Rights panel urges ‘merciless inquiry’ in Quetta hospital bombing

Chairman NCHR stresses the need to ascertain why intelligence and security agencies could not preempt Quetta attack

QUETTA: A national human rights panel has called for a ‘merciless inquiry’ into last month’s deadly bombing at a state-run hospital in Quetta, calling it a collective failure of intelligence, security and law enforcement agencies, and other government departments.

“Our departments responsible for the security to the life and property of public are not showing seriousness in studying patterns repeatedly used by terrorists. Those responsible for failure in the Quetta attack shall be exposed,” the National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) said on Tuesday as it offered to conduct an inquiry into the incident.



Over 70 people – mostly lawyers and including two media persons – were killed when a suicide bomber struck inside the emergency of Quetta’s Sandeman Provincial Hospital where a fatally wounded senior lawyer was brought on August 8. The bombing and shooting were coordinated as terrorists had mounted similar attacks in the past.

“There should be an immediate and thorough inquiry into the Quetta bombing to unearth the fact behind the failure of the intelligence and security agencies and of the healthcare system as 470 medics and paramedics at the Sandeman Hospital could not provide emergency medical aid to the victims,” NCHR Chairman, Justice (retd) Ali Nawaz Chohan told journalists at Quetta Press Club where he was flanked by NCHR Member for Balochistan Fazila Aaliani and NCHR Balochistan Coordinator Ameer Jan Jamaldin.

The NCHR was established in May 2015 through an act of parliament. The commission’s powers include investigating human rights violations, taking suo motu on petitions; visiting detention centres to ascertain the legality of the detention of detainees and suggesting amendments to the country’s constitutional and legal framework on human rights.

Chohan called for stern departmental action against doctors and paramedics who were reluctant to report to duty in the state-run hospitals of the province. “As the chairman of NCHR, I recommend that the Balochistan government suspend or transfer the doctors who refuse to leave Quetta and report to duty elsewhere in the province,” he said.

He stressed the need to ascertain why the intelligence and security agencies could not preempt the Quetta suicide bombing. “It is need of the hour to ensure capacity building and improve performance of the intelligence agencies, security forces and law enforcement agencies to avert any untoward incident in future,” he said.



Chohan urged the intelligence and security agencies to study the patterns of suicide and terrorist attacks to halt such incidents in future. “The Sandeman Hospital bombing was identical to a deadly attack on the Shia Hazara community,” he added.

On April, 16, 2010 gunmen shot dead a bank manager belonging to the Hazara community, and when his body was taken to the Emergency Department of the Sandeman Hospital, a suicide bomber managed to get in and detonate the charge, killing nearly a dozen people.

Chohan recommended that the government send junior lawyers of Quetta to foreign countries for LLM degrees in order to fill the gap created by the death of 60 lawyers in the August 8 bombing. He said the government should also give the same compensation and facilities to the heirs of the two media persons killed in the attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2016.