Earlier, a division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) comprising Chief Justice Musheer Alam and Justice Imam Bux Baloch heard brief arguments by petitioner Haji Gul, who said that both the ideological and physical boundaries of Pakistan are under attack and the government, instead of bringing facts to light, is trying to brush everything under the carpet.
If the incident of the Mehran base attack, in which some of the country’s assets were destroyed, is ignored, irreparable loss would be caused as our national security would be compromised.
The bench then ordered notices to be issued to all respondents for an unspecified date.
The petition raises questions about the number of attackers, as the federal interior minister put their figures at six with four killed
and two fleeing after the attack.
The chief of naval staff, however, gave another number and furthermore, in the FIR of the incident, the number of attackers was stated to be a dozen. If the attackers fled, then it should be a cause of concern for the entire conglomerate of intelligence agencies and law enforcers as to how an attacker broke through their cordon and sneaked out after a successful attack which resulted in the loss of two PC Orion aircraft and the credibility to defend sensitive installations, the petitioner stated.
He said that according to initial investigations it came to the fore that the suicide mission attackers entered PNS Mehran from the PAF base next door and thus they were also responsible for the security lapse.
With this state of alertness, if Pakistan is attacked by an enemy, the response from our defenders would be anybody’s guess, the petitioner said, requesting the court to order a full-scale reinvestigation.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2011.
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