Saturday, June 30, 2012
In the slaughterhouse
Posted on June 30, 2012
How many Hazarganji has this beleaguered nation been left out to witness? And for how long? Now for months together, the Hazara community in Balochistan has its head in the crusher of sectarian slaughter. Its pilgrims are massacred while travelling on buses and vans for pilgrimage. Its religious congregations are fatally attacked with terrorist bombs and blasts. Its community members are mowed down in targeted shootings. Its mayhem continues right inside and outside the metropolis of Quetta. And no end is anywhere in sight to its carnage as yet.
Then where are the enforcers of law? Have they lapsed into a swoon or a stupor? Why are they not doing something to stop this holocaust of this community? Why are they not nabbing the masterminds, financiers and perpetrators of this brutal slaughter? Surly, the shady characters wreaking this horrific bloodbath on the Shia community of Hazaras do not descend from the skies. They are very much present on the ground. They have their sleeper cells in the province and in the metropolis of Quetta. They plot their vile acts there. Their money bags sit there. Their handlers are ensconced there. Their slayers fatten in their own stables. Why then are not their lairs being sought out and they being smoked out? Where are the intelligence hounds of the provincial security apparatus? Haven't they been tasked to bust the hideouts of sectarian monsters and dismantle their terror networks? And why federal agencies are not going after these vile characters when terrorism, sectarian or otherwise, is no region specific but a countrywide vine, spreading all over the land in an interlinked manner. Terror groups are no longer monolith monstrosities, either. Quite perceptibly, terrorists of various hues and stripes have ganged up together, helping and assisting one another in their sinful criminality.
And even those wearing the masks of spurious religiosity have linked up with criminal gangs of the underworld. This is a very vicious combination that indeed has transformed the entire land veritably into a slaughterhouse. No place is immune from the wickedness of this vile terrorist-criminal axis. Every province, every region, every niche of the land is in the eye of the storm. Terrorists and criminals kill and maim wherever and whenever they want. And every time, they just go scot-free.
After every strike, the law enforcers are very prompt in telling the weight of the explosives used. But what they conveniently tell not unabashedly why had they failed so scornfully in preventing the use of these explosives. After all, they are not there to tell the explosives' weight. They are paid not to allow anyone to murder with those explosives. But no heads ever roll. No questions are even asked; no explanations demanded. It seems the top echelons have taken that so long as they are safe and secure, it hardly matters if the commoners are killed and maimed in terrorist assaults. No extraordinary concern is perceptible in their echelons even as the country has become a sprawling abattoir of terrorists and their criminal accomplices.
It really is disconcertingly shocking that stray ideas and plans the top echelons had condescended to take up to beat out the terrorists are lying undone unattended for these top echelons' disinterest. Almost four years down the road, a contemplated nodal agency, national counter-terrorism authority, is nowhere near formation. The plan is lying stuck up some in the official labyrinths forgetfully. A proposed amendment to tighten up the anti-terrorism law is gathering dust in the Senate chamber for more than three years. For long, one is hearing of plugging up the holes in the evidence act but nothing has as yet come of it.
This disinterest of the top echelons is self-hurting. They must understand. Terrorists will not keep confined to killing and goring the commoners. They will get the top echelons too. Already, a few of them have come under their attack. But if these echelons keep up with their disinterest, it will not be Hazaras alone to suffer fatally at the terrorism monsters' hands. Their vile hands will reach up to higher throats more frequently. The state security apparatus perforce needs to get out of its hibernation and move out systematically, methodically and powerfully against the terrorist thugs before they pull down the fa�ade of the state structure with their thuggery.
How many Hazarganji has this beleaguered nation been left out to witness? And for how long? Now for months together, the Hazara community in Balochistan has its head in the crusher of sectarian slaughter. Its pilgrims are massacred while travelling on buses and vans for pilgrimage. Its religious congregations are fatally attacked with terrorist bombs and blasts. Its community members are mowed down in targeted shootings. Its mayhem continues right inside and outside the metropolis of Quetta. And no end is anywhere in sight to its carnage as yet.
