EDITORIAL: It has become a routine matter for the Punjab government to frequently change provincial and Lahore police chiefs. But in the latest move on Thursday it announced wholesale transfers and postings of the police high command. Several regional and district officers have also been handed marching orders. All this for their purported “mishandling of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) violent rally.” This comes across as a flimsy attempt to shift the responsibility for the policy decision failure onto the injured party. All through the TLP agitation the situation was mishandled by the authorities who set out to establish the writ of the state, but ended up kneeling before the violent agitators at the negotiation table.
That is not to say the police should have been given a free hand to kill people. But it made no sense to send them out to control a violent mob with their hands tied behind their backs. As it turns out, the police were equipped with only clubs and teargas and expected to beat back an aggressive crowd with some in it carrying fire arms. In the ensuing confrontation five policemen were martyred and hundreds of others sustained injuries. It is reasonable to believe that the order for them not carry their service weapons came not from the top leadership of the law enforcement force, but its political bosses. The police high-ups may have erred in planning but the main responsibility for the loss of precious lives lies squarely on the shoulders of whosoever ordered that their men should deal with TLP agitators — having a known history of resorting to extreme violence — without the ability to self-defend if caught in a dangerous situation. To add insult to injury, while the police’s supreme sacrifice of life is scarcely mentioned by the government side and never by the religious personalities who brokered the secret deal with TLP, high command of the force faces punitive action for the decisions that it is unlikely to have made. The entire episode has badly affected the police morale. The next time around, they may not want to take on such a violent crowd and get slighted, too.
Worth noting in the context is a letter of protest a sub-inspector, doing frontline duty along with 60 colleagues near Sadhoke to stop the TLP march onto Islamabad, has written to his high command — a rather unusual occurrence in the police force. They had managed to push back the attackers, he says, but teargas supply depleted, and the back-up force fled the scene. Why they fled is not difficult to understand: they lacked the necessary equipment to protect themselves. Those in the frontline were also compelled to evacuate using the few teargas shells they were left with to save their lives. And the TLP activists moved ahead reaching Wazirabad, where strict security measures stopped them. He has demanded the constitution of an inquiry committee comprising senior officers to identify the reasons of failure. And that the committee should make recommendations for better planning and provision of modern technology. These observations of someone who was in thick of things need to be given due consideration. Massive transfers and postings will not resolve anything, a well thought-out strategy and better training will.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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