Another Outrage
The grenade attack on the Protestant International Church in the Diplomatic Enclave on Sunday last was a disaster waiting to happen, that in the prevailing security environment the law enforcement agencies did not carry out proper “threat perception” and take the necessary counter measures is a surprise. What is more surprising that the diplomatic community’s own security analysts did not see the Church and the regular Sunday gathering as a potential “vulnerable target”. Professionalism in any cadre, whether Pakistani or foreign, involves far more effort than can be put in during duty hours, security is a full-time 24 hours discipline that requires constant monitoring, collection and collation of information, analysis thereof, and pre-emptive action when and where necessary. For the most part the foreign security personnel are very professional, only the odd one stands out as the perennial bureaucrat engaged in protecting his own job at the detriment of his prime responsibility. Find out a security manager who is sarcastic, overbearing and ready to put the blame on others for his own weaknesses and you will know the person who does not know his job.
As for the terrorists who carried out the atrocity, it is now an accepted fact that cowards will always target the innocent and the vulnerable wherever, whether in Pakistan, India or even the US. A place of worship is a soft target, an ideal force-multiplier for spreading fear and panic when anarchy is the ultimate objective, killing and maiming of women and children now being a recognized terror formula. The perpetrators can be any number of individuals and organizations with hate as their creed and murder as their philosophy. The Church incident was an absolute outrage, the only way of assuaging the pain of their taking the life of innocents is to hunt down those involved, expeditiously. A terrible price has been paid by the innocents, it is a debt that can only be re-paid by taking heavy toll of the terrorists who conceived and carried out the atrocity. They can run but they must not be allowed to hide!
