Terrorists may have been weakened but they still retain the capacity to wreak havoc with lives. On Wednesday night, at least nine people were killed, including five policemen, and 20 others injured in a suicide bombing close to the Tableeghi Jamaat’s biannual congregation at Raiwind near Lahore. According to reports, the bomber, a teenage boy, blew himself up at a checkpoint when a policeman tried to stop him from entering the venue of the gathering attended by hundreds of people from all over the country. This was the second terrorist attack in and around Lahore within a span of just eight months. Last July, 26 people were killed in a bombing at the city’s vegetable market. And before that several lives were lost in a string of terrorist strikes. TTP has taken responsibility for the latest atrocity, saying it was a revenge attack for the killing of ‘mujahideen’ in Punjab, although it has also been repeatedly committing acts of terrorism in Quetta as well.

Sadly, terrorism is alive and well in this country despite various counter-terrorism operations, including the Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan, and Radd-ul-Fasaad launched two years ago all across the country with the aim of eliminating “residual/latent threat of terrorism”. Admittedly, it will take time to win this fight. But the recurring incidents indicate not all is being done to rid this state and society of religious extremism that feeds terrorism. It has become a cliché to remind the government that it has not implemented some of the vital aspects of the 20-point political consensus-based National Action Plan, such as regulating the madressah affairs, dealing firmly with sectarian terrorists, and strengthening the National Counter-Terrorism Authority, where among other important things, various civilian and military intelligence agencies were to share intelligence. Yet there is hardly an effect. The result is that terrorists have a ready supply of suicide bombers; and facilitators, without whom they cannot carry out their evil deeds.

Although so far no one has blamed the ‘hidden hand’ for the appalling loss of life at Raiwind, the usual tendency is to point the finger at the foreign enemy after each terrorist strike. The external enemy can be expected to cause harm; but needless to say, those who execute and facilitate these acts are local people. Governments, both in the provinces and at the Centre, must get their act together to eliminate such elements. To that end, all civilian and military agencies also ought to join hands so that timely preventive measures can be taken. All concerned need to work with a sense of emergency considering the fact that general elections are only four months away. Electioneering activity has already picked up momentum. Any laxity in security at this point in time is fraught with dangerous consequences.