Sir: The murder of 23 Shia pilgrims on their way to holy sites via the Baloch city of Taftan has been playing second fiddle in the news to the high profile attack on Karachi airport, which left 30 people dead. But the attack in Taftan was in no way less serious or heinous than that in Karachi. The Karachi attack had the strategic objective of drawing attention to the Taliban, creating media hype to let people know they are still around, and to make the authorities and intelligence agencies look foolish. It largely succeeded since it pointed to a massive security lapse. The Taftan attack is part of an ideological goal, a broad strategic aim, which is to eliminate all the Shias in Pakistan. The goal is genocide. Sadly our security and intelligence agencies were completely unable to deal with either of these attacks (that is if they even cared about them) because they do not have a strategy to fight the terrorists. Retaliation is not a strategy. What are we going to do? Bomb a Taliban airport? They do not have any. Instead our strategy is geared towards using these groups against India and Afghanistan, which is why the government and military are selectively striking them. It is incompetent and pathetic. AFTAB ALI CHAUDHRY Lahore