First, the Chinese embassy was attacked, we did nothing. Some have postulated that Galwan might have been payback for that, regardless, the attack was conducted on our land by Indian proxies and WE did nothing. Then came an attack on PSX soon after the Shanghai stock exchange had bought a 40% stake signaling greater interest in the Pakistani economy, by the same proxies, we did nothing despite the fact that the heart of the Pakistani financial sector was targeted in broad daylight. Then the Chinese ambassador himself had a narrow escape when the Quetta Serena hotel bomb attempt failed.TTP claimed the responsibility. One might ask what beef TTP has with the Chinese, unlike the Baloch secessionist militants. This clearly shows from where TTP took its instructions to orchestrate this attack. And sticking to the pattern, we did nothing. Now the most strategic project (Dasu) that is vital for our water, food, and energy security was brazenly attacked by the same hostile element and if history is the guide here, we would not do anything. Yesterday, two Chinese engineers were injured in a gun attack in Karachi and the responsibility for it was claimed by the Indian proxy again. Few questions arise from these happenings and our continued inability to either thwart enemy designs to drive a wedge between Pakistan and her most steadfast ally OR hitting back in the sub-conventional space as a deterrent.
1. Are we practicing strategic restrain until we rid ourselves of FATF greylist or a favorable end to Afghan conflict? It must be noted that today we have come to a juncture where the Indian side is not even hiding its machinations and Jaishankar gets to openly boast about keeping us on the greylist. Furthermore, is there even a favorable outcome for us to the Afghan conflict? Afghan Taliban are the least trustworthy actors out there. The CNN interview of TTP amir drops hints about operational independence TTP foresees for itself once TTA sweeps across Afghanistan.
2. Why is our intelligence network unable to bust these networks before they do the damage? If Indian intelligence institutions are able to dismantle the modules in Kashmir and elsewhere in India, why are we unable to replicate what we did during the Raheel Shareef era?
3. Why are we not hitting back? Have we lost the capability to do so due to LoC's anti-infiltration grid or the growing capacity of the Indian state to manage its borders and secure the hinterland?
Looking forward to your views on these points and an informed discussion.
I think it has to do with:
1. Lack of funds.
2. Lack of man power.
3. Lack of technology implementation (Both in government & ISI itself, data is not available/data has loopholes, example NADRA issued IDs to Afghans, fingerprints stolen to get sim cards etc)
4.Enemy's deep infiltration in our lines including politics, bureaucracy, police, judiciary, journalists and even in army etc.
5.There are more than one intelligence agencies against one. This region attracts too much interest, attention and money.
6.Enemy is well experienced of our fault lines and knows corrupt elements with in our lines very well.
7.All enemies are larger than Pakistan and have more funds.
Despite of all above, we have survived mainly due to jazba e emani.
Story of meeting an ISI operative:
Had the privilege of meeting someone from ISI some 9-11 years back. I asked him a lot of question regarding bomb blasts which were a routine back then, successfully carried out despite our agencies knowing that terrorists gonna target x,y and z places soon and that they have entered the city etc (This was common news back then, we had warnings, memos circulated to ministries but incident would still occur). I asked him why does it happened? He said that we have our agents inside enemy lines who live life as one of them. We can't contact them or push them to deliver information. They do when they can, what they can. It takes years to build such as asset. If we push them too hard, or force them to give us updated and exact information their cover maybe blown and they may get killed.
We can either prevent 1 attack 100% but loose our asset in the process or get information about 100 attacks and prevent most of them, however some of them unfortunately would be successful since we could not get exact information. That's the trade off.
I wont give too much information about the person himself but what he told me, he lived as one of the executives of a telephone company, he had a sports car and a heavy bike, for people he was a rich & successful care free person, his job was to mingle with high profile people. He tracked several phone numbers while talking to me and smoking his cigarette. He said intelligence is a tough life and I won't wish this life for others.
We discussed about Altaf Hussain and his shite speeches against Pakistan and Pak Army (those were extreme and rampant back then) he said don't worry about him. He would be dealt with soon, you will see. And that is true as we know today. Also, he said you have no idea about the wealth of Nawaz & Zardari's he said it is incomprehensible amount of money that these people have. I asked about their corruption and anti-state activities and he said they create troubles for us and we create troubles for them in return.
Anyways, where ever that person is today. Thanks for his service!