One year on: Three navy officials court-martialled for ‘negligence’

Two P3C reconnaissance aircraft were destroyed in the attack.

KARACHI:

Exactly one year ago, a group of terrorists mounted a daring attack on an aviation base of Pakistan Navy in Karachi, killing 10 people and destroying two P3C Orion reconnaissance aircraft.

Though the mastermind remains at large, three navy officers have been court-martialled and sentenced for ‘negligence of duty’.

The navy had formed a Board of Investigation to probe the 17-hour siege at PNS Mehran on May 22, 2011.

A navy spokesperson said that in light of the recommendations of the Board of Investigation, disciplinary action has been taken in accordance with the Pakistan Navy law against the officials for negligence of duty. The threat level has not diminished since the attack and the navy remains on guard to this day.

The overall security of naval units, including PNS Mehran, has also been reevaluated and strengthened, the spokesperson added.

Who did it?

Interior Minister Rehman Malik made headlines for his disingenuous  comments in which he called the attackers ‘Star Wars’ characters.

Even before DNA tests could have been done, the authorities set off a guessing game about the identity of the attackers, some calling them Indian intelligence agents and others identifying them as Uzbek militants.

Even the exact number of attackers was lost in this mist of confusion. Initially, Interior Minister Malik put their number at six – two being killed and the rest escaping after the attack. But according to the First Information Report of the case, the attackers were 10 in number.

Now, a video purportedly released by the Taliban claims that the PNS Mehran attack was carried out by four of its members.

In the video, titled ‘Revenge of Sheikh Osama [bin Laden]’, which is also available with The Express Tribune, the four attackers are shown reading out from a written statement before the attack.

It’s difficult to independently verify the authenticity of the video, but the terrorists shown in the video are the same whose bodies were found at the end of the 17-hour siege.

One of the terrorists in the video says that the PNS Mehran attack was a revenge for the killing of Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda chief who was killed in a top secret raid by US commandos in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011.

Although the terrorists claimed that the attack was a ‘revenge’ for Bin Laden’s killing, what is not clear is why navy buses were targeted with IEDs on April 26 and 28.

Slain journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad had claimed in one of his last reports that the attack on the navy buses and PNS Mehran was due to the fact that some navy personnel had been recruited by al Qaeda’s Illyas Kashmiri group that works closely with the TTP.  Navy officials, however, rubbished Saleem’s claim as an outright lie.

Court-martial

Former base commander of PNS Mehran Commodore Raja Tahir, commanding officer Captain Israr and base security officer Abrar were court-martialled.

However, they were not found to be complicit in the incident and were merely charged with ‘negligence of duty’. None of them were put behind bars.

However, navy sources say that their careers have effectively been ruined since the officers have lost their seniority privileges and all operational commands have been taken away from them.

Inquiry report

The task of conducting a detailed investigation into the incident was given to Pakistan Navy’s senior officer Rear Admiral Tehseenullah Khan.

According to a navy official, the findings of the report are ‘complete’ and have been sent to the ‘concerned authorities’. The exact findings of the report are being kept a closely guarded secret.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2012.