Death toll from Taftan bombing rises to 30
By
Web Desk /
Ifthikar Firdous /
APP
Published: June 9, 2014
An injured pilgrim is treated at a hospital in Quetta following an attack in Taftan. PHOTO: AFP
The death toll from last night’s suicide attack on a hotel hosting Shia pilgrims in Taftan rose to 30 on Monday, Express News reported.
Among the 30 people killed in Taftan, 22 have been so far identified as residents of Kohat District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Tirah Valley in Orakzai Agency, relatives of the deceased told
The Express Tribune.
Speaking from Quetta, Yousuf Bangash, a resident of Kohat, said there were four buses with 210 passengers, who were residing in two hotels, Hashmi Hotel and Syed Murtaza Hotel, when the bombers attacked the pilgrims.
He confirmed that 22 of the deceased had been identified and belonged to Kurram Agency, Orakzai Agency in Fata and district Kohat of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
“This includes nine women and a child,” he said while 16 injured people brought to the combined military hospital 14 women and two men.
He added that the bodies of the deceased were brought to the hospital where the authorities had informed them they would be flown to Kohat.
Khizer, who identified himself as the head of the caravan of pilgrims, said he was lucky to have survived the attack “I cannot say much at the moment,” he said. Khizer along with the bus driver, Layas Khan remained safe in the attacks, but were too shaken up to speak.
The death toll was earlier reported as 23 with many injured but 7 more victims succumbed to their injuries in the hospital.
Tahafuz-e-Azadari Council has announced a three-day mourning period following the attack.
On late Sunday night, a suicide bomber had entered Al Murtaza Hotel in Taftan, a district on the border with Iran, and detonated explosives strapped to his body in the midst of Shia pilgrims, security sources had told
The Express Tribune.
Levies and Frontier Corps personnel had engaged the attackers in a gunfight. FC spokesperson Khan Wasey had claimed in a statement that one of the bombers was killed by the paramilitary troops.
A banned outfit Jaishul Islam had claimed responsibility for the attack. A purported spokesperson for the group, Azam Tariq, had called Quetta-based journalists from an undisclosed location to claim credit for the deadly attack.
Sources had said that intelligence agencies had warned of possible attacks on pilgrims one month ago, but the authorities had failed to put in place adequate security to thwart Sunday’s attack.
The Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen, Hazara Democratic Party, Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqa-e-Jaferia and Tahaffuz-e-Azadari Council had condemned the attack and called it failure of the government.
Following the incident, Iran has closed its border with Pakistan for an indefinite period and security has also been tightened.
“Zero-Point gate on Pak-Iran border in Taftan has been closed by the Iranian officials and all activities pertaining to travelling and trade through the border were suspended,” Deputy Commissioner Chagai, Saifullah Khetran said.
UN denounces attack
United Nations has strongly condemned the suicide attack on Shia pilgrims that killed 25 people in a hotel in Taftan, Balochistan.
Massacre, mayhem and muddled priorities
The causes of such monumental intelligence fiascos are myriad. While capacity issues may be at play, it is the will and priorities of the outfits responsible for the job that raises the most serious questions
Scores of Shia pilgrims, a majority of them ethnic Pashtuns, were massacred in Taftan, Balochistan by jihadist suicide bombers over the weekend, just as their ideological cohorts unleashed death and mayhem at Karachi airport. This is not an escalation in the war unleashed by the jihadists as some analysts have claimed but an unfortunate norm for Pakistan now. The Shia genocide by way of both pogroms and systematic targeted killing of the eminent male members of the beleaguered community is an ongoing phenomenon. Hundreds of Shias have been martyred at the hands of the jihadists en route via Taftan to their holy places in Iran and Iraq or on the way back. Similarly, the so-called spectacular attacks on key civilian and military installations have become a permanent feature of the Pakistani geopolitical landscape. Regrettably, the state’s, especially the security establishment’s, muddled priorities seem equally set in stone.
The Karachi airport attack is a virtual replay of the previous Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) assaults on the Minhas airbase in Kamra (August 2012), Mehran naval base in Karachi (May 2011) and the Peshawar airport (December 2012). The operational manoeuvres and the targets of the terrorists varied in each attack but such brazen assaults remain the most effective tactic in the jihadist playbook alongside targeting civilians in massive suicide bombings. The TTP strategy remains to not just show that it is alive and kicking but is able to project power all over Pakistan while making the state look impotent under the full media glare. The reaction time and response efficacy of the airport security and armed forces personnel and, above all, their sacrifices during the Karachi airport attack were commendable. The terrorists could have certainly inflicted much bigger loss of life and property had law enforcement agencies not confronted them. Still, the terrorists did what they had set out to do: instil fear in the public while energising their own base. The TTP quickly claimed responsibility for the deadly attack. There may have been on-site security lapses too but the ultimate responsibility for the massive failure in preventing the attack, and the leverage the TTP gained through it, rests with the intelligence agencies.
