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Journalism of Courage
The Pakistan Navy is apparently the soft underbelly of the armed forces,and this weakness was exploited by the Pakistani Taliban,who attacked Karachis Mehran Naval Station on Sunday.
Four to six Taliban terrorists entered PNS Mehran on Sunday night,destroying two US-supplied maritime surveillance aircraft and killing ten military personnel during their 17-hour siege of the naval air base.
The attack occurred 19 months since GHQ in Pindi was raided,and came in the wake of three deadly attacks against navy personnel in Karachi in recent weeks,the Dawn reported.
And yet militants were able to easily infiltrate PNS Mehran through an empty patch of land running alongside the rear of the base,it pointed out.
The PNS Mehran attack has raised several questions,with speculations focussing on the relative weakness of Pakistans naval security,the report said.
From a low-level tactical perspective,the naval bases in Karachi are entrenched in densely populated areas. For some reason,the security appears to be less. The army has really tightened theirs,and the air force has its own protocols, a senior police officer said on the condition of anonymity.
The argument that the navy is the soft underbelly of the armed forces,is supplemented by two other contentions,the report said.
The first one is the possibility of the militants having insider information. The navy was vulnerable because there is penetration in both the navy and air force. The penetration in the navy is an old story that people dont want to talk about, said Ayesha Siddiqa,who once served as a civilian analyst with the Pakistan Navy.
The second contention is related to the role- albeit a quiet one- the Pakistan Navy plays in the fight against militancy.
The American warships and aircraft carrier off the coast of Karachi coordinate with the navy here, said Amir Rana,director of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies.
Al Qaeda knows about naval cooperation,and has even exhorted its supporters in the Maghreb to develop sea capabilities, he added.