Then where are the enforcers of law? Have they lapsed into a swoon or a stupor? Why are they not doing something to stop this holocaust of this community? Why are they not nabbing the masterminds, financiers and perpetrators of this brutal slaughter? Surly, the shady characters wreaking this horrific bloodbath on the Shia community of Hazaras do not descend from the skies. They are very much present on the ground. They have their sleeper cells in the province and in the metropolis of Quetta. They plot their vile acts there. Their money bags sit there. Their handlers are ensconced there. Their slayers fatten in their own stables. Why then are not their lairs being sought out and they being smoked out? Where are the intelligence hounds of the provincial security apparatus? Haven't they been tasked to bust the hideouts of sectarian monsters and dismantle their terror networks? And why federal agencies are not going after these vile characters when terrorism, sectarian or otherwise, is no region specific but a countrywide vine, spreading all over the land in an interlinked manner. Terror groups are no longer monolith monstrosities, either. Quite perceptibly, terrorists of various hues and stripes have ganged up together, helping and assisting one another in their sinful criminality.
And even those wearing the masks of spurious religiosity have linked up with criminal gangs of the underworld. This is a very vicious combination that indeed has transformed the entire land veritably into a slaughterhouse. No place is immune from the wickedness of this vile terrorist-criminal axis. Every province, every region, every niche of the land is in the eye of the storm. Terrorists and criminals kill and maim wherever and whenever they want. And every time, they just go scot-free.
After every strike, the law enforcers are very prompt in telling the weight of the explosives used. But what they conveniently tell not unabashedly why had they failed so scornfully in preventing the use of these explosives. After all, they are not there to tell the explosives' weight. They are paid not to allow anyone to murder with those explosives. But no heads ever roll. No questions are even asked; no explanations demanded. It seems the top echelons have taken that so long as they are safe and secure, it hardly matters if the commoners are killed and maimed in terrorist assaults. No extraordinary concern is perceptible in their echelons even as the country has become a sprawling abattoir of terrorists and their criminal accomplices.
It really is disconcertingly shocking that stray ideas and plans the top echelons had condescended to take up to beat out the terrorists are lying undone unattended for these top echelons' disinterest. Almost four years down the road, a contemplated nodal agency, national counter-terrorism authority, is nowhere near formation. The plan is lying stuck up some in the official labyrinths forgetfully. A proposed amendment to tighten up the anti-terrorism law is gathering dust in the Senate chamber for more than three years. For long, one is hearing of plugging up the holes in the evidence act but nothing has as yet come of it.
This disinterest of the top echelons is self-hurting. They must understand. Terrorists will not keep confined to killing and goring the commoners. They will get the top echelons too. Already, a few of them have come under their attack. But if these echelons keep up with their disinterest, it will not be Hazaras alone to suffer fatally at the terrorism monsters' hands. Their vile hands will reach up to higher throats more frequently. The state security apparatus perforce needs to get out of its hibernation and move out systematically, methodically and powerfully against the terrorist thugs before they pull down the fa�ade of the state structure with their thuggery.
Editorial; Tales of terror
Editorial
Saturday, June 30, 2012
From Print Edition
Messages of hatred, through bombs and killings, continue to be delivered across the country with militants – motivated by different ideas and ‘inspired’ by different aims and ideologies – striking at will in various places, in various ways and aiming at different targets. Reports narrating the details of these attacks have become the norm, with their tales of death and injury. Now we read such a story again, once more from Quetta where a bus carrying Hazara pilgrims across the border from Iran on Thursday was attacked as it entered Hazar Ganj. Thirteen people were killed and 40 on board the bus were injured. The bomb that caused that havoc appears to have been planted in a car along the route. Like those before it, the attack was well-planned and expertly executed. The toll of the dead may rise given the gravity of some of the injuries suffered by the victims now lying in hospital. Clearly the motive was sectarian as it has always been in similar attacks in the past and the present. There was another incident of terrorist violence on that same day. In the Bara area of Khyber Agency, an army vehicle was attacked with a home-made explosive device killing eight soldiers of the Pakistan Army including a captain. Again it is not hard to know who was responsible or why the army personnel died. Many other similar attacks have taken place before.