The causes of such monumental intelligence fiascos are myriad. While capacity issues may be at play, it is the will and priorities of the outfits responsible for the job that raises the most serious questions. Zeroing in on the choicest targets, ranging from ostensibly strategic assets at Kamra to surveillance planes at Mehran base to the fighter jets at Peshawar base to commercial airliners in Karachi now, suggests collusion from within these facilities. That terrorist cells have been operational within the armed forces has been conceded in his book by former army chief, General Pervez Musharraf, who narrowly escaped their attacks twice. No surprises there. But has the security establishment changed one bit even after its ex-commander and then General Headquarters came under terrorist attacks? Some analysts, including some liberal ones too, have been very optimistic for some time now that there is a sea-change in how the establishment is handling the terrorism issue. Maybe so, but I will believe it when I see it. The events of the past few weeks, if not the past decade, in Pakistan and in Afghanistan suggest that there has been no course correction whatsoever. In the wake of the attack on the prominent journalist Hamid Mir, for which he and his family blamed the country’s premier intelligence agency, an assortment of jihadist, quasi-jihadist and outright terrorist outfits took to the streets and the airwaves ‘to protect the honour of the national institutions’. These very same characters are ones that harboured the al Qaeda ringleaders like Abu Zubaidah and Khalid Sheikh Muhammad and also Benazir Bhutto’s assassins From their ranks comes the rabid anti-Shia terror mastermind Malik Ishaq whose underlings have wreaked havoc in Taftan. Support from such unsavoury individuals and groups was sought, or at least accepted, like in past decades without an iota of concern for their jihadist activities and domestic terrorism. The same array of jihadists involved in slaughtering the Shia pilgrims is also considered responsible for the abduction, torture and burials in mass graves of Baloch nationalists and separatists. One wonders how exactly do the liberal analysts singing paeans of the paradigm shift in the security establishment’s geostrategic thinking explain this ongoing domestic consorting.
There does not seem to be much change in jihadist practice vis-à-vis Afghanistan even if one buys the theory that policy has changed. The attack on the Indian consulate in Herat, the massive incursion into Nuristan and the attack on the Afghan presidential candidate Dr Abdullah Abdullah are all being linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), whose front organisation the Jamatud Dawa was cheerleading the recent hullaballoo in support of the ‘sensitive agencies’. Contrary to what some want the world to believe, the LeT has expanded, not wrapped up, its terrorist activities in Afghanistan after 9/11, especially in that country’s northeast. The LeT is believed to have carried out several joint attacks with the Haqqani terrorist network inside Afghanistan and it is unlikely that its recent forays were without the knowledge, blessings and support of the Pakistan-based Haqqanis. Pakistan, of course, flatly denies any involvement in these attacks while the LeT leadership is living large in the Pakistani heartland. Interestingly, the chatter about a ‘decisive action’ ostensibly in the North Waziristan Agency (NWA), including against the Haqqanis, is again picking up momentum. The army’s line for some time has been that they are itching to take the fight to the terrorists. The fact that former army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani had steadfastly refused to act in NWA when the world was willing to help Pakistan in that endeavour, is not lost on anyone, but better late than never. Perhaps Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should take the military up on its word. Paradigm shifts, however, do not happen when a state runs with the hare and hunts with the hounds. It would take much more than the measly resolve displayed by the country’s top civilian and military leadership and the short, prevaricating statement coming out of their latest meeting to take the terrorism bull by the horns. Are they willing to take a clear and resolute position renouncing and denouncing both domestic and cross-border jihadist terrorism and proclaim zero tolerance for slaughters like those in Taftan and the debacles as at the Karachi airport? Developing a national will is a prelude to building capacity. Absent that, more massacres and mayhem will remain an inevitable outcome of their muddled priorities.
Pakistani scholar asks supporters to kill the takfiris if they call Shia as infidels
2014, 12 June 12:25 PM
Shia Ulema Council’s leader Allama Nazir Abbas Taqvi has asked the supporters to kill those takfiri elements who call Shia infidels.
Speaking to the supporters at a sit-in on main M.A. Jinnah Road that was to protest against the massacre of Shia pilgrims in Taftan, the SUC leader said that if relevant authorities don’t take action against the takfiris for their declaring Shia as infidels, then you shut their mouth by killing them, we shall see them.
Deputy Speaker Shehla Reza who hails from the Sindh’s ruling Pakistan People’s Party also participated in the rally. Allama Shabbir Meesami, Allama Jafar Subhani and other officials were also present.
Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen also staged a sit-in at same place on Monday evening. Ali Hussain Naqvi, Maulana Ali Anwar Jafari and others spoke to the protestors.
