Pakistan’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies recently achieved a major counterterrorism success in Karachi, uncovering and neutralising a highly dangerous terrorist plot before it could be executed. While the recovery of more than 2,000 kilograms of explosive material and the arrest of multiple terrorists rightly deserve public acknowledgment, the deeper significance of this operation lies not in what was seized – but in what it reveals about the evolving nature of terrorism and the urgent reforms Pakistan must pursue.

The foiled plot underscores a hard truth: terrorism today survives less on firepower and more on logistics, facilitation, and regulatory blind spots. The operation, which unfolded over several weeks through a combination of human and technical intelligence, demonstrated how modern terrorist networks exploit ordinary systems – rental housing, chemical supply chains, and cross-border smuggling routes – to plan extraordinary violence.

The Karachi operation succeeded because it was intelligence-led rather than reactive. Continuous surveillance, discreet monitoring, and strict operational secrecy allowed authorities to dismantle the network without creating public panic. The eventual arrests – beginning with one suspect and followed by two more........

© Daily Times