Intelligence unwanted

The poor owners had their factory burned, case registered against them and yet paid Rs 150 million to probably save themselves from target killing

If ignorance is bliss, deliberate ignorance is an abyss. Being human and being ignorant is not fair and being human and not wanting to know is almost criminal. However, the art of looking the other way and the art of pretending it never happened is what is referred to as qualities of a sensible and mature person. Does being sensible mean being insensitive to one’s surroundings? Does being sensible mean being indifferent to the obvious? With so much innovation, development in the world to connect and communicate with everybody at all levels, why has this knowledge and information era made us more unaware and inactive? Social media is the true boundary breaker in the communications world. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all sorts of chats have made messaging and talk cost-free and instant. Clickomania has overtaken face-to-face and telephonic conversations. One click and the life of the individual becomes bare and naked in front of you. With such advancement in technology, it is virtually impossible to hide under the excuse that information is hard to find, provided you do want to find it and, having found it, you want to do anything about it.

Here lies the dilemma of nations like ours where the proper usage of information is not being made to cruise along with more developing countries on the information highway. Lack of education and awareness is an almost inevitable feature of an underdeveloped country. However, the bigger crime is when information is turned into intelligence and deliberately suppressed or distorted to abuse the innocence of ignorance. It is this censor on the truth that makes countries become havens of crime and violence. What can be a bigger incentive for criminals to flourish than to see investigations leading to hardcore evidence being brushed away till it ceases to matter? This results in hardened criminality with multiplication of crimes to an extent where it is hard to distinguish who is and is not involved — exactly the reason for where Pakistan is today in terms of terrorism and law and order. With such a ‘distinguished’ record of investigative reports being pushed into the rubbish bin, one more report — on the Baldia Town fire — is just waiting to be shelved and become part of our bitter history. Why is there such an aversion to taking these reports seriously?

To answer the second part of the question, the best way to pacify the hue and cry of an aghast public is to order an investigation. It is legally and ethically the best immediate answer. Then you make it difficult for the report to be compiled and buy time so that by the time it is leaked or is debated, the events have lost their relevance and fury. Also, if those who commissioned the report have changed then it becomes easy to disown it and dismiss it. That is why, despite some really brilliant reports written on strategic level critical incidents, nothing has ever happened to make the whole effort worth it.

The most famous one was the Hamoodur Rehman Commission report. This commission was set up by the government of Pakistan to investigate the reasons and causes of its worst ever defeat by the Indian army and Mukti Bahini, a group that was involved in the freeing of Bangladesh from the oppressive control of Pakistan. The commission that was constituted on December 26, 1971 by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto submitted its report on October 23, 1974. It gave complete details of how moral, political and administrative failings were responsible for the surrender of the Pakistan army in East Pakistan. It also gave political reasons why the leaders in East Pakistan, including Mujibur Rehman, who was the president of the Awami League, were forced to resort to military struggle for the creation of Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujibur Rehman’s Awami League had won the election of united Pakistan held in 1970. The commission headed by the then Chief Justice (CJ) of Pakistan, Justice Hamoodur Rehman, held widespread atrocities, serious acts of human rights violations, other abuses of power by Pakistani generals and complete failure in civilian and martial law leaderships responsible for the loss of East Pakistan. The commission recommended stringent punishment for top army officials, including court martial for a number of them. The response of the man who commissioned this report was that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto ordered that each and every copy of the commission report be burnt.

Similar was the fate of the Abbottabad Commission report and the more recent Model Town Joint Investigative Team (JIT) report by Jusitce Najafi. The original JIT report by Justice Najafi stated that Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif, then Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, then Principal Secretary of the CM Dr Tauqeer Shah and other senior police officers were directly or indirectly responsible for the killings of at least 14 Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers and injuries to over 100 people when police clashed with PAT workers on June 17 in front of Tahirul Qadri’s residence in Model Town. The CM suppressed the report and withdrew it by saying that it was not complete and accurate, and then ordered another one under the supervision of the same people who were incriminated in the event.

Thus, when the Baldia Town report came out after two and a half years its delay was no surprise. But its findings are shocking. That 289 poor men, women and children were burnt alive as punishment for refusal of extortion is indigestible and unforgivable. The arrested target killer had recounted to interrogators how the factory was set on fire when its owners refused to pay extortion of Rs 200 million. Upon the refusal of the factory owners, Rehman Bhola and his unknown accomplices hurled chemical substances at the factory, which caused the inferno.

After the incident, a former provincial minister who belonged to the same political party got registered a case against the factory owners and, subsequently, used his influence to cancel the bail of the factory owners when they approached the court. However, the factory owners paid extortion money of Rs 150 million under duress for disposal of the case. Imagine the poor owners had their factory burned, case registered against them and yet paid Rs 150 million to probably save themselves from target killing.

This report is the true test of political parties, the state, media, civil society and public. The burning alive of 289 people is the biggest terrorism incident in recent history, bigger than Shikarpur and bigger than the Army Public School (APS) Peshawar, and with full intelligence available and criminals caught. Even if the politicians do the disappearing act, can we as human beings let something worse than Hitler’s gas chamber extermination of innocents be forgotten because we are too terrorised or cynical to challenge this tyranny? Time for some introspection and time for some action.