Fixing responsibility: Where, how and what went wrong

According to police officials, CPO Kamyana and SSP Khattak were late in responding to calls for reinforcements.

RAWALPINDI/ ISLAMABAD: While the judicial commission investigating the Rawalpindi tragedy started its probe, details of security lapses on the fateful day began to trickle in.

A number of eyewitnesses, local residents and police officers interviewed by The Express Tribune said that the district administration could have averted the ‘bloody episode’ with proper planning and execution.

Many of the police officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, blamed City Police Officer (CPO) Bilal Siddique Kamyana and Senior Superintendent (SSP) VVIP Security Dar Ali Khattak for the entire security mess.

“They changed the security plan at the last moment and deployed police officers who were initially assigned elsewhere at the scene of the incident,” said a police officer.

“In the past, officers belonging to the same sect were deployed to provide security to Ashura processions. These officers liaised better with the procession leaders and always managed to take the mourners past Darul Uloom Taleemul Quran, the mosque and the seminary on the route of the procession, without any incident,” added another police officer.

This time, however, no such officer was deployed near the seminary initially, police officials said. Upon realising the mistake ‘at the last minute’, CPO Kamyana and SSP Khattak directed Superintendent (SP) Traffic Haseeb Shah to reach the seminary, hoping he would be able to defuse the situation that had started to develop on the spot. But by the time he arrived, it was already too late.

The CPO and SSP subsequently sent SP Rawal Jumaat Shah Bukhari and SP CIA Chaudhry Hanif for SP Shah’s aid, but they were unable to do much by themselves. Where the original security plan had called for at least 20 policemen, only a single officer armed with a gun had been deployed at the seminary’s rooftop in addition to the three SPs. As such the officers very quickly overpowered by the charged mob.

According to police officials, CPO Kamyana and SSP Khattak were also late in responding to calls for reinforcements. They said SP Shah repeatedly asked the two senior officers to send in riot police, but the help simply did not arrive on time.

When the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) did finally reach the scene on SSP Khattak’s orders, it arrived without a senior officer in command. In the ensuing panic, ATS personnel resorted to aerial firing to disperse the mob which only exacerbated the situation.

Some members of the mob attacked the ATS personnel and succeeded in snatching their weapons and radios. Meanwhile, the senior officers present at the site were taken hostage.

SSP Khattak disappeared from the scene subsequently, while CPO Kamyana, who was in Murree, arrived half an hour late. The Rawalpindi regional police officer (RPO), meanwhile, was in Jehlum at the time.

“Internal differences and the CPO’s personal likes and dislikes led to the failure of the security plan,” said one police officer. He added that the police also failed to prevent clerics from using loudspeakers.

“The procession should not have been allowed near the mosque and the seminary at the time of the Friday sermon,” said one eyewitness. “It was like the administration wanted to pitch the clerics from rival groups against each other so that they could exchange hate speeches,” he added.

“This same Ashura procession has been passing through this very route for decades but such an ugly scene never took place because the administration acted responsibly. Why not this time?” questioned another witness.

For messing up security arrangements for Ashura processions, Punjab police chief Khan Baig penalised the entire top level of the city’s police bureaucracy on Tuesday. Some officers were transferred from one area to the other while others, including CPO Kamyana, were asked to report to the headquarters.

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