The increasing incidence of violence involving our state agencies, it hardly needs saying, is symptomatic of a systemic problem. The murder in cold blood of a young man in Karachi came as a huge shock to us all as we could see it on our television screens. It came close on the heels of another bloody incident involving state functionaries.
The FC men were seen gunning down five foreigners in Kharotabad on the outskirts of Quetta. They had claimed their victims were Chechen suicide bombers. Anyone with a little bit of common sense must have wondered what in the world would the Chechens want to target the FC men for? As it turned out, one of the murdered men was a Tajik who was travelling with his seven-month pregnant Russian wife - certainly not an ideal position to pursue a career in terrorism.
Last month, journalist Saleem Shahzad was kidnapped, tortured and murdered, bringing the number of journalists killed in the line of duty to 72. Like in most other cases, the finger of suspicion in this case is pointed in the direction of intelligence agencies. Also relentlessly haunting the basic humanity of all civilised people is last year's horrific lynching of two young brothers in Sialkot right in front of senior police officials-actually with their active support- and a large crowd of Sialkotis, none of whom had the courage to try and stop the savagery.
Those are not isolated cases of extreme barbarity. Most remain unreported. Ever since the courts started taking notice of 'disappearances' in Balochistan, every now and then the print media have been reporting appearance of mutilated bodies of Baloch nationalists in different parts of the province. Such mysterious body finds get reported on newspapers' inside pages, perhaps, because there is no video record of the circumstances of the victims' deaths, and hence difficult to establish the truth. The reports are generally ignored in other parts of the country. But in Balochistan each killing elicits anger and dismay, which finds expression in widespread strikes and protest demonstrations. It is not difficult to imagine that these extra judicial murders strengthen the Bloch nationalists' resolve to resist the powers-that-be.
Sad as it is we have a culture of immunity. There is an incredible lack of respect for human life. State elements, from the highest to the lowest wrung, from people like former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf to the FC personnel killing Baloch dissidents, have literally been getting away with murder. There is reason to believe that General Musharraf was behind the gunning down on May 12, 2007, of 45 political activists who came to welcome Chief Justice of Pakistan he had ousted from office. To date no one has been held to account for that carnage. Most people are too scared to demand that the perpetrators be brought to justice. The PPP government has adopted a forget and forgive attitude even toward the Karsaz bombing on Benazir Bhutto's homecoming procession, which left dead an estimated (no one knows the exact number) 150 people - PPP workers, sympathisers, and bystanders. The party has not cared as much as to register an FIR of that butchery. Benazir having survived that time, wanted an independent investigation into the attack. She was to be assassinated two months later in Rawalpindi, along with 24 others, mostly party workers. Soon after her assassination her party ascended to power, yet it made no attempt to bring the murderers of 150 innocent people to justice. And the expensive UN investigation it held into her murder proved to be little more than an eyewash. Important recommendations of the UN commission were ignored and certain suspects given a clean chit. The government has laid the blame for Benazir's assassination at the door of different characters as and when that suited its purposes.
At first it accused the Q League leadership, then Baitullah Mehsud, and soon after the US' Abbottabad raid, Osama bin Laden. A number of clues though suggest none of them was involved. Mehsud, who was in negotiations with the government at the time of Banazir's murder, may have provided the hit men, but he had no direct role in planning and execution of the murder itself.
Prominent members of this government have also tried to justify the actions of those caught committing acts of barbarity. Offering a helping hand to the Rangers who killed the Karachi boy, Interior Minister Rehman Malik declared (pre-empting investigation), soon after the news came in, that the victim was indeed a dacoit, and that he had also attempted to snatch a gun from the Rangers - the TV footage showed an unarmed boy being shot at point-blank as he begged for life with folded hands, and then left to die - like municipality men kill stray dogs. After the Sialkot incident, Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan came out with the unsubstantiated claim that the two victims of the chilling police brutality were involved in more than thirty (or did she say forty something?) crimes, thereby implying they got what they deserved. With supporters like her, no wonder the police officials accused of overseeing the lynching continue to escape justice. Feeling helpless, the victims' family held a press conference in Lahore a few days ago, to draw public attention to the denial of justice to them.
The two 'distinguished' federal ministers would have us believe that the country's laws are no good, and that alleged criminals - as long as they are people other than their own family and friends - ought to be subjected to summary executions rather than given due process. That being the mindset of those sitting in government and its security agencies, it is hardly surprising we have so much state violence.
Acting in the same vein, the government is resisting journalists' demand for the formation of an impartial commission to investigate Saleem Shahzad's murder. It also remained reluctant until the third and last day to carry out the apex court's orders for the immediate removal of the Rangers and police chiefs in Sindh. While an inquiry commission was investigating the Kharotabad incident, police goons badly roughed up the police surgeon who had performed autopsy on the five foreigners, and reported they were all killed by FC bullets, not by Russian-made grenade explosions as the FC had maintained.
We have had enough of this culture of immunity. It is at the root of everything that is wrong with this country - a raging insurgency in Balochistan, lawlessness in Karachi, rampant corruption in high places, political instability, economic decline, and a general air of insecurity. Things have gotten from bad to worse to the point where they must get better. The rule of law and supremacy of the Constitution must prevail. That may be difficult, but not impossible to achieve. The very fact that those responsible for the outrageous behaviour and their backers have felt compelled to be on the defensive is a positive sign. Media focus on them has encouraged people to speak up on the side of justice. Presumably, the Kharotabad police surgeon mustered the courage to take the right stand secure in the knowledge that the media, the judiciary and civil society are keeping a watchful eye on the goings-on. That watchful eye promises there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Saida_fazal@yahoo.com