ISLAMABAD: Senators, mostly belonging to opposition parties, blamed on Thursday the country’s intelligence agencies and the Punjab government’s inaction against militants for last month’s suicide bombing at the Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park in Lahore.

Speaking on adjournment motions regarding the “terrible incident of suicide blast in Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park, Lahore” on March 27, the senators called for a full-fledged military operation on militants’ hideouts in Punjab.

Initiating the debate, PPP’s parliamentary leader, Saeed Ghani, recalled that before this incident, the Punjab government had always opposed a military operation, claiming that there were no organised militant groups in the province. He said the incident had proved the existence of terrorist groups in Punjab. Mr Ghani called for a military operation in the province similar to those initiated in Karachi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Senator Taj Haider, also of the PPP, termed the war against terrorism a “battle between extremist and democratic forces.” He alleged that the sympathisers of militants were present within the state.

“Is it not true that insiders were involved in the attacks on the GHQ and Mehran Base?” he questioned, calling for the removal of such elements from the institutions.

Jahanzeb Jamaldini of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) said that the Indian intelligence agency, RAW, was blamed for every incident of terrorism in the country. “Yes, RAW has a hand in terrorism in Pakistan, but it is not involved in all terrorist acts in the country. And if it is, then what are our agencies doing?”

Usman Kakar of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) was of the view that “dictatorial forces and terrorists are natural allies.” He said that this natural alliance between dictatorial forces and militants started during the era of Gen Ziaul Haq and continued till the reign of Gen Musharraf.

Mr Kakar, whose party is part of the ruling coalition with the PML-N, alleged that Pakistan was still pursuing the 40-year-old policy of interfering in the affairs of Afghanistan. “We are still following the policy of good and bad Taliban,” he alleged. PPP’s Khalida Perveen was of the opinion that due to the lack of training and capacity of civilian forces, they always had to seek the army’s help even for petty matters. She said the recent operation against the Chotoo gang in Rajanpur had exposed the police’s inefficiency and ill planning.

In response to the opposition’s criticism over the Punjab government, PML-N’s Nehal Hashmi and Javed Abbasi lashed out at the PPP, accusing it of doing nothing to eliminate terrorism during their five-year term. Both claimed the security situation had improved since the PML-N came into power in 2013.

Winding up the debate, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Shaikh Aftab delivered a political speech, but did not provide any information regarding the blast at Gulshan-i-Iqbal Park and the investigations after it. He called for political unity to counter terrorism.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2016