Who killed them?

Politicians from opposition parties ignored intelligence warning like people ignore death warning on cigarette packet

Politicians from opposition parties ignored intelligence warning like people ignore death warning on a cigarette packet. On Sunday, the Pakistan Democratic Movement, an alliance of opposition parties, held a public meeting in Quetta in a power show brushing aside warning by the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA) that terrorists could carry out large-scale attacks in the city to cause bloodshed and to disrupt peace on the occasion of their public gathering. On the same day, a bomb blast left three people dead and seven others wounded around 35-40 minute-drive from the venue of the PDM public meeting. Since most of the law-enforcement personnel were preoccupied with ensuring security for the PDM meeting, the field was left wide open for terrorists to strike, and strike they did.

By now even ordinary persons have become quite familiar with terrorists’ modus operandi: first, they set off a minor explosion to get a sizeable number of curious people assemble there, and then a big blast is triggered resulting in many deaths and injuries. Yet, our experienced and wise politicians ignored the NACTA warning and an appeal by the Balochistan government not to go ahead with their power show, thus providing an opportunity for terrorists to kill and maim innocent people. Here realpolitik was openly in play, as a group of people sacrificed innocent lives for the sake of their own selfish interests and egos. Intelligence warnings were pushed aside for the sake of showing off bravado. This kind of behaviour is execrable. No amount of regret can console the bereaved families.

Addressing the meeting via video link from London, Nawaz Sharif, the PML-Nawaz supremo, expressed pleasure at the huge turnout of people at the gathering, completely forgetting the fact that there is a resurgence of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, and huge public meetings where people gather in large numbers will only act as super spreaders of the dreaded virus. Do people exposing themselves to an incurable disease deserve praise? Earlier, the PDM had arranged two such super spreaders. The wise reach the mountain top by boat.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2020.

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