Anarkali blast exposes hollowness of ‘cosmetic responses’

Superficial responses after each tragedy for last 20 years make citizens skeptical

LAHORE:

The people seem to have lost their trust in the authorities due to their superficial responses after each terror incident for the last 20 years.

People now shrug off these responses as eyewash. They don’t take them to mean that henceforth their neighborhoods are going to be safer places to live in.

This is detrimental to national integration and harmony.

The menace of terrorism is a national security issue. It has caused irreparable loss to human lives and caused massive economic turmoil. It is not a matter of embarking on some kind of a political venture and point scoring that, unfortunately, our authorities believe it to be. The hundreds of incidents like the recent Anarkali blast in the last two decades of the War on Terror have exposed the superficiality of the “cosmetic responses”, stunts in peoples’ language, which the authorities rely on after a terror incident shatters our streets and bazaars.

The all too familiar announcements like “security has been beefed up”, “suspected terrorists arrested” and “we won’t allow the miscreants to destroy our peace” now appear to be too bizarre to even listen to.

Why is this so?

The answer is simple: such hasty and myopic response get ruptured within a short span of time when people get the facts through the social media.

Sustaining of “lies” as “facts” is no longer possible in the presence of a vibrant youth and digital natives.

Within a week of the Anarkali blast, hardly a single government announcement stood the test of time. Right after the blast, the Federal Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid in haste named the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to be behind the attacks.

Hardly a couple of minutes after the interior minister’s statement, a Baloch national militant outfit claimed responsibility for the attack. Although the Senate took a day to ask Rashid to explain his claims, the netizens had already started questioning his credibility instantly.

It was not just a minister’s statement that bounced but public’s trust in the interior ministry -- responsible for internal security -- was ruptured.

The authorities in Punjab did not remain behind either. In a hurry, they also claimed to have arrested two suspects allegedly linked to the blast. This claim too fell flat within hours when it was revealed that “the suspects” had actually been simple workers earning their livelihood for over a decade in the vicinity, and they happened to be in the market simply to buy warm clothes.

The authorities were also criticized by the Baloch Student Council, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and other stakeholders for arresting innocents instead of the culprits to show performance.

What is a common person’s response when they learn about such hypocrisy in dealing with terrorism cases? They become cynical about the protectors.

After the blast in Data Darbar, pictures and footages of a devotee in a black shalwar kameez, who had been visiting the shrine, were issued as a suspect. He had to issue a video statement on the social media that he was innocent and available for investigations before anybody.

The investigators had deliberately disseminated the chunks of information to their support in media. For what purpose? To ease off the pressure on them. After repeated eyewashes, a common citizen also starts understanding the “cleverness” than the seriousness of our government towards their safety.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2022.