Archive for July 18th, 2009
Mulaqaat by Irfan Siddiqui
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Asif – Nawaz Bhai Bhai by Talat Hussain
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Achi Kheber by Abdulla Tariq Sohail
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Mian Shahbaz Sharif… by Irshad Ahmed Haqani
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Insaan Ka Sefer… by Hassan Nisar
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Dimagi Sehet… by Munno Bhai
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Life Style bedelney… by M. Amir Khakwani
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Adaleti Hukem… by Mushtaq Qureshi
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Siasset Danoo Aur… by Shafqat Mehmood
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Reforming the police by Anees Jillani
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July 18th by Anees Jillani.
HAVE you ever seen somebody pulling a chicken out of a cage and slaughtering it in front of the other birds which remain inside the cage? The caged chickens make a lot of noise and try to fly in all directions.
However, within a few minutes of the slaughter the chickens resume eating as if nothing had happened. Our reactions in Pakistan are not much different.
On July 6, 2008 I could not resist going to attend the meeting at Lal Masjid. While returning at around 7.45pm when the meeting had ended with some offering their Maghrib prayers and the majority walking back, I saw about 25 policemen standing in line at the Saddar Road roundabout across the petrol pump, not far from the Holiday Inn. They were unarmed and innocently watching the crowd walking past them. The sun was setting and the weather was pleasant and I could not help appreciate my surroundings.
However, the first thought that came to my mind upon seeing these policemen was that they were sitting ducks for a suicide bomber. My car passed these policemen who had been deputed from Faisalabad to serve in Islamabad that day at Lal Masjid and within a minute the suicide bomber struck them. Twenty-one, including a few civilians, are said to have died.
I was told by the depressed policemen at the site that only five of their colleagues, of the hundreds who were stationed less than 50 meters away at the Aabpara police station, rushed to help the blast victims. The remaining were too scared to come forward lest there be another blast.
I experienced this myself at the time of Benazir’s assassination when only four to five persons, including myself, were trying to help the victims and the police was nowhere to be seen although there were hundreds deputed all around Liaquat Bagh. This is actually one of the key problems with the phenomenon of suicide bombing: the psyche of fear has gripped the whole nation and the police is no exception. Thus, the chances are that nobody will be on hand to give you even a few drops of water, the first thing all the injured ask for, before you die lying on the road.
This fear psychosis should be compared with the performance of the British police who grabbed a Brazilian following the July 7 London underground blasts while he was boarding a train, pinned him down and shot him dead. He was innocent and totally unarmed, and the incident was unfortunate. However, the policemen who killed him should be praised for their courage as they were grabbing and then pinning down a potential suicide bomber before he could blow up yet another train. They were willing to risk their lives to save others. How many such cases can you think of in our country?
We try to make heroes when we have none. A policeman is talking on a mobile phone while on duty, which is a common site nowadays, and is killed by an attacker. We make him a martyr. Is he? Almost all the policemen who have been killed in suicide attacks were caught off guard.
Every time one goes to a public event, like the July 6 Lal Masjid or the December 27 Liaquat Bagh meeting, the police gives the impression as if that particular day is a terrorist-free day and such incidents happen elsewhere and on other days. They exude a carefree attitude with a sub-machine gun or an old rifle in one hand, and a mobile or a cigarette or a cup of tea in the other. You will seldom see an alert policeman anywhere in the country.
The police lack proper training and are also underpaid. The policemen who were killed on July 6 had been on duty since eight in the morning and were standing in the ‘fall-in’ position when the attack took place. They were waiting for the final countdown and attendance-taking before they could rush to catch up on their sleep. What kind of service can you expect from a police contingent that has been on active duty for 12 hours, which incidentally is also against the law? There is no reason why the country cannot hire more policemen in this period of acute unemployment. To make matters worse, they are not paid overtime and are underpaid. While they stand for 12 hours without a break in the hot or cold or humid weather or in the midst of rain, their superiors sit in air-conditioned offices and engage in PR.
The suicide bomber is obviously the main culprit behind the July 6 incident. However, the officer who asked these policemen to ‘fall-in’ at that public roundabout in full view of everybody is equally at fault.
Some may ask after reading the above criticism, how can a suicide bombing attack be averted? All one has to do is see the extensive police surveillance in London nowadays. There are CCTV cameras almost everywhere which can also be installed in all our markets and roads (and they should remain functional too). In addition, two policemen or policewomen with small wirelesses in their hands — but carrying no guns — can be seen everywhere in Central London. However, they have searching eyes that look all around.
What can be a more attractive target for a terrorist than the United States nowadays? Despite this, America has not experienced any major terrorist incident since 9/11, which happened nearly seven years ago. Have you ever wondered about the reason? It is not because the American nation is homogenous and there is nobody available in the country who does not wish to harm America. The reason is that the police is simply not giving the extremists a chance to strike.
Guns are readily available but explosives are hard to find in the US (in our country, unfortunately, they are sometimes easier to find than atta). Potential terrorists are constantly being traced and monitored in every possible manner and their attempts foiled before they materialise.
One only wishes that the police and the intelligence agencies in our country wake up from their slumber and muster a little bit of courage and intelligence to catch the terrorists before they are able to press the levers of their suicide jackets. We need to remember that a thick head can do as much damage as a hard heart.
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