Arshad Ali, a 28-year-old schoolteacher, died when a bomb destroyed a bus carrying government employees to work in Peshawar on March 16. The explosion killed 16 and left around 50 others wounded.
Arshad had been engaged recently and the family was preparing for the wedding. “Our family is devastated, and my heart is broken,” said Noor Muhammad, his father, who lives in the Mehardi village in Malakand Agency.
“What did Arshad do to deserve this? Why do these terrorists target innocent people?” asked his cousin Waqar Khan.
Hundreds of mourners asked similar questions at the funeral of Malak Noor Muhammad, who belonged to the Shergarh village in Mardan. The elderly man was killed in the same attack. He was on his way to Peshawar for a medical checkup.
There is one policeman for every 1,000 people in Peshawar
After a period of relative calm during the last year, violence is on the rise in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa again, creating a sense of fear and anxiety among the people of the province.
Compared with 2014, there was a 61% reduction in terrorist attacks in the province in 2015, according to a report by Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS).
But on the very first day of the 2016, three teachers were wounded when unidentified gunmen attacked a school in Charsadda and fled. In the two weeks that followed, there were a number attacks on policemen and law-enforcement personnel in various parts of the province.
A man surveys the lawyers’ chambers after a court complex was targeted by a suicide bomber in Shabqadar on March 7
On January 20, gunmen attacked Bacha Khan University (BKU) in Charsadda, killing 21 people, most of them students and teachers. On March 7, a suicide attacker blew himself up in the premises of a local court in Shabqadar area of Charsadda and killed 17 people.
The bus bombing in Peshawar was claimed by Majlis-e-Lashkari, a previously unknown group. They said the attack was a response to the ongoing military operation in the tribal areas, and specifically the army chief’s approval to hang 13 Taliban death convicts.
"They continue to generate revenue with extortion and abductions"
The attack on BKU was claimed by a leader of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who declared war on modern education. Jamaatul Ahrar, a splinter group of TTP, claimed the Shabqadar court suicide attack, saying it was to avenge the execution of Mumtaz Qadri.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police reacted to this sharp increase in violence with sterner rules, including a new set of standard operating procedures for transporters and bus stand operators. Drivers and conductors will now ensure all passengers are body-searched and also checked with metal detectors. All their luggage and any bags they carry in hand will also be checked before they board. Bus crews have been advised to avoid mid-way stops, and to videotape the faces of all their passengers before starting the journey.
“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police has the training and capacity to meet the challenges of the day,” according to Senior Superintendent Police (Operations) Abbas Majeed Khan Marwat. He told me police in the province had set up specialized schools, such as a School of Intelligence, a School of Investigation, a School of Public Disorder and a School of Explosive Handling. They send out special teams of Bomb Disposal Unit personnel and sniffer dogs to three points in the city every day, he said, where they thoroughly check vehicles entering and leaving the city for an hour, followed by random checking for the rest of the day.
The only shortcoming, he says, is a lack of manpower. There is one policeman for every 1,000 citizens in Peshawar. Ideally, he says, there should be pone policeman for 450 people.
One solution, according to Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani, an advisor to the Chief Minister, is for the federal government to return the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary (FC) to the province, or to deploy Rangers. He acknowledges that incidents of violence have increased in the province this year. “We need FC or rangers on the borders between tribal areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he says. “Only strengthening our border security can ensure peace in our province.”
Afghan refugees and internally displaced people are an extra burden on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police, Ghani says. “The chief minister has issued new directives to the police, especially to enhance their intelligence network.”
But opposition leaders blame the increasing violence on the provincial government’s policies. “Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has become a safe haven for terrorists,” according to Awami National Party president Asfandyar Wali Khan. “Until they take action against a mindset in the settled areas, it is impossible to eradicate militancy,” he said in a statement, adding that the government was protecting the patrons of terrorism.
According to Asfandyar Wali Khan, even some lawmakers and ministers pay extortion money to terrorist organizations. The result, he says, is an increase in militant activities and the lowering of the police’s morale.
The surge in violence comes at a time when the military operation Zarb-e-Azb in the tribal areas has entered its final phase. Since the campaign was launched in June 2014, more than 3,500 militants have been killed in battles in various parts of FATA.
Peshawar-based journalist Shamim Shahid says the Taliban have been dispersed by the operation but they have not been defeated yet.
Military operations Khyber-1 and Khyber-2 have targeted the Lashkar-e-Islam led by Mangal Bagh in Khyber Agency, and Zarb-e-Azb currently targets TTP and the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group in North Waziristan.
“The militant leadership is safe and their organizations are intact,” he claims. One reason for that is that they continue to generate revenue with extortion and abduction for ransom, which continue unabated.
Violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – 2016
January 1 Three teachers wounded in a gun attack on a school in Charsadda.
January 3 Two policemen and two soldiers injured in two separate bomb attacks in Mardan and Peshawar.
January 15 Unidentified gunmen attack the house of an Afghan consulate official in Peshawar Cantt. He was not hurt.
January 16 Four policemen wounded in a grenade attack on a police van in Swabi.
January 20 TTP militants storm Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, killing 21 people.
January 22 A policeman from the Elite Force Unit killed in a gun attack in Peshawar, while on his way to his office on a motorcycle.
January 24 Four civilians injured in an IED explosion in Peshawar, apparently targeting an Imam of a local mosque.
January 26 A bomb meant to target a school was defused in Peshawar. Unidentified men gave a pressure cooker with 5 kilograms of explosives marked with a Taliban slogan to a boy asking him to take it to school.
January 28 Police defuse give bombs targeting a major electricity installation in Peshawar.
February 8 Two civilians killed in an IED explosion in Bannu. A Shia elder killed in a gun attack in Peshawar.
February 9 A leaders of traders killed in a gun attack in Peshawar. He had received threatening phone calls asking for extortion last year.
February 13 A jeweler killed in a gun attack in Peshawar, after receiving a threatening letter demanding money in exchange for his life. He had earlier survived a grenade attack.
March 7 Seventeen killed in a suicide attack on a court compound in Shabqadar.
March 11 An army officer killed on his way to a mosque in Peshawar. The TTP claim responsibility.
