An operation ‘exposed’

A tragedy in Sahiwal

Let’s assume a situation. You have been in the most horrific moment of your life because your friend has been killed by a foe in front of you. Being the last person who was with your dead friend and the only witness to what actually happened, people — young, old and almost everyone — will sympathise with you by bombarding the same questions repeatedly. You might be able to explain the incident a couple of times in the beginning. What will be your condition when you have to recall everything again and again? Now imagine if, instead of you, it is a child.

A tragedy has struck in Sahiwal. Four people, including parents Khalil and Nabeela, their teenage daughter Areeba and neighbour Zeeshan have been killed in a ham-fisted encounter by officials of the Punjab counter-terrorism department (CTD). An investigation is underway and some officers have been arrested. Nonetheless, the way the couple’s three surviving children, who have seen their loved ones sprayed with bullets on a busy highway, have been left at the mercy of the media and the government is beyond belief.

The video testimony of Umair — one of the three surviving children — has exposed the police’s version of events but new footage has revealed that several tragedies like Sahiwal have unfolded in the past. We only tend to forget them after a new story appears.

Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat insisted that the driver, Zeeshan, was a “wanted terrorist” and easily explained the other deaths away as “collateral damage”. But was it so impossible to prevent it?

Remember Muhammad Sikander, the sole accused in the 2013 Islamabad standoff. Armed with two sub-machine guns and accompanied by his wife Kanwal and two children, he drove into the middle of Jinnah Avenue and fired at the police. The law-enforcement agencies waited for six long hours before arresting him. It has not even been confirmed yet if the Sahiwal victims were carrying explosives or weapons.

Filmed by bystanders, the video showed the CTD officials hitting and stopping the victims’ vehicle. Finding the children, they took the three out and before taking them away they fired more rounds right in front of them. Who allowed them to kill someone before children of such tender age? How could they leave the teenage girl in the car when they had taken other children out? Wouldn’t it be better for the officials to arrest the passengers — if any of them or all were terrorists — instead of killing them? Did they even know what they were doing?

In 2018, former SSP Malir Karachi Rao Anwar killed Naqeebullah Mehsud in a proven fake encounter. Although guilty of murdering the young man and others, Anwar is still a free man. So what does it really take to prevent collateral damage in such cases?

Compensation money of Rs20 million for the grieving family by the Punjab government sends out only one message — when nothing works to lessen the loss, pain or the confusion, spending some bucks seems a “sensible” decision.

Little Umair’s testimony really changed the game else the Sahiwal incident would have just been a successful police encounter in which four “terrorists” were killed. However, the children are now going through a hard time and should be given space to breathe. It is distressing to see media-persons on every other channel holding their microphones into their faces asking senseless questions which should be rather directed at the government.

Protecting the lives of civilians is the government’s job, and people — who have had enough of such fake encounters — need answers. Fortunately, in the age of social media, it is difficult to cover up such incidents. One can only hope that the government will hold the right persons accountable than providing a mere lip service.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2019.

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