The Pakistani state is clueless how to fight terrorist groups holding the country to ransom, a leading Pakistani daily said following the horrific suicide attack at the border.

The Dawn also said in an editorial that the Sunday evening attack at the Wagah border indicated the terrorists had deliberately targeted civilians for “their perceived support for the security forces”.

At least 59 people, mostly civilians, were killed and more than 100 injured when a suicide bomber exploded himself when people were returning after the daily flag lowering ceremony at the India-Pakistan border at Wagah.

“The country clearly continues to be stalked by a complex, overlapping and dizzyingly varied militant threat,” the daily said.

“If internal security – peace, stability and the conditions for economic and social progress – is elusive, it is because the state – the sum total of the civilian government and army-led security establishment – has an inadequate approach.”

The Dawn said that until terrorists groups were eliminated “and until the steady, seemingly endless supply of suicide bombers, fidayeen fighters and sundry other militants is shut down, Pakistanis will not be safe.

“Unfortunately, there is little to suggest that the state knows how to rid Pakistan of the religious extremism, militancy and terrorism that has blighted this country for decades now.”

The Dawn said the Sunday horror “is a reminder that Pakistan’s borders – east, west and southwest – are major flashpoints.

“Peace externally and security internally is the only recipe for a stable Pakistan.”