Every time there is domestic political trouble, the authorities cry "conspiracy." On each occasion there is a terrorist attack or killings, it is officially ascribed to an unidentified "foreign hand." Does this mean nobody is in charge in this country? Or does this imply that evading responsibility has become a hallmark of governments, be that at the federal level or the provincial level? Blaming others for one's own responsibility would be useful if by doing so the problem goes away. But it does not and cannot. Nor does the routine ritual that follows every act of terrorist violence: Officials, leaders, ministers, governors, and law enforcers falling over each other to express "shock," "sorrow," "pain," and "grief." As if by doing so absolves them of their real responsibility.
But this is precisely what has happened after the latest orgy of sectarian violence in Lahore on Sunday, one of the worst in the country's history. Over two dozen people, including women and children, were massacred Sunday morning by unidentified gunmen during a Majlis-e-Aza at a Shia graveyard in the heart of Lahore. The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a militant Sunni organisation, is reported to have claimed responsibility declaring this to be a revenge killing. Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports suggest that the assailants were linked to the jailbreak of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorists from D.G. Khan only weeks earlier. Anybody could have foreseen what happened next. Enraged mobs took to the streets in Lahore on Sunday, angry with the authorities for failing to do their duty: protect the lives of citizens. Protests continued on Monday with gun battles raging on the streets of Lahore.
For all the official pronouncements about containing sectarian trouble, Sunday's outrage belies that claim. Indeed, 1997 has been the worst year of sectarian violence in the country's 50-year history. Sunday's carnage provides little basis for optimism that 1998 will be any better if the authorities continue to wring their hands and keep expressing shock, horror and condemnation instead of coming to grips with this growing problem.
One of most publicized claims made by the government after it enacted the controversial Anti-Terrorism Act on the eve of Pakistan's independence day last August, was that this law had stemmed terrorist violence. The facts speak otherwise. Since the ATA was promulgated, more than 500 people have been killed in terrorist or politically-motivated violence in the country; over 140 in sectarian violence in the Punjab alone. This has proved the critics right: that simply bringing in a draconian law, without showing the political will to crack down on centres of sectarian militancy and violence, would not address the situation.
What happened on Bloody Sunday should have brought a tear to every eye in the
Go To Page: 1 2
