Islamabad's suicide attack result of intelligence failure: Experts
Dec 26, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], December 26 : The last Friday attack in Islamabad was an intelligence failure as the terrorist easily made his way to a residential sector of the city and no prior information was available in this connection, The Nation reported citing security experts.
On December 23, in a suicide attack that shattered an eight-and-a-half-year lull in the federal capital, a policeman was killed and at least six people including four policemen and two civilians were injured.
Though the police officials have averted a major loss of lives in the capital, it is believed that any congregation of Friday prayers might have been the actual target of the suicide bomber.
According to The Nation, the bombers have easily made their entry into the major commercial area or government buildings as the security checkposts in the city have been abolished since 2020.
Then Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed had instructed to remove all security barricades except that of the high-security Red Zone area.
Prior to the recent suicide attack in the capital city, the last bombing was recorded in March 2014 when two bombers had detonated themselves at the Judicial Complex in upscale Sector F-8, according to the official data of Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS).
Since 2005, a total of 18 suicide attacks have taken place in Islamabad in which 165 people have been killed and 616 injured, The Nation reported.
The think-tank's militancy database shows that the first suicide bombing in Islamabad after 9/11 was carried out in May 2005.
Prior to the September 11 attacks, the only suicide bombing incident that happened in the capital was an attack on Egyptian Embassy in 1995. And in Pakistan, as many as 504 suicide attacks have taken place since 9/11 in which 6,748 people were killed and 15,111 injured, according to the Nation.
The banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the attack as the group has intensified its terrorist activities after it formally ended the ceasefire at the end of last month.
In a statement, TTP had said that the outfit took the decision after "a series of non-stop attacks were launched by the military group in Bannu's Lakki Marwat district".
Before this, the group whose militants have been hiding in Afghanistan since 2014 had focused its activities in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including its tribal districts.
The TTP's suicide attack in Islamabad has sent shock waves among the law enforcers.
