SOME press is bad press, and always will be. Appearing insensitive to the parents of those who were murdered in the APS Peshawar attack falls in this category. On Thursday, around 60 protesters, including parents of some of the victims, were turned back by the police from entering Islamabