Five blasts in Peshawar in the last four days. Refugees from the Tirah valley were the target on this occasion, and were busy registering themselves for rehabilitation when the cowardly attack left five people dead and six injured. Attacks such as these serve to instil terror in a way that other targets do not accomplish. Any attack on security personnel, however tragic, is ultimately treated as collateral in the ongoing war between the state and the militants. But the loss of civilian life gives rise to a greater sort of insecurity, and failings. The mindless suicide attack on IDPs busy in the task of registering themselves, is an attack on a most basic organizational function of the state, and its harm and fear is tenfold because it exposes the state’s vulnerability at a fundamental level; in the inability to protect its most defenceless people.
In addition to this, yet another IED explosion led to the death of one soldier and injured three others. The war between the TTP and the state is not predicated on the ideas of conventional warfare. The job of the terrorists is virtually simple; all they need to do is plant an explosive and hope that the body count is high.
The government’s steadfast conviction to attempt to negotiate is a persistent indignity to the people that continue to lose their lives, and the lives of their loved ones. It is shameful that the TTP has accepted no demands since the talks began, and yet the government persists in holding a dialogue with murderers. When they promised to hold true to their ceasefire, they conveniently denied that they had any part to play in the attacks that took place during the supposed cessation of hostilities. Over 50,000 people have been killed since the terrorists starting conducting attacks on Pakistani soil. The only question is how many more will die, before the government sees their negotiating partners for what they are; criminals, psychopaths and cowards.