Pakistan must ensure safety to legal fraternity
Monday's suicide terror attack on a hospital at Quetta in Balochistan Province of Pakistan has once again reminded the international community how cruel the Taliban could be which primarily targeted the mourners of the deceased Bilal Anwar Kasi, the president of the state's Bar Association. The dastardly assault mainly pointing at the lawyers demonstrate how the jihadists across Pakistan have been striving to eliminate the legal fraternity for their very bold espousal of justice and liberty in a society consistently marred by violence and religious terrorism. Besides the lawyers, the terrorists, both homegrown and foreign, are regularly mounting attack on the minority Shia and Hazara communities for years with a record incidents of more than 1,400 in the past. The Pakistani Government should be blamed for its lackluster efforts in fighting the jihadists and making their own citizens being pawns in the hands of the growing Islamic terror. It seems the Government, the Army and its intelligence agencies are all in hand in gloves and all they want is the total elimination of the minorities and the liberals from the very map of the country.
Both the Islamic State (IS) Khurassan and the Jamat-ul Ahrar faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are claiming responsibility for this attack. In fact, the IS Khurassan, while showering praise to its suicide bomber, stated that it is successful in perishing the custodians of Pakistani democracy, which they consider as an infidel system and such efforts will help the outfit to bring in the caliphate one day. The spreading of the IS bases and fast recruitments of cadres to its fold might pose the biggest danger to the Pakistan's non-existent state and potentially to its most revered Army and intelligence for sure. Meanwhile the Chief Minister of Balochistan Nawab Sanaullah Zehri and lashkar-e-Taiba chief-cum Mumbai terror mastermind Hafiz Saeed, accused the Research and Analysis Wing, the Indian spy agency for the attack. The remark made by the Balochistan Chief Minister is already drawing flak from its own security analysts and they are asking him to come up with the evidence and made public of India's involvement in the incident. The international community must condemn Zehri for his irresponsible remark and ask Pakistan to ensure safety of its own citizens falling in the hands of its Islamists nurtured by the country's Army and intelligence sleuths for decades. The core concern is that the mayhem is quickly raising its ugly heads. Pakistan is witnessing what it had sown in the past. The worst tragedy is that the terror attacks are largely targeted at common people and sparingly the Army and the political establishment.
Balochistan as a whole needs immediate attention from the Pakistani establishment in Islamabad. For decades, Pakistan's federal Government has neglected the bordering Province. And the worse, the provincial Government is found to be criminally and intentionally neglectful of its people. Thus simply blaming India for spreading terror in the province does no way help the people of Balochistan. Both the federal and provincial Governments must win the confidence of the people in the province and bring an end to the feeling alienation and sheer neglect prevailed there for years since the early days of independence.