ON Tuesday, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister announced that a special security force for the protection of passengers using the Karakoram Highway was being raised. This announcement, coming in the wake of several deadly ambushes on the highway and on the route connecting Quetta to Iran, should be welcomed.
Nevertheless, it is hoped that the exercise in planning protection for these vulnerable routes is undertaken keeping the state’s capacity in mind. Most of those pulled out of buses and killed both on the Karakoram Highway and Balochistan belonged to the Shia community. Ambushes have taken place in Kohistan, Mansehra and Quetta this year while pilgrims bound for Iran were massacred in Mastung last year. Concerned officials have met at the interior ministry in Islamabad, but so far little has been done to visibly increase the security of those using these two volatile routes.
Some solutions towards securing both routes are common, while others require action particular to the situation. For instance, buses should be grouped in convoys and travel with security escorts on both routes. However, locals in Gilgit-Baltistan point out that it is beyond the authorities’ capacity to realistically patrol the entire Karakoram Highway because of its length and treacherous terrain. Instead, they want the administration to address the root of the problem by prosecuting and punishing hate-mongers active in Gilgit town. Underpinning such measures would be a stronger effort by the intelligence apparatus to identify militants and alert security officials to impending attacks. Allegations that elements within the sec-urity apparatus are either colluding with or look-ing the other way while militants carry out their butchery also need to be investigated. Unless such definitive measures are planned and implemented, the assertion that the state has no concern for vulnerable travellers targeted by terrorist groups would stand justified.http://dawn.com/2012/09/13/safety-of-routes/
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