PHOTO: EXPRESS
A lawmaker from the ruling party condemned the recent massacre of 20 construction workers in Trubat district of Balochistan and said that ironically those killing innocent people in the province are called ‘estranged Baloch’ instead of ‘terrorists’.
“If those who kill people in the name of religion are terrorists, then why those who kill people in Balochistan are called ‘estranged Baloch’,” PML-N Senator Agha Shahbaz Khan Durrani questioned. “Such people are not worthy of being called Baloch,” he said while referring to a resolution of the Balochistan Assembly that endorsed his viewpoint.
Gunmen had stormed a labourers’ camp in the Gogdan area of Turbat on Saturday and methodically killed 20 workers and injured three others. The outlawed Baloch Liberation Front, led by Dr Allah Nazar, claimed credit for the mass killings. Nine Levies personnel deployed for the security of the camp fled the scene without putting up a fight. They were subsequently suspended and taken into custody.
Durrani, however, was not happy with that. He believes action should also be taken against senior officials of Levies and police. “Is the government waiting for another Army Public School-like carnage? Why it is not taking steps to bring the volatile security situation under control?”
Other senators also sought details from the government of the steps it has taken to ensure no such incident takes place in the future. “Has this house [Senate] been formed to merely offer fateha?” questioned JUI-F Senator Talha Mehmood, while demanding the government brief the upper house of parliament on the security steps taken after the incident.
He added that security was thought to have improved in Balochistan over the past few months – but after the Turbat massacre people have started fleeing again.
The paramilitary Frontier Corps claimed on Tuesday that it has killed 13 militants – including perpetrators of the Turbat killings – in a raid in the barren mountains of the region.
PML-N Senator M Hamza, who is known for his independent opinion on different issues, questioned the killing of the ‘perpetrators of the Turbat massacre’. “Those who killed the workers have also been killed in a tit-for-tat action – but this is not appropriate?” He added that there was a judicial system in the country and the ‘killers’ should have been brought before the court of law.
BNP-M Senator Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini, however, faulted the government and said that there was a need to investigate the factors that landed Balochistan into a security morass.
PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said ‘kill and dump’ had become the fate of the people in Balochistan – but spy agencies did not allow a university [LUMS] to hold a seminar on the state of human rights in the province.
Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani asked the Minister of State for Interior Baleeghur Rehman to brief the house on the Turbat killings and directed leader of the house Raja Zafarul Haq to take up the matter of interference of the security agencies in an educational institution’s seminar with the Punjab chief minister. “Violating the sanctity of academic institutions is inappropriate,” he added.
Responding to a calling attention notice of ANP Senator Sitara Ayaz who claimed that NADRA had blocked CNICs of the Pukhtun community across the country, Baleeghur Rehman said, “NADRA has not blocked any CNIC on ethnic grounds.”
However, he said that CNICs issued during 2000-05 did not include biometric identification, and when these come for renewal, they are required to go through the verification process. He said those who have some link with Afghan families are asked to appear before the Joint Verification Cell [JVC] comprising officials from local administration, ISI, MI and IB. He said some people did not appear before the cell, due to which their cards were not renewed.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 15th, 2015.
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