Lahore, July 13: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has strongly condemned the killing of nine trainee prison staff from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in a terrorist attack in Lahore on Thursday, blasted the lack of security for the victims and called for an efficient probe to apprehend the killers as well as for the soul searching that such attacks call for but which has been missing so far.

In a statement issued to the media on Friday, the Commission said: “HRCP is saddened by the brazen attack in Lahore in which nine trainee jail wardens from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were killed and is utterly shocked by the ease with which terrorists managed to storm the wardens’ hostel and walked away unchallenged afterwards. The administration has conceded that the staff did not have security and the police chief says that he was not aware that the trainee staffers were lodged there. The terrorists clearly have better intelligence than the police. The attack raises a lot of very disturbing and not wholly new questions. It is impossible to think that such an attack could have been launched without considerable local support and might well have been solely the work of local militants. It has been quite a few months since terrorists have struck in Lahore, may be they do not look at the provincial government benevolently any more. This was a botch up at many levels in which no one looks good, but the provincial government had the obvious responsibility to ensure adequate security for the trainees. Without the negligence of the administration, it is unlikely that the killers would have achieved their designs with such ease. HRCP is not qualified to offer advice on matters of security but it must say that this attack demands a lot of soul searching and much more than the usual response to terrorism, which has been confined to condemnation and rhetoric.

“It is far from reassuring to see the finger pointing and point scoring by politicians following the killings. It is hoped that sanity will prevail sooner rather than later and politicians will not fall for the terrorists’ ploy of stirring up ethnic tensions. Instead of indulging in blame games, the federal government and the governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab should invest their energies in bringing to justice the perpetrators of Thursday’s attack. The investigators must also probe and expose local networks of terrorists and militants who are bent on destabilizing Pakistan.”

Zohra Yusuf

Chairperson