Lahore, February 3: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has called upon the federal and provincial governments and the security and intelligence agencies to pull their act together rather than passing the blame for the Shikarpur massacre, and show responsibility in fulfilling their obligation to protect people’s lives.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Commission said: “In the aftermath of the terrible attack on the Shikarpur Imambargah, question much deeper than who visited the area and when need to be asked if the killers of our people are to be brought to justice or stopped from striking again.

Wishing that the massacre in Shikarpur had not happened, or adopting resolutions of condemnation is neither going to lessen the pain of victims’ families nor prevent further attacks by terrorists.

While provision of aircraft to move the critically injured to better medical facilities is important, in the larger scheme of things that is almost irrelevant. Better strategies and implementation must prevent attacks, not merely try and make transportation of the injured more efficient. The consistent failure to apprehend the perpetrators aggravates the grievance of the people. They expect the members of the government to be going after the perpetrators, rather than after one another.

The general public sentiment has vocally opposed all manifestations of terrorism and there has been a lot of support for action against terrorists operating under any garb. How that support is used now remains the question. The desired course would be to go after the perpetrators with the commitment that appears in rhetoric after every act of terror but does not seem to materilise in much more thereafter.

It is imperative that the people are informed about what became of the national action plan against terrorism and whether anybody is looking after implementation at all. The brutal killings in Shikarpur are a failure for policing, intelligence and security forces in varying degrees. Political point scoring and trying to find scapegoats is not going to help in any way. Sharing the precise vision for dealing with this onslaught and a specific timeframe to implement that is urgently needed.”

Zohra Yusuf

Chairperson