On September 18, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) carried out yet another brazen attack on military infrastructure in Pakistan. In the early hours of the day, the Badaber Air Force Base in Peshawar was breached by an armed group of terrorists at two points. The military’s Quick Response Force (QRF) engaged the assailants, who had split into sub-groups. A major was shot in the leg during the crossfire, and a captain was one of the 29 killed in the ensuing gunfight. This was one of the biggest attacks on a military base in recent times, and resulted in the largest number of friendly casualties. Whether this attack was successful or foiled depends on perspective. The Inter-Services Public Relations calls it a foiled attempt. Reports indicate a siege plan – the terrorists were well-armed, well-trained, carried explosives and grenades and had rations for several days. This is a common trait with the larger, more organized attacks. The perpetrators of the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar Cantonment also brought several days of rations with them. “None of them [were] wearing suicide vests. They were not suicide bombers. They had come to fight a long battle and fight till the last bullet,” said an official. The QRF engaged and contained the 13 militants, but one group managed to reach the nearby mosque and kill 16 worshippers mid-prayer. The police formed a cordon outside the base to cut off a potential escape. Lt Gen Bajwa, the recently promoted head of the ISPR, said three helicopters were utilized in clearance and evacuation of casualties. The argument made here is that this could have been a much bigger tragedy if they had managed to go deeper into the base, or worse, entrenched themselves for a protracted engagement. The attack was foiled because the assailants were killed swiftly and denied entry into the more sensitive areas of the base. In the process, 25 valiant soldiers sacrificed their lives for their country. The attack was planned and...

On September 18, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) carried out yet another brazen attack on military infrastructure in Pakistan. In the early hours of the day, the Badaber Air Force Base in Peshawar was breached by an armed group of terrorists at two points. The military’s Quick Response Force (QRF) engaged the assailants, who had split into sub-groups. A major was shot in the leg during the crossfire, and a captain was one of the 29 killed in the ensuing gunfight. This was one of the biggest attacks on a military base in recent times, and resulted in the largest number of friendly casualties. Whether this attack was successful or foiled depends on perspective. The Inter-Services Public Relations calls it a foiled attempt. Reports indicate a siege plan – the terrorists were well-armed, well-trained, carried explosives and grenades and had rations for several days. This is a common trait with the larger, more organized attacks. The perpetrators of the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar Cantonment also brought several days of rations with them. “None of them [were] wearing suicide vests. They were not suicide bombers. They had come to fight a long battle and fight till the last bullet,” said an official. The QRF engaged and contained the 13 militants, but one group managed to reach the nearby mosque and kill 16 worshippers mid-prayer. The police formed a cordon outside the base to cut off a potential escape. Lt Gen Bajwa, the recently promoted head of the ISPR, said three helicopters were utilized in clearance and evacuation of casualties. The argument made here is that this could have been a much bigger tragedy if they had managed to go deeper into the base, or worse, entrenched themselves for a protracted engagement. The attack was foiled because the assailants were killed swiftly and denied entry into the more sensitive areas of the base. In the process, 25 valiant soldiers sacrificed their lives for their country. The attack was planned and...

On September 18, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) carried out yet another brazen attack on military infrastructure in Pakistan. In the early hours of the day, the Badaber Air Force Base in Peshawar was breached by an armed group of terrorists at two points. The military’s Quick Response Force (QRF) engaged the assailants, who had split into sub-groups. A major was shot in the leg during the crossfire, and a captain was one of the 29 killed in the ensuing gunfight. This was one of the biggest attacks on a military base in recent times, and resulted in the largest number of friendly casualties. Whether this attack was successful or foiled depends on perspective. The Inter-Services Public Relations calls it a foiled attempt. Reports indicate a siege plan – the terrorists were well-armed, well-trained, carried explosives and grenades and had rations for several days. This is a common trait with the larger, more organized attacks. The perpetrators of the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar Cantonment also brought several days of rations with them. “None of them [were] wearing suicide vests. They were not suicide bombers. They had come to fight a long battle and fight till the last bullet,” said an official. The QRF engaged and contained the 13 militants, but one group managed to reach the nearby mosque and kill 16 worshippers mid-prayer. The police formed a cordon outside the base to cut off a potential escape. Lt Gen Bajwa, the recently promoted head of the ISPR, said three helicopters were utilized in clearance and evacuation of casualties. The argument made here is that this could have been a much bigger tragedy if they had managed to go deeper into the base, or worse, entrenched themselves for a protracted engagement. The attack was foiled because the assailants were killed swiftly and denied entry into the more sensitive areas of the base. In the process, 25 valiant soldiers sacrificed their lives for their country. The attack was planned and...

