Grave concern

Every now and then, a fresh event seems to shake us to the core, filling our hearts with terror. The latest one is the discovery last week of a mass grave in Balochistan’s troubled district of Khuzdar. At least 13 bodies were recovered from two separate graves found in the Tutak area of the district. A local shepherd is said to have alerted security personnel after stumbling upon the site by chance. The scene was positively macabre, what with bones and body parts scattered all over the place, and corpses decomposed and beyond recognition.

In a province where kill-and-dump practices are all too familiar, the discovery of unmarked graves is bound to raise fresh questions about how efficiently our security services have handled the insurgency wracking the province. Conscious of its possible repercussions, the Balochistan government was quick to announce a judicial commission headed by a high court judge to launch an investigation into the grisly incident. The commission has been asked to submit a report of its findings within a month’s time. Concurrently, Chief Justice of Pakistan Tassaduq Hussain Jilani, taking a suo-motu notice of the incident, has also summoned the Inspector General of Police in Balochistan and the Deputy Commissioner Khuzdar on February 4 and ordered them to submit a detailed report on the matter.



As the judicial process is set in motion, it is important that the truth is ascertained as to how these unfortunate souls died and who killed them and why? The incident has all the hallmarks to hint at a covert slaughter under the cover of night. While people with a nationalist bent of mind might readily point fingers at our law-enforcement agencies, it can also not be ruled out that some tribal enmity or some intra-group dispute among the banned separatist groups may have been the culprit. The inquiry should look at all the possible angles. If this turns out to be a case of missing persons being killed and then interred in a mass grave, then those responsible must face the music and be made to pay for their heinous deeds. They should not be then afforded any immunity from prosecution.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th,  2014.

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