Militant Attack Reveals Security Gaps in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, huddled with top military and government officials Tuesday to hammer out a security strategy following a complex terrorist attack in the capital that left 11 dead and two dozen wounded.
Eyewitnesses to Monday’s gun, grenade and suicide bomb attack on a courthouse in a busy shopping area in central Islamabad said police were not able to protect the victims from the militants.
Security analysts have said that an effective police force was critical to fighting the country’s violent insurgency.
A former inspector-general of the police, who asked to go only by the name Ahmed, said the police had the experience, but not the capacity to counter such threats.
“Unless the government of Pakistan and the provincial governments of Pakistan come very heavily to prepare the police in terms of their capacity building, it will become difficult for the police to come to the expectations of the Pakistan community, the nation, and to the international community as well,” he said.
Seeking to reassure the public, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said on Tuesday the government was in the process of importing bomb disposal vehicles, and boosting its defenses against urban terrorism.
According to state-run media, there were 47 police on duty at the time. One died in the bombing.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Monday admitted the city’s police were not ready to deal with terrorist attacks.
He said Pakistan’s armed forces were trained and motivated against this kind of warfare, but its police and civil armed forces were not trained for this kind of warfare.
fuente. La Voz de América, http://www.voanews.com/content/militant-attack-reveals-security-gaps-in-pakistan/1863887.html
Eyewitnesses to Monday’s gun, grenade and suicide bomb attack on a courthouse in a busy shopping area in central Islamabad said police were not able to protect the victims from the militants.
Security analysts have said that an effective police force was critical to fighting the country’s violent insurgency.
A former inspector-general of the police, who asked to go only by the name Ahmed, said the police had the experience, but not the capacity to counter such threats.
“Unless the government of Pakistan and the provincial governments of Pakistan come very heavily to prepare the police in terms of their capacity building, it will become difficult for the police to come to the expectations of the Pakistan community, the nation, and to the international community as well,” he said.
Seeking to reassure the public, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid said on Tuesday the government was in the process of importing bomb disposal vehicles, and boosting its defenses against urban terrorism.
According to state-run media, there were 47 police on duty at the time. One died in the bombing.
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Monday admitted the city’s police were not ready to deal with terrorist attacks.
He said Pakistan’s armed forces were trained and motivated against this kind of warfare, but its police and civil armed forces were not trained for this kind of warfare.
fuente. La Voz de América, http://www.voanews.com/content/militant-attack-reveals-security-gaps-in-pakistan/1863887.html
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