Law enforcement agencies picked up more than 60 suspects, including about 30 Afghan nationals, in a number of raids in Islamabad on September 18. They seized weapons and ammunition from the dreaded stronghold of Imtiaz Khokhar – popularly known as Taji Khokhar – and arrested 20 suspects, according to news reports. Imtiaz Khokhar is the brother of former deputy speaker of National Assembly Nawaz Khokhar, who belonged to the People’s Party but was reportedly expelled in 2002. He is the uncle of former minister for human rights Mustafa Nawaz.  Imtiaz Khokhar had been accused of using armed men at his disposal for extortion and to illegally occupy people’s land, and was also facing a trial for allegedly murdering a woman over a land dispute. Imtiaz and his aides – including his sons and employees – were sent to Adiala Jail in 2013. The judge hearing the murder case was found dead in his house last month. Police claim they have arrested the killers. But religious circles respect Imtiaz Khokhar as a kind, magnanimous and God-fearing man. If insiders are to be believed, Khokhar’s son is married to the daughter of a famous hardline cleric. That explains the nexus between crime, militancy and religious entities. The reports, followed by explanations from his elder brother Nawaz Khokhar, reminded me of my eye-opening meeting with Taji Khokhar in January 2011. Following are some excerpts from my diary after that eventful visit: “On the chilly evening of January 30, 2011, I had a meeting with Maulana Shah Abdul Aziz, a former legislator whom the Supreme Court had acquitted of involvement in the abduction and eventual murder of a polish engineer. “I had been chasing Aziz for some time to figure out his role as a religious cleric from Karak, an underdeveloped district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He was said to be a go-between for Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), until the latter was killed in August 2009 by an American drone. ‘They love to suck...

By directly telephoning Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to condemn the terrorist attack on the Badhaber Air Base, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani broke the ice that had formed following the spate of attacks in early August in Kabul. The mood in the Afghan capital vis-a-vis Pakistan was one of outrage and fell just short of declaration of war. Ghani, currently operating in a politically hostile environment, reiterated the resolve that Afghanistan will never allow its land to be used by anyone against Pakistan. He called in the context of Pakistani allegations that terrorists based in Kabul masterminded and guided the attack. His call also coincided with a long meeting at the Prime Minister House, where all the mighty ones — including the two Sharifs — had gathered to ponder Pakistan’s response to the latest attack. During the meeting, intelligence officials, according to the national media, insisted that they possessed strong evidence that the Badhaber attack was “planned and directed from Afghanistan”. Most also agreed, in principle, to provide the Afghan government with the “proof of the involvement of Afghanistan-based groups and other actors”. This all sounds good. Only in sharing evidence lies the way forward. But do the two countries share each other’s perceptions on the sources of terrorism too? The elimination of Shahidullah Shahid and Saeed Khan Orakzai in US drone strikes on targets in eastern Afghanistan, as well as the arrest by American marines in October 2013 of Lateefullah Mehsud, an aide to Hakimullah Mehsud, are the oft-quoted examples that support the Pakistani perception. It was the Americans who helped Pakistan out — by taking the TTP out and wresting Mehsud from the National Directorate of Security (NDS) officials and turning him over to us. Afghan NDS officials had then told the Americans that Mehsud was in Kabul for a coordination meeting — a clear hint that the TTP was serving as a proxy instrument for Afghan intelligence. The telephonic...