Quetta has bled once again. A suicide bomber exploded himself near emergency ward of Civil Hospital, Quetta. His target was a group of lawyers who had gathered outside the emergency ward after President of Balochistan Bar Association was shot dead in the morning.
As per the latest reports, over 70 people have been killed in the blast. The majority of those dead were lawyers who were there to mourn the death of their colleague, as well as some journalists who were present there to cover the shooting incident.
Soon after the blast, Chief Minister Balochistan Sanaullah Zehri accused RAW of being responsible for the attack.
As usual, COAS General Raheel Sharif was among the first ones to fly out to Quetta, condemned the blast, attended the injured and as is routine, called a security meeting.
The meeting, as usual, concluded with a series of tweets by DG ISPR, Asim Bajwa, announcing a combing operation against those involved in the terror attacks. He further said that intelligence agencies were authorized to go anywhere in the country to target the perpetrators of the attack.
The immediate questions that comes to one's mind are; what were our intelligence agencies doing before the attack? Do they really need an authorization from COAS himself to act against terrorists?
If our security agencies are so good at their job, why do these blasts occur in even the securest areas?
Instead of owning their mistakes and identifying the identifiable causes, the government has found an easy way out by putting the blame of every attack on RAW.
Needless to say, media has helped strengthen this narrative where hatred for India increases after every attack, while those responsible for the attacks and those responsible for the lapses evade scrutiny and no real question is asked.
COAS says the attack was to target the CPEC. But how do we explain Jaish-e-Muhammad collecting funds in the presence of Rangers in Karachi? How do we explain Hafiz Saeed marching from Lahore to Islamabad and holding a rally, only few hundred meters away from the parliament?
As a citizen of Pakistan, I have a right to know that why, despite numerous claims by the civilian and army authorities to have “broken the backs” of terrorists, do these attacks happen?
I have a right to know the status of National Action Plan, which was formulated unanimously by the country’s leadership. I want to know the reason why the banned organizations are still allowed to operate.
As a concerned citizen, I want to ask all of these questions from those who claim to be in control and from all those who are actually in control.
