March 12, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 3, 1429

LAHORE, March 11: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Tuesday expressed alarm at the government’s inability to guarantee security of life to the people in the face of explosions, even in cities teeming with personnel of a number of security agencies.

In a statement issued after two suicide blasts in Lahore, the commission says: “The security agencies are consistently failing in fulfilling their primary responsibility of ensuring the safety of lives and property of the citizens.”

The state’s role is clearly more than that of a news agency. At a time when the citizens are extremely worried about their security following explosions almost on a daily basis, the government has nothing comforting to offer, the HRCP says.

It is disappointing to once again hear government statements merely on whether the explosion was a suicide bomb or not. Official statements about a random number of suicide bombers entering different cities are hardly reassuring, it says.

Such statements do little more than increase a sitting-duck feeling among the common person. The current spate of explosions comes less than a month after the caretaker interior minister claimed the government had broken the back of terrorists. Any effective plan to counter such unfortunate attacks in the future remains invisible, it says.

What the people would now like to hear is how the government plans to counter increasing bomb blasts in the country.