda, TTP’ The News Karachi, May 23, 2011 available at http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=6183&Cat=13&dt=5/23/2011
[2] ‘Navy buses bombed in Karachi, four killed’ in Daily Times Lahore, April 27, 2011.
[3] ‘Another navy bus bombed, five killed’ in Daily Times Lahore, April 29, 2011. Perwaiz, Sali bin: ‘Four navy sailors among five dead in Karachi blast’ in The News Karachi, April 29, 2011.
[4] Almeida, Cyril: ‘Gloomy assessments in the wake of the attack’ in Dawn Islamabad, May 24, 2011
[5] ‘Navy regains control of base after 16 hours’ in Dawn Islamabad, May 24, 2011
[6] Noorani, Ahmad: ‘Security forces fail again’ in The News Islamabad, May 23, 2011
[7] Masood, Salman and Sanger, David E.: ‘Pakistan military faces new questions after raid’ in New York Times, May 23, 2011 available at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/world/asia/24pakistan.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Standoff%20at%20Pakistan%20naval%20base%20ends&st=cse last visited on May 24, 2011.
[8] Abbasi, Ansar: ‘Alarm bells ringing in security establishment’ in The News Islamabad, May 24, 2011
[9] Cyril Almeida: ‘Gloomy assessments in the wake of attack’ in Dawn Islamabad, May 24, 2011
[10] The Combined Task Force 150, established at the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001, comprises naval forces from France, Germany, Italy, Pakistan, UK, and the U.S. The task force conducts maritime security operations in the Gulf of Aden, the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean.
[11] Shah, Sabir: ’40 major terror hits rocked armed forces, security agencies’ in The News Islamabad, May 24, 2011
[12] Syed, Baqir Sajjad: ‘Mullen launches diatribe against ISI’ in Dawn Karachi, April 21, 2011.
[13] Saleem, Farrukh: ‘Autoimmune disease behind PNS Mehran’ in The News Islamabad, May 24, 2011
[14] Cyril Almeida: ‘Gloomy assessments in the wake of attack’ in Dawn Islamabad, May 24, 2011
[15] Mir, Amir: ‘BLF-TTP nexus in navy attacks’ in The News Karachi, April 29, 2011.
[16] ‘Pak nukes safe but a matter of concern: Nato’ in The News Islamabad, May 25, 2011.