Lahore attack raises worrying questions

Today’s attack on a police training school in Lahore could be part of a worrying trend. This was not suicide bombing, but a commando-style raid, as per the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team which left seven dead in the same city earlier this month, and the attacks on the hotels in Mumbai, India last year. 

If these incidents are tactically connected, the finger of suspicion could point to homegrown Lashkar-e-Taiba militants. A senior army officer said the attackers were “Afghans”, but a police recruit at the scene detected accents from the southern Punjab.

If the latter is the case, this will provide further evidence that the extremist threat is not merely confined to the Afghan border but has moved to the heart of Pakistan itself.

And if it is indeed Pashtun-speaking Taliban, then clearly a) the recent peace deal in the Swat valley is not making Pakistan safer and b) the $10bn in military aid given to Pakistan by Washington since September 11th has not made Pakistan safer, either.   
 
It is one of those days when you wonder how long Pakistan will survive in its current form. I felt the same way in 2007 when I was in Karachi, where 150 were killed in Benazir Bhutto’s homecoming parade. And then later that year in Rawalpindi, when Benazir was herself assassinated.

These feelings pass. Pakistan picks itself up and dusts itself down. But when a small band of militants can enter a police academy where hundreds of recruits are on parade, you do wonder if anybody is in charge.

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