Frontier at home

The sight of Pakistani security forces exulting after overcoming the militants who attacked the police training centre in Lahore could almost be termed poignant. For, by its very nature, and not least given that the feared chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Baitullah Mehsud has claimed responsibility, the attack again underscores the fact that the militants have moved beyond the Frontier and are now at war with the state, everywhere.

The big question is whether the Pakistani ruling class can finally fully realise the potency of the peril facing the state, and be able to summon the consensus needed to take it on. For all concerned, the attack was another disaster. India, on its part, will find it just a bit harder to maintain that terrorism can vanish at the Pakistani state���s will.

The militants, it is clear, now have their own independent strategic military aim. And reports of all the warlords preparing to focus on taking on allied forces in Afghanistan can only mean the battle for the US is going to get tougher. As for the Pakistani establishment, it now faces a bitter and entrenched foe, while seemingly lacking the political consensus needed for the savage battle ahead. Measures such as the restoration of Shahbaz Sharif as Punjab CM, still don���t mean a final resolution of the warring feudals agreeing on pie portions.

Such a political consensus within Pakistan has to come first before the hugely complex problem of a proper counter-insurgency plan can be approached. The new Obama ���Af-Pak��� strategy ��� which entails a troop surge but also a more regional approach as well as taking on board local-level power equations ��� is, per se, a conceptual exercise as yet.

India, on its part, must step up the multi-layered approach of acknowledging, and engaging with, the different sections of the Pakistani state. There is no recourse except to first make responsible sections in the neighbouring state better recognise the internal enemy, and then, to whatever extent possible, aiding them in conducting the battle with the common, determined and implacable foe.