The power of a single mosquito

If you wondered why the eccentric Bollywood actor Nana Patekar in one of his movies frantically kept on repeating that a single mosquito can turn a man into a eunuch, you should go through the news about six men or probably four holding off about 1,500 soldiers for 16 hours in Karachi.
Six terrorists (if somebody actually wants to take Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s word for it, otherwise according to contradictory reports, there were only four), earlier speculated to be between 10 and 15, grabbed their arms and explosives, sneaked into the naval base, PNS Mehran, destroyed two precious US-made P-3C Orion aircraft and killed 10 security personnel. Later, the security forces were at their wits’ end by the time they managed to take down the handful of terrorists.
If the manner in which our armed forces’ “preparedness to meet any challenge” was exposed wasn’t painful enough, the interior minister and navy chief really rubbed salt into wounds. The former likened the attackers to "Star Wars characters" on the basis of their appearance, and as for the latter, it’s mind-boggling as to why he chose to speak if he only had to admire the attackers’ skills, training and efficiency.
The October 2009 attack on the military headquarters in Rawalpindi should have compelled the army to review many of its flawed strategies and set its priorities right.
But it didn’t. And now it cannot afford to waste time on reassessing as to who poses the biggest threat to the country. The answer is right there in front of it in its ugly form.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the naval base attack, which is apparently part of the expected backlash in the aftermath of the US raid in which al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed.
A closer look at the terrorists’ modus operandi in the PNS Mehran attack shows that it shares many similarities with the army headquarters siege in Pindi, the March 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team and the Mumbai attacks in November 2008. In almost all these cases, there is a group of heavily armed men who are experts in guerilla tactics. They infiltrate into the targeted area and keeping the security forces engaged for hours.
These methods are unlike the ones employed by the tribal areas’ Taliban, who usually blow themselves up at crowded spots or ram an explosive-laden vehicle into a building, like what they did to the Crime Investigation Department office in Karachi.
The tactics used by terrorists in the naval base attack and the similar ones before it are hallmarks of the jihadists prepared for Kashmir. For years, they have managed to get the better of Indian armed forces and it’s no wonder why they are so well-trained.
When there was a shift in Pakistan’s Kashmir policy during former president Pervez Musharraf’s tenure and insurgency was reduced, these jihadists, rendered useless in the new scenario, turned against their own country’s military and joined hands with the Taliban in the tribal areas. They call themselves the Punjabi Taliban, as that is where most of them hail from. Though a sub-group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, they have their own methods of going about their business.
The PNS Mehran and the army headquarters sieges were both suicide missions. They attackers knew that there were no chances of survival. The only aim was to humiliate the armed forces by taking control of their bases… just long enough to dent their morale. And this is what must be giving the shivers to the West… a nuclear armed country, where less than half a dozen men are capable of taking on the defences of its “invincible army”.