Hazara Town massacre: Agencies warned govt of attack, SC told

President, PM asked to submit response; home secretary, FC commandant summoned in court.

ISLAMABAD:

Intelligence agencies had warned law enforcers of a possible second attack on the Hazara community in Quetta, the Supreme Court has been informed.

A three-judge bench was hearing on Wednesday a suo motu case on the devastating February 16 attack, which killed at least 89 people. The judges expressed satisfaction with reports from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB), and sought the government’s response to the incident.

The president and prime minister have been asked to submit a response through the attorney general. The Supreme Court also summoned the Balochistan home secretary, Frontier Constabulary (FC) Commandant and Quetta police chief to appear before it at the next hearing (today) to explain what steps were taken to avert the attack.

On February 16, a powerful bomb exploded in Hazarganji targeting the Shia Hazaras for the second time in just over a month. Twin blasts on January 10 left over 100 people dead, most of them Hazaras.

Heading the bench, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said, “After going through the reports, we are to believe that the agencies performed their duties and shared intelligence with law enforcers in Quetta, indicating the likelihood of another terror attack on the community on the occasion of the Chehlum of the persons [who were killed] at Alamdar Road on January 10, 2013.”

He observed that the reports should be kept confidential and that the law enforcement agencies had accurate information of about 30% to 40% of what happened in the second attack.



The reports were submitted by the defence and interior secretaries. However, they were initially rejected by the court, which asked for them to be re-submitted after a few amendments.

Earlier in the day, Defence Secretary Lt Gen (retd) Asif Yasin Malik submitted reports gathered by the ISI. According to Justice Arif Khilji, the agency blamed the civil administration for not chalking out a policy on counter-terrorism in the prevalent circumstances in Balochistan.

The report stated that intelligence agencies had information about the transportation of 1,000kg of explosive material from Lahore to Quetta.

On the other hand Interior Secretary Khawaja Siddique Akbar described the IB report as confidential and requested it be kept secret.

He shared, however, that the water tanker carrying the explosives used in the February 16 bomb was prepared in a store in Quetta, which had been located, and efforts were being made to arrest its owner.

The chief justice was of the opinion that the intelligence agencies had completed their job and it was the duty of the law enforcers to act on their information and take steps to counter such incidents.  The bench directed the interior and defence secretaries to submit their reports on progress in the January 10 attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2013.