Amir Mir
ISLAMABAD: Preliminary investigations into the September 6 Karachi Naval Dockyard attack suggest that the Taliban militants had succeeded in carrying out the defence day raid not only due to a security breach but also because of a colossal intelligence failure.
The most worrying aspect of the defence day assault for the authorities is the fact that the Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Coast Guard, Pakistan Marines, and the Maritime Security Agency, which is the combat paramilitary division of the Navy, were caught completely off guard by the attackers. None of them had been given any prior warning or hint by any intelligence agency that someone could even think of attacking the Karachi Naval Dockyard. The news of the attack was kept under wraps for two days and finally made public on September 8. But the brazen assault, for which TTP spokesman has claimed responsibility while admitting “inside help”, highlights the failure of the security and intelligence apparatus. The strategic importance of PNS Dockyard can be gauged from the fact that it is the only submarine construction base for the Pakistan Navy which also carries out defence production activities.
The PNS Dockyard not only provides technical assistance to rebuild and repair a wide range of the Naval equipment, it also undertakes indigenous construction projects like Missiles Boats, Mines Counter Measure Vessel and Agosta 90 - B Submarine. Therefore, the terror assault at such a highly sensitive naval base is extremely alarming for all and sundry. The attack was meticulously-planned with the assistance of insiders and was aimed at targeting the PNS Zulfiqar - one of the key ships at the sea - which was docked at the Pakistan Navy berth at the time of the raid. PNS Zulfiqar is the first of the F-22P series of medium-sized naval warships which was jointly built by Pakistan and China four years ago as part of the Pakistan Navy’s extensive modernisation and expansion as it became a member of the primarily NATO Combined Task Forces CTF-150 and CTF-151.
According to Pakistan Naval Intelligence circles, in a bid to uncover the secret network of renegade elements within the Pakistan Navy who had assisted the Taliban in their defence day terrorist attack on the PNS Dockyard, it has been decided to re-interrogate those Navy officers who had been arrested for their alleged involvement in the May 30, 2011 Mehran Naval Air Base attack. The May 2011 audacious raid was conducted by 12 fidayeen attackers who not only killed 20 security forces personnel but also destroyed two precious P3-C Orion surveillance and anti-submarine aircrafts worth US$36 million each. Even as the firefight was underway at the PNS Mehran, the headquarters of the Pakistan Navy’s Naval Air Arm in Karachi, the TTP had claimed responsibility for the assault, saying it was meant to revenge for the killing of Osama bin Laden [who was gunned down by the American Navy SEALs in Abbottabad four weeks earlier on May 2, 2011].
The security forces took 36 hours to repel the attack at the PNS Mehran Air Naval Base which was aimed at impairing Pakistan’s naval ability as the terrorists were able to destroy two precious Orion planes, purchased from the US in August 2010. As a special investigation team of the Pakistan Naval Intelligence, headed by a two-star rear admiral [Tahseenullah Khan], launched a formal investigation into the Mehran Air Naval Base attack, it transpired that someone from within the Pakistan Navy had provided some highly sensitive inside information to the attackers about the Base. After suspending the Officer Commanding of the Mehran Naval Air Base Commodore Raja Tahir and two of his subordinates – one captain and one commander – all the three naval officials were arrested by the Naval Intelligence and court-martialed by the JAG Branch of the Navy. The arrested captain was the squadron leader of the P3C Orion aircraft, two of which were destroyed in the attack while the commander was in charge of one of the units on the base.
On May 30, 2011, hardly a week after the fidayeen attack on the Mehran Naval Air Base, the Naval Intelligence had arrested from Lahore a former commando of Pakistan Navy, Kamran Ahmed Malik and his younger brother Zaman Ahmed Malik for allegedly assisting the TTP attackers. Kamran Ahmed, who had joined Pakistan Navy in 1993 and was trained as a Special Services Group (Navy) Commando, was accused of providing the maps of the Mehran Naval base to the attackers. He had served at the Iqbal Naval base in Karachi till 1997 and was later transferred to the Mehran Naval base where he had served till 2003, before being court-martialed and terminated from the Navy in 2003 for assaulting a fellow officer.
The military court had declared Kamran Ahmed Malik unfit for the job. Since then, he had operated several petty businesses in the Ghalib Market area of Gulberg in Lahore. Kamran was also picked up by the agencies after the terrorist attack on the Naval War College in Lahore in 2008, but was released after interrogations. Kamran and his three unidentified friends were arrested by secret agencies because of their regular contact with another suspect Qari Qaisar who was arrested for his involvement in the Mehran Base attack. But Kamran was not the only Navy officer to have been arrested for links with jehadi elements.
In March 2010, five Navy officers had been detained by the Naval Intelligence while they were planning to stage an attack. All the five junior commissioned officers who remain in incarceration at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi were the sons of Navy officers. Yet another Pakistani marine commando who belonged to the Waziristan tribal region and had been posted at the PNS Mehran Naval Air Base in the past was arrested in January 2011 for his alleged links with Tehrik-e-Taliban. During interrogation, he disclosed that al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked militants had plans to target some key naval installations in Karachi, including oil depots and power grid stations.
During an in-camera briefing on June 30, 2011, the National Assembly’s parliamentary committee on defence was informed by senior military officials that eight Navy officers have been arrested on charges of abetting the PNS Mehran Base attackers, adding that court martial proceedings have already been initiated against them. The committee was told by senior navy and air force officials that such a well-planned attack on a massive scale could not have been possible without “inside help”. They added that three Navy officers, one sailor and four other personnel had assisted the terrorists who had stayed in a locality close to the Mehran Naval Air Base for three to four days prior to the attack.
The infiltration of the Karachi Naval Air Base on May 22, 2011 by terrorists only gave credence to some earlier reports that the audacious assault could not have been possible without “inside help”. Therefore, in the aftermath of the September 6 terror assault on Karachi Naval Dockyard, the Naval Intelligence authorities have decided to once again interrogate all those former naval officials who had been detained and court martialled between 2010 and 2011 and are being held at the Central Military Jail of Rawalpindi. The investigators of the Naval Intelligence actually want to find out those within the Navy ranks who had been in touch with the Taliban along with Owais Jakhrani, a former Navy officer and the son of the AIG Inspection Karachi Police Ali Shair Jakhrani who had aided the attackers on September 6 and died during the assault after drowning in the sea.
it will be our little secret --- 
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