Daily Times

The morning of October 25 brought horrible news for Pakistanis, as a late night terror attack on Police Training College, Quetta, claimed lives of dozens of newly recruited cadets. When the news of attack was aired around 12 am, initially, I perceived it as a minor attack to be tackled rapidly without major loss. In the first two hours, media reported only a few injured security officials, and I went to bed praying for safety of the rest. But unfortunately, morning news bulletins had another story; shockingly, there had been a death toll of 61, and about 150 were injured. What a sad day for Pakistan as Quetta bleeds again and our valiant soldiers are on target.

Terrorism has already claimed lives of more than 60,000 Pakistanis, most of whom were security officials fighting a war against terrorism. Terrorists have attacked every part of our community without discrimination. Innocent school children, women and civilians, all have been victims of their brutality, but officers and officials of law enforcement agencies are their main target, particularly, police training institutes have been targeted many times. The idea behind that is probably to exert psychological pressure and scare people from joining police or army. But terrorists are unaware of the fact that this nation have gone through much more and can still stand firm and united against all evils.

No one can replace young talented police officers who are now a part of those more than 6,000 valiant police personnel who laid their lives to save ours since 1980. Their loss is a huge loss to Pakistan because they were Pakistan’s future. May the injured ones get a speedy recovery and join their barracks back in no time; they are the ones who have to fight those monsters who attack civilians. The sad dilemma is that we don’t give that due respect and recognition to all our forces that we show for one segment. Police have never left any stone unturned to protect citizens against terrorism and have participated and sacrificed equally as a frontline force, but we feel awkward to say a single word of admiration in their favour. Owning our police and acknowledging their services and sacrifices in the line of duty is the most valuable reward public can award this gallant force.

On the other hand, once again we are witnessing the same old scenes, funerals in streets of Quetta, photo sessions of VIPs at hospitals and victims’ homes, announcements of financial support to the injured and the martyrs and statements of condemnation. Security will be tightened and pillion riding will be banned. Public and media have found a topic to talk about for some days on mainstream and online media. We shall forget everything in not more than two to three days, but the families who have lost loved ones and maybe their only earning hand in this incident will never forget. It is hard to imagine the pain these families must be going through, we all need to stand with them.

The nation does not want typical statements anymore; everyone is anxiously waiting to see the culprits facing consequences for destroying hundreds of lives and putting thousands in grief. The state needs to stop misleading its citizens by dragging that vague policy against terrorism, as taking a clear stance is crucial now. We want to know who is behind this game, who is protecting whom and who is chasing whom.

The incident is not something new to us, but the question is what lessons have we learnt so far? What has losing 60,000 citizens including 6,000 police officials taught us? In fact, there are more questions that need answers: who is responsible for the bloodshed in Quetta and other parts of the country? What are the security lapses that give chances to terrorists to hit us again and again? Who is responsible to find and fix those lapses that cost us so many precious lives?

And then there are even harder questions: why do, every time, we hear about a ‘successful operation’ even after losing dozens of lives? If we claim every other day that we have knocked down terrorists, how are those ‘knocked-down’ elements hitting us back that often? Will we ever accept our weaknesses and try to find real solutions?

The writer is a social activist, artist and author.

He tweets @shahnawazdotpk (twitter.com/Shahnawazdotpk)