What is difficult to know and understand in the former case is the ‘unchecked’ consistency with which a particular community is being targeted with the government and the law-enforcement agencies playing a role no better than that of a bystander. The pain and agony suffered by the Hazaras is immense. Living constantly under the fear of death, so many of them have been forced to abandon their work and education. Even if terror has become so much a part of life in many areas of this country, it still boggles the mind how a process of systematic elimination of the Hazaras in Balochistan by sectarian extremists belonging mostly to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has gone on undeterred, with little apparently being done by those at the helm of affairs to protect the community that is being attacked and slaughtered and punish those who, it seems, would have nothing less than genocide as their aim. After the latest incident, words of condolence and directions for an enquiry have, once again, come from the prime minister and other officials, as they always do. Such condolences have started to sound obscene now. A government’s job is a bit more than just mourning along with the grieved as their neighbours do. And such enquiries, if they are indeed held, lead nowhere. Protests and demonstrations have been held and strikes observed after each such incident by parties representing the Hazaras and also other groups, and Quetta is seeing more of these after the latest carnage. Will these rallies, and slogans of protests raised by them, ever shake the government out of its criminal slumber and move the intelligence agencies into doing their job – that of identifying those planning this crime and tracking them down?
Saturday, June 30, 2012
From Print Edition
Messages of hatred, through bombs and killings, continue to be delivered across the country with militants – motivated by different ideas and ‘inspired’ by different aims and ideologies – striking at will in various places, in various ways and aiming at different targets. Reports narrating the details of these attacks have become the norm, with their tales of death and injury. Now we read such a story again, once more from Quetta where a bus carrying Hazara pilgrims across the border from Iran on Thursday was attacked as it entered Hazar Ganj. Thirteen people were killed and 40 on board the bus were injured. The bomb that caused that havoc appears to have been planted in a car along the route. Like those before it, the attack was well-planned and expertly executed. The toll of the dead may rise given the gravity of some of the injuries suffered by the victims now lying in hospital. Clearly the motive was sectarian as it has always been in similar attacks in the past and the present. There was another incident of terrorist violence on that same day. In the Bara area of Khyber Agency, an army vehicle was attacked with a home-made explosive device killing eight soldiers of the Pakistan Army including a captain. Again it is not hard to know who was responsible or why the army personnel died. Many other similar attacks have taken place before.
What is difficult to know and understand in the former case is the ‘unchecked’ consistency with which a particular community is being targeted with the government and the law-enforcement agencies playing a role no better than that of a bystander. The pain and agony suffered by the Hazaras is immense. Living constantly under the fear of death, so many of them have been forced to abandon their work and education. Even if terror has become so much a part of life in many areas of this country, it still boggles the mind how a process of systematic elimination of the Hazaras in Balochistan by sectarian extremists belonging mostly to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has gone on undeterred, with little apparently being done by those at the helm of affairs to protect the community that is being attacked and slaughtered and punish those who, it seems, would have nothing less than genocide as their aim. After the latest incident, words of condolence and directions for an enquiry have, once again, come from the prime minister and other officials, as they always do. Such condolences have started to sound obscene now. A government’s job is a bit more than just mourning along with the grieved as their neighbours do. And such enquiries, if they are indeed held, lead nowhere. Protests and demonstrations have been held and strikes observed after each such incident by parties representing the Hazaras and also other groups, and Quetta is seeing more of these after the latest carnage. Will these rallies, and slogans of protests raised by them, ever shake the government out of its criminal slumber and move the intelligence agencies into doing their job – that of identifying those planning this crime and tracking them down?
Hazara attack
From the Newspaper
THE story is not new. But with each attack, the targeting of the Shia Hazara community becomes a more firmly entrenched feature of life in Balochistan today. Thursday’s bomb attack on a bus of pilgrims returning from Iran was only the latest in a string of incidents that have taken the lives of at least 60 Hazaras this year alone, including students and people from the community simply going about their daily business. Easily identifiable because of their physical features, neighbourhoods and the routes they take for routine pilgrimages, Balochistan’s Hazaras are now sitting ducks, victims of a relentless campaign that can only be compared to ethnic cleansing in its laser-like focus and its desire to kill as many members of the community as possible.
Given this focus and the pattern of attacks that has been established, the inability of the Balochistan government and paramilitary troops to protect the community can only be the result of extreme incompetence or a lack of commitment. Many of the attacks take place along the set routes that buses take when transporting pilgrims to and from Iran. Policing along these routes has reportedly been stepped up, but surely they can be monitored in a way that is better able to identify suspicious activity or prevent attackers from planting bombs. As for police escorts to accompany pilgrims, these have clearly not been adequate; if Balochistan’s politicians can be provided with extensive and expensive security arrangements, why is the same level of protection not being provided at least to Hazara pilgrims?
