Pakistan’s security plan apparently seems no more responsive to the current wave of insecurity and complex attacks across the country, bringing the internal security policy under immense question. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s security institutions have no clear strategy to overcome the current security challenges at the time when the country is preparing to host the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Pakistan in mid-October.
To hide its failure, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Moshin Naqvi had recently said that attacks across Baluchistan were aimed at subverting the SCO meeting. Naqvi in his briefing to the Senate, said that the recent spate of terrorist attacks in Balochistan was “planned to ruin” the (SCO) meeting.
First, the minister showed concern over the bad security situation, while secondly, he said that the government is resolved to deal with the elements who were taking up arms against the state. But the ironic point is that he said there is no operation taking place against those who are up in arms against the state, but confirmed only one thing that they found clear links showing it was the work of terrorist groups.
“We have identified clear links, showing that they (terrorists) planned to ruin the SCO conference. A lot of people are in anguish (about the SCO meeting) so that it should not be organized,” Pakistan media quoted Naqvi as saying while briefing the Senate.
He stressed that August 26 attacks were a conspiracy against the summit. At least 70 people, including 14 soldiers and police, as well as 21 militants were killed in fighting after the largest of the attacks, which targeted vehicles on a major highway in Bela, a town in Lasbela district of Balochistan province.
At least 23 civilians were killed in a separate attack in Musakhel district after attackers determined they were from Punjab province and also, they set 35 vehicles ablaze.
Another 10 people were killed, including five police and five civilians after militants attacked a police post on the way in Kalat, and on the same day, rail traffic with Quetta was suspended following blasts on a rail bridge in the town of Bolan linking the provincial capital to the rest of Pakistan.
SCO and India-Pakistan bilateral ties
Meanwhile, Pakistan is waiting to see if India comes up to the fore with a positive response to attend the SCO summit in Pakistan. Pakistan invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Council of Heads of Government meeting to be held in Islamabad.
SCO is an inter-governmental organization that was established in 2001 to promote cooperation and peace among its members and above. It is worth mentioning that India has not attended any SAARC meetings in Pakistan since 2016, and it would be a stepping stone in bilateral relations between New Delhi and Islamabad if India sends a high-level delegation to Pakistan to attend SCO summit.
The agenda of SCO would indeed focus on the issue of regional terrorism, and it would be in the best interest of India to have a delegation on table to participate in this important discussion. The SCO from the beginning had three evil forces “terrorism, separatism and religious extremism” on top of its agenda because the region is suffering from this disease.
The issue of security in Afghanistan has also been a top agenda of discussion in the last several summits of SCO. Afghanistan is an observer at the SCO, but so far the Taliban-led government has not been invited to the meeting so far. But the members of SCO have already agreed that stability and effective counter-terrorism in Afghanistan is a top priority for the wider region.