The SUC also staged a sit-in on main national highway in Malir. Traffic was blocked. Shiites were raising slogans of Labbaik Ya Hussain (AS).
Perils of insensitivity
By
I.A. Rehman
THE government will be in serious trouble if it fails to address the increasing complaints of its insensitivity to the plight of citizens in distress.
The terrorist attack on the Karachi airport kept the whole nation on tenterhooks for more than 24 hours.
Even after the raiders were said to have been killed and tributes rightly paid to the special army units, the Rangers and the Airport Security Force, the loss of the men trapped in the cold storage caused indescribable anguish to the entire community that had helplessly watched delays in rescue operations for a variety of acceptable reasons, an utterly unbearable loss.
For hours on end it seemed that in addition to an apparently powerless chief minister of Sindh only the army was doing its job. After every few minutes, the TV channels would announce that the army chief had taken notice of this problem or that.
The all too frequent instances of government insensitivity can have dangerous repercussions.
It was one of those calamities when the people wish to see the head of their government in action, to hear directly from him of a resolve to defend the citizens under attack and words of comfort for the victims.
This is done by heads of all responsible governments in the world, even in cases of disasters smaller than the Karachi incident of mega-terrorism. It would not be a bad idea if a TV studio is set up at each of the prime minister’s residences so that he can talk to the people when they want to hear him the most.
His non-appearance in public in an hour of grave emergency could be construed as his lack of concern for his flock.
The perils of insensitivity should have been brought home to the government by the affair of the Geo TV channel. If the wrong done to the intelligence agency was a most heinous offence, was the Geo management the only culprit? Why did not Pemra order discontinuance of the telecast? Then who was responsible for keeping the post of the Pemra chairman vacant for an inordinately long period?
Did the acting chairman, appointed in a desperate attempt to contain the snowballing crisis, qualify as an “eminent professional of known integrity and competence having substantial experience in media, business, management, finance, economics or law”?
Within hours of the appointment of the acting chairman, Pemra announced its verdict on the complaint filed by the defence ministry. Apparently the need to keep the complainant in the loop was not heeded and we found the defence minister behaving as if he had been left out of the intra-government consultation.
As a result, the case appears far from settled. It has set a bad precedent — of a media house guillotined under an executive order.
Numerous other instances of the government’s insensitivity to citizens’ concerns can be cited. The All Pakistan Clerks Association has been out in the streets for years on end. They might be making unreasonable demands but there is no evidence of any recent effort by the government to talk to them.
The lady health workers could not get their due till they had been subjected to baton-charge. Now the nurses in Islamabad are running from one authority to another for removal of their grievances.
A good number of poor men employed by mobile companies to guard the fibre link have sent petitions to government leaders and judges in protest against being paid much less than the minimum wage. Nobody is listening to them.
How did the authorities deal with a Baloch young man’s hunger strike in protest against the disappearance of a Balochistan Student Organisation-Azad leader? Except for Dr Abdul Malik’s brief effort to persuade him to give up his fast the government mercilessly left him to risk his life outside the Karachi Press Club.
The civil society actors who finally prevailed and had him admitted to a hospital have no means of fulfilling the responsibility of getting justice done. They have no cure for the insensitivity of the state.
Some instances of the government’s insensitivity are creating long-term problems. The killing of 24 or so pilgrims in Taftan last Sunday was overshadowed by the terrorist attack on the Karachi airport. Again the army provided the helicopters needed for rescue operations. But the government seems to have become so used to the systematic killing of Shia pilgrims that its response lacks any sense of outrage.
A heart surgeon leaves his lucrative practice in the United States and comes to his home in Pakistan to save lives at risk. He is shot dead in a public place and his little son traumatised for life only because of his belief. No government leader has the courage to condemn the dastardly act of naked terrorism.
A Supreme Court lawyer is gunned down in Multan for doing his professional duty. His suspected killers distribute pamphlets among lawyers warning them of a similar fate if they dare to defend anyone condemned by the orthodoxy.
The government does not have the guts to order the police to properly investigate the case or to stop harassing the victim’s associates and clerks. And, of course, such matters are not caught by the judiciary’s suo motu radar.
These instances of insensitivity have extremely dangerous repercussions. When no action is taken against the outfit responsible for the wanton massacre of Shias in Balochistan or Gilgit-Baltistan the state gives it licence to persist in its atrocities.
When the state demonstrates its insensitivity to the killing of doctors and lawyers it emboldens the culprits to continue to play with innocent citizens’ lives and to raise monuments in honour of murderers. Eventually, it undermines the moral basis of its authority that all states need to command citizens’ allegiance.
The people can forgive the rulers who share their pain even if they lack the will and the means to offer redress but they find it had to forget, and harder still to forgive, the rulers that are insensitive to their sorrows and their unmerited suffering.
Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2014
