Many months after the gruesome discovery of mass graves in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district, we are no closer to getting any answers about the atrocity.

In fact, some of the findings of a judicial tribunal which were released on Tuesday have only raised more questions about the discovery made in January. For one, the findings of the tribunal, formed by the Balochistan government, are in general terms; and more importantly, the body has failed to identify who is responsible for the deaths of at least 17 individuals buried in shallow graves in the Tutak area.

It has also absolved the government and security establishment of any involvement. Indeed, while the intelligence agencies may not be directly responsible for any of the deaths, did the tribunal look into the possibility that militants supported or at least tolerated by the establishment may have been involved, especially when some of the victims have been identified as ‘missing persons’?

As the tribunal has also discovered, a number of witnesses have testified that a local tribal figure — said to lead a group that reportedly targets Baloch separatists and nationalists — may have had a hand in the killings.

Did the Balochistan government consider such testimony and was this individual investigated for possible links to the crime? Simply naming a potential suspect or blaming local officials for ‘neglect of duty’ will do little to clear the air over the killings.

The tribunal should have come down hard on the investigating authorities for failing to properly probe the case. After all, judges are not investigators and can only work with the evidence they are provided.

The findings of the Khuzdar tribunal are similar to what earlier official probes have uncovered, or rather failed to uncover. For example, the commission investigating the 2011 murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad failed to apportion blame in clear terms.

Similarly, the report investigating the 2011 American raid in Abbottabad, in which Osama bin Laden met his end, was kept under wraps until it was leaked by a foreign news channel.

With reference to the Khuzdar atrocity, it is fair to ask how so many people were killed and unceremoniously dumped while the administration and security establishment remained clueless about the crime, especially when there is a considerably security presence in the area. Unless all the facts are uncovered and the perpetrators brought to justice, the Baloch will only become further alienated from the state.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2014