brahmastra
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It could well mean the Taliban and a large number of other terrorist militias have sympathisers and activists well-entrenched in the provincial law-enforcement machinery. Photo by AFP
Even though there is little that surprises people at this juncture, the report that no less than three million weapons have disappeared from official warehouses in Punjab is appalling.
The details are shocking and give us an idea of the layers of corruption in the law-enforcement structure in the countrys most populous province. Yesterday, this newspaper carried a report based on an official document that revealed the ways in which weapons including grenades and Kalashnikov submachine guns seized from criminals and terrorists went missing: one, not all the arms seized by the police from individuals and gangs were deposited in the district and provincial malkhanas; two, no less than three million of a bewildering variety of arms deposited in the two categories of malkhanas and arsenals of the official bomb disposal squad disappeared.
The Punjab home department must be commended for preparing the report. In fact, it must have been shocked by the contents of the finding. It is a mystery though why the Punjab government did not deem it fit to order an inquiry to fix guilt and take action against those involved in a criminal enterprise of such dimensions. While the details of the weapons that have disappeared have been covered in the Dawn story, it bears repetition to recall that the number of lethal weapons which have gone missing include 3,454 grenades and 4, 490 of the killing machines that are Kalashnikovs.
One can only guess the modus operandi and motives behind the weapons lost. A large number of the weapons must have been sold to criminals by men who are supposed to guard the arsenal, and many others must have been gifted to terrorist outfits. If this is established, this could well mean the Taliban and a large number of other terrorist militias have sympathisers and activists well-entrenched in the provincial law-enforcement machinery.
The disappearances could also mean that Punjab warehouses are one of the terrorists major sources of arms and not only in Punjab. The meticulous details in the report about the number of weapons deposited with the provincial warehouses and the arms which are still there with the malkhanas show on the whole that some people in the provincial law-enforcement agencies and their overseers do after all care about their job. That in spite of this record-keeping the weapons should disappear is indeed ironic. We expect the Punjab government to release the inquiry report, if and when it is ready, and hope this will prompt the other provinces to take stock of what they have and what they have not.
DAWN.COM | Editorial | Missing weapons
imagine if it happens in real hehehehe
