Bombing testifies to agencies’ failure: experts

[Naveed Yaseen]

ISLAMABAD: Former military chiefs and a defence analyst on Sunday said that the Marriott Hotel bombing testified to the shameful failure of law-enforcement and intelligence agencies to fight terrorism and emphasized that they would have to think beyond setting up pickets and roadblocks to save the people and their property from terrorists. Gen ® Aslam Baig said that a Taxila-bound truck carrying around 3,000 kg explosive material (TNT) for a stone-crushing firm had gone missing on Sept 8 but the police could not recover it. He was of the view that 600 kgs of the stolen TNT might have been used in the Marriott Hotel bombing and feared that terrorists might also use the remaining 2,400 kg TNT to pick their future targets. He said the security agencies must recover the remaining TNT before the terrorists could use it to wreak havoc on some other city. Gen ® Hameed Gul termed the incident a serious security lapse and said it evidenced sheer incompetence of law-enforcement agencies to live up to their professional obligations. “All the agencies deputed in the red zone are responsible for the suicide attack,” he added. Chairman Department of Physics, Quaid-e-Azam University, Pervez Hoodboy said: “To ensure protection from suicide bombers by setting up roadblocks could never be effective in our cities. Instead, the military should target the masterminds hiding in the Tribal Areas.” He said the military should stop using it as a surrogate force in Kashmir and Afghanistan adding that the government will have to change the syllabi, rein in the violence-preaching mullahs and develop a popular opinion in favour of fighting the militants. Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) chief Muhammad Ijaz Abbasi said that the incident showed a serious security lapse. “It’s unfortunate that security agencies already knew that terrorists were biding their time to strike anywhere in the capital city of Islamabad but despite that they failed to stop the tragic incident. staff report

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