Funeral
prayers for victims of Multan attack
Government
Fails to Stop Sectarian Terror
By
Muhammad-Najm Akbar
WASHINGTON, October 9: Pakistan’s omnipotent, omniscient,
omnipresent Chief of Army Staff has failed to meet one more challenge
from another gun-wielding force in the country. The sectarian
terrorists have struck twice within one week taking over 70 innocent
lives and leaving the imprints of their savagery on the injured
bodies of many more.
They
have reduced the most powerful ruling junta to helpless spectators
as they continue to pick their targets and strike at will.
In
Multan 40 people fell victim to the indiscriminate killing spree
of sectarian terrorists. More than 100 were wounded. The perpetrators
of this heinous act were able to explode a high intensity bomb
that carried seven to eight kilograms of explosives at a gathering
of about 2,000 devotees of late Azam Tariq who lost his life last
year in a cycle of insane violence that he was accused to have
abetted in many ways.
Earlier,
on October 1, a suspected suicide attacker killed more than 30
people and injured over 50 others as he detonated an explosive
device inside Zanibia mosque in Sialkot. He carried it in a brief
case. The explosion caused a two-foot-deep crater on the floor.
The police seem to have defused a second briefcase of equal power.
The
public reaction in both instances confirmed a consistent pattern:
a total lack of confidence in the ineffective state apparatus
and a firm willingness to adopt aggressive ways to mark their
protest. The authorities wait in the wings to take action against
mourners when their tempers cool down.
In Multan the authorities had no way to control incensed workers
of the Millat-e-Islamia (the new name for the outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba,
Pakistan led by the late Maulana Tariq) who witnessed their meeting
place littered with body parts, turbans and bloodstains. They
chanted slogans against the rival group and vowed revenge in the
presence of hundreds of police and paramilitary troops, attacked
two ambulances and burnt tyres on the roads. Schools and colleges
in Multan were closed for two days.
In
Sialkot, after the catastrophe, violent protests damaged public
and private property worth millions. The mourners forced closing
of shops and financial institutions, resorted to aerial firing
and burnt tyres at various places. Armed with brickbats, sticks
and stones, they also attacked offices of the District Nazim and
set its record section on fire, reducing most of it to ashes.
The
protesters also damaged official and private vehicles parked on
the premises of the Nazim's office and torched a number of motorcycles
and also set ablaze several official motorcycles. In the nearby
town of Daska, people blocked traffic on the main road for about
five hours. The mourners also set a police van on fire and threw
stones at police and private vehicles.
Army
had to come to the assistance of civilian authorities to maintain
law and order. The business community observed mourning for four
days, closing all trading activity in the city. The government
initiated administrative action against senior officials of the
city police. Sialkot police registered cases against more than
200 people for attacking the Nazim's office and setting it afire.
There
is no end to the manifestation of this orgy of hate. On October
5, a crime investigation department official was shot dead in
Nazimabad, Karachi. He was getting his car serviced when two youth
on a motorcycle pulled up, fired a volley of bullets at him and
fled. A police official told Dawn that the deceased had
played an active role in recent actions against banned groups
and in the operation launched in the early 90's in the city. His
brother and a nephew, both policemen, had been killed in an ambush
in 1995 in Orangi Town.
The state’s inability to cope with this massive threat to
our security breeds further frustration in the society. In addition
to massive killings, Pakistan continues to suffer from increasing
incidence of religious, sectarian intolerance.
In
Sheikhupura, Sikh minority faced harassment on their hands as
Gurdawara Janam Asthan came under attack. The followers
of Maulana Azam Tariq are aggrieved because the authorities have
been unsuccessful in apprehending his murderers and to bring them
to justice. In a commemorative meeting at Lahore, they publicly
demonstrated the venomous trends that have come to dominate the
sectarian dispute. They vowed to pursue their late leader’s
path, viewed as the extremist form of sectarianism.
The
speakers at the Lahore meeting warned that they would not tolerate
propagation of “anti-Islam ideologies in the garb of Islam”
and would continue their mission to “differentiate between
Islam and Kufr.” They also called for observing
of the days of Caliphs at official level, passage of the Namoos-e-Sahaba
bill for the elimination of sectarianism, and declaring Pakistan
a Sunni state.
The
government views the situation as a law and order question and
refuses to look at the wider and deeper dimensions of the issue.
The Chief of the Awami National Party, Asfandyar Wali Khan, pointed
to these flaws and warned the Establishment on October 3 against
creating political vacuum by removing mainstream political parties
from the scene because otherwise “extremists would sneak
into politics to fill the vacuum thus created."
They
are already there and this regime has no plans to throw them out.
In view of the worsening situation, the Sindh Police Chief suggested
to the management bodies of mosques and Imam Bargahs on October
4, 2004 to turn the places of worships into besieged fortresses.
He asked them to introduce checking through metal-detectors at
the gates of places of worship and maintain lists of those coming
to offer the prayers.
He
also advised them to arrange volunteers at mosques and Imam Bargahs,
to be deployed at the rooftops and main gates of such places for
keeping a vigil on suspected persons. Another suggestion was that
they should install close circuit televisions at the places of
worship to monitor the activities of people through video recording.
Parking of motorcycles, cars and other vehicles near the mosques
and Imam Bargahs should strictly be prohibited as a preventive
measure.
Similarly,
following the Multan tragedy, the Government has taken preventive
and pre-emptive steps with a view to maintain law and order. On
October 7, it advised the provincial governments to ban holding
of religious congregations and gatherings until further orders.
In seeking a debate in the National Assembly on sectarian killings,
MMA has aptly underlined the issues that need to be addressed.
The alliance has pointed out, "The incident of suicidal attack
on Masjid-i-Zainabia… has once again created a serious law
and order situation in the country which is bound to increase
sectarian tensions as well. Such incidents could endanger the
national security of Pakistan…”
The
National Assembly must undertake an extensive analysis of the
complexities involved and seek enforcement of measures that the
military rulers have been unjustly avoiding.
