The RAB raid on April 29 ended with two terrorists blowing themselves up in the Bosila area. Monday's raid of the militant hideout and the bomb going off in Gulistan area compel us to think whether these events are interrelated. Law enforcers, we are sure, will be looking into these incidents. In fact, the prime minister herself warned us in the aftermath of the carnage in Sri Lanka that we need to be on our guard against possible attacks and these incidents prove that the scourge of extremism has not been fully exterminated. The Islamic State (IS) has lost its base in Syria and there have been some indications that foreign fighters will try to get back to their respective countries. Some may also attempt to relocate to areas seeking safe sanctuary.

The IS has claimed responsibility for past attacks and the latest ones have demonstrated that the law enforcement and intelligence agencies need to intensify efforts to crack down on these extremist outfits and prevent their destructive activities. That is the lesson we learnt from our experience of the Holey Artisan attack back in 2016, although law enforcement agencies tell us that the IS has no cells in the country. While that may well be true, terror groups, like the one whose hideout was raided on April 29, are motivated by IS ideology. Hence, the level of preparedness must be sustained and counter-intelligence efforts, particularly human intelligence efforts, must be geared up to pre-empt the destructive activities of the extremists.