ISLAMABAD: After fighting terrorists for nearly a decade, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told the National Assembly on Wednesday that military and civil intelligence agencies — in a rare collaborative effort — had nabbed a network of terrorists who were planning to target the Hazara community in Quetta.

Admitting that the military-led Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and the civilian Intelligence Bureau (IB) had operated independently and used to jealously guard their operational areas in the past, he said, “This was the first time the two intelligence agencies candidly shared information about terror suspects, which led to a major breakthrough that helped them effectively thwart the terrorists’ plan, which would have taken many innocent lives if it had gone ahead”.

The interior minister was speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, in response to a protest by Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah, who said the government hadn’t taken last week’s Shikarpur bombing seriously.

The interior minister explained that in the past, both civil and military intelligence agencies would jealously claim their prey, but “this time, unlike the past, they trusted each other and made the operation a great success”.

Intelligence-sharing among spy agencies bearing fruit

Sharing details of the exceptional operation, the interior minister informed the thinly attended session of the National Assembly that the terrorist plan had connections from Karachi to Quetta and even across the border in Afghanistan.

“Thanks to the active collaboration of the agencies, they were able to sift through the terrorists’ complicated network and nab its main protagonists who were planning to strike the Hazara community once again,” he said.

Chaudhry Nisar has cause to be happy over the close collaboration between agencies in their hunt for terrorists. In February 2014, he announced the country’s first ever internal security policy that envisioned the setting up of a joint directorate for intelligence-sharing among multiple agencies of the country through the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta).

Despite Nisar’s efforts, Nacta has yet to take off but a sustainable, trustworthy working relationship between ISI and IB can be a major step forward. On many previous occasions, Mr Nisar has said on the record that civil and military agencies lacked cooperation.

When asked, a government official told Dawn that since the launch of the National Action Plan against terrorism, where the military had taken the lead, the agencies have started collaborating with each other.

Taking the house into the confidence, the minister said the enemy had such a large presence it would take some time to root them all out.

“If somebody thinks the country’s war against terrorism and extremism will be over within weeks or months, they are absolutely mistaken. We are in for long haul. But, rest assured, the government will not sit idle until the last terrorist is captured or killed,” he vowed.

Talking about the Shikarpur incident, the interior minister said the city had a history of sectarian tensions and was on a known smuggling route.

“The government is identifying the suicide bomber. Investigators could only recover one finger,” the minister told the house.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play