The more effective method, of course, would be to tackle this problem at its roots, going after the militants and dismantling their infrastructure rather than trying to prevent already planned attacks at the eleventh hour. Balochistan’s anti-Shia militancy has morphed into a force in its own right, with its own motivations, operational bases and centres of propaganda. For this, too, there are clues: the locations of madressahs propagating anti-Shia views and some of the bases of the Balochistan arm of the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi have been identified, and include the chief minister’s own base of Mastung. In the face of such a predictable pattern of attacks and available information about those behind them, the failure to prevent them has only fuelled speculation that Balochistan’s civilian and security establishments are deliberately not taking action against sectarian militancy. These theories reflect the lack of trust in the provincial set-up, which is seen as being focused on clamping down on separatists instead. Whatever the thinking among state actors, the continued targeting of the Hazaras is increasingly becoming a massive abdication of responsibility on their part.
Imran Khan speaks against Hazara’s genocide
Saturday, June 30th, 2012 7:36:09 by Faisal Farooq
Terming the incident barbaric and crucify, Imran Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician, has strongly condemned attack on a bus carrying Shia-pilgrims from Iran to Quetta which led to loss of 15 innocent lives.
In his view, the attack was part of a systematic wave of violent incident against Hazara community whose 60 people have been brutally killed during past six months.
He tweeted, “We condemn the terrorist attack on pilgrims’ bus in Quetta. Our prayers go out to all the families of the victims & for recovery of injured”.
The Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was of the opinion that there could be serious repercussions if dangerous trend of increasing frequency and intensity of violent attacks against Hazara Community is not reversed in the country.
“I condemn the rising tide of sectarian killings in Balochistan and the shameful failure of the government to assert its writ in the province”, he added.
Commenting on the law and order situation in Balochistan, Khan said the security situation in the province was extremely uncertain and continued attacks against a particular community would further push the region into state of a complete chaos and disorder.
Despite loss of so many innocent lives, constant failure to ensure the safety of Hazara community is criminal negligence on part of the present government and law enforcement agencies.
He was of the opinion that the situation demands government to undertake emergency measures to stop violent attacks against a specific sect of people.
Imran Khan made a demand to the government and concerned authorities to take stern action against banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) which openly claimed responsibility of this barbaric attack.
The PTI leader expressing complete solidarity with Hazara community conveyed deepest condolences to bereaved families.
A blast in the Hazarganji area of Quetta targeted a bus carrying Shia pilgrims from Taftan to the provincial capital, killing 16 people and injuring another 30.
Balochistan has become an increasing flashpoint for sectarian violence between Sunni Muslims and minority Shia, who account for around a fifth of the country’s population of over 170 million.
Terming the incident barbaric and crucify, Imran Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician, has strongly condemned attack on a bus carrying Shia-pilgrims from Iran to Quetta which led to loss of 15 innocent lives.
In his view, the attack was part of a systematic wave of violent incident against Hazara community whose 60 people have been brutally killed during past six months.
He tweeted, “We condemn the terrorist attack on pilgrims’ bus in Quetta. Our prayers go out to all the families of the victims & for recovery of injured”.
The Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was of the opinion that there could be serious repercussions if dangerous trend of increasing frequency and intensity of violent attacks against Hazara Community is not reversed in the country.
“I condemn the rising tide of sectarian killings in Balochistan and the shameful failure of the government to assert its writ in the province”, he added.
Commenting on the law and order situation in Balochistan, Khan said the security situation in the province was extremely uncertain and continued attacks against a particular community would further push the region into state of a complete chaos and disorder.
Despite loss of so many innocent lives, constant failure to ensure the safety of Hazara community is criminal negligence on part of the present government and law enforcement agencies.
He was of the opinion that the situation demands government to undertake emergency measures to stop violent attacks against a specific sect of people.
Imran Khan made a demand to the government and concerned authorities to take stern action against banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) which openly claimed responsibility of this barbaric attack.
The PTI leader expressing complete solidarity with Hazara community conveyed deepest condolences to bereaved families.
A blast in the Hazarganji area of Quetta targeted a bus carrying Shia pilgrims from Taftan to the provincial capital, killing 16 people and injuring another 30.
Balochistan has become an increasing flashpoint for sectarian violence between Sunni Muslims and minority Shia, who account for around a fifth of the country’s population of over 170 million.
Attack on Hazara community: Quetta traders shut shops, mourn deaths
By Our Correspondent
Published: June 30, 2012
Policemen stand guard during a shutter-down strike in Quetta on Friday. PHOTO: PPI
QUETTA:
Traders shuttered their shops in the city on Friday to protest a deadly bomb attack on a bus carrying Shia pilgrims a day earlier.
Fourteen pilgrims from the Hazara community, including women, were killed in the attack which, police believe, was carried out by a suicide bomber. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi sectarian extremist group claimed responsibility for the carnage.
The Hazara Democratic, Tahfuz-e-Izadari Council, Tehreek Nifaz-i-Fiqa-e-Jaffaria and Balochistan Shia Conference had given the call for Friday’s strike which was supported by trader unions and political parties.
All business centres and shopping malls in downtown areas, including Jinnah Road, Abdul Sattar Road, Kansi Road, Alamdar Road, Thoughy Road, Brewery Road, Mission Road, McChangi Road, Prince Road, Liaquat Bazaar, Fatima Jinnah Road and Masjid Road, remained closed throughout the day.
Attendance in government offices, banks and semi-government establishments remained very thin. Heavy contingents of law-enforcement agencies were deployed in parts of the city to maintain order. Law enforcers detained a dozen people for bullying shopkeepers and forcing them to shut their shops in different neighbourhoods of the city.
Members from the Hazara community also staged a protest demonstration at Brewery Road, where they burnt tyres and blocked the road to register their protest against Thursday’s attack. They chanted slogans against the provincial government and demanded the immediate arrest of the culprits.
Meanwhile, funeral prayers for the victims were offered at Alamadar Road and Hazara graveyard on Friday.
HRCP condemns killings
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has accused the government of neglect in countering terrorist activities aimed at targeting citizens for their religious affiliations. In a statement issued on Friday, the HRCP regretted the loss of life and injuries caused in Thursday’s attack on Shia pilgrims.
A similar attack occurred in Mastung last year, over which the government failed to take action, the HRCP said in the statement. It regretted that the attack occurred on the bus despite it being escorted by the police.
The HRCP claimed that with more than 60 Shias killed in Balochistan this year, the government had either been ‘unwilling’ or ‘unable’ to prevent the killings. (With additional reporting by Aroosa Shaukat in Lahore)
Published in The Express Tribune, June 30th, 2012.
Published: June 30, 2012
Policemen stand guard during a shutter-down strike in Quetta on Friday. PHOTO: PPI
QUETTA:
Traders shuttered their shops in the city on Friday to protest a deadly bomb attack on a bus carrying Shia pilgrims a day earlier.
Fourteen pilgrims from the Hazara community, including women, were killed in the attack which, police believe, was carried out by a suicide bomber. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi sectarian extremist group claimed responsibility for the carnage.
The Hazara Democratic, Tahfuz-e-Izadari Council, Tehreek Nifaz-i-Fiqa-e-Jaffaria and Balochistan Shia Conference had given the call for Friday’s strike which was supported by trader unions and political parties.
All business centres and shopping malls in downtown areas, including Jinnah Road, Abdul Sattar Road, Kansi Road, Alamdar Road, Thoughy Road, Brewery Road, Mission Road, McChangi Road, Prince Road, Liaquat Bazaar, Fatima Jinnah Road and Masjid Road, remained closed throughout the day.
Attendance in government offices, banks and semi-government establishments remained very thin. Heavy contingents of law-enforcement agencies were deployed in parts of the city to maintain order. Law enforcers detained a dozen people for bullying shopkeepers and forcing them to shut their shops in different neighbourhoods of the city.
Members from the Hazara community also staged a protest demonstration at Brewery Road, where they burnt tyres and blocked the road to register their protest against Thursday’s attack. They chanted slogans against the provincial government and demanded the immediate arrest of the culprits.
Meanwhile, funeral prayers for the victims were offered at Alamadar Road and Hazara graveyard on Friday.
HRCP condemns killings
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has accused the government of neglect in countering terrorist activities aimed at targeting citizens for their religious affiliations. In a statement issued on Friday, the HRCP regretted the loss of life and injuries caused in Thursday’s attack on Shia pilgrims.
A similar attack occurred in Mastung last year, over which the government failed to take action, the HRCP said in the statement. It regretted that the attack occurred on the bus despite it being escorted by the police.
The HRCP claimed that with more than 60 Shias killed in Balochistan this year, the government had either been ‘unwilling’ or ‘unable’ to prevent the killings. (With additional reporting by Aroosa Shaukat in Lahore)
Published in The Express Tribune, June 30th, 2012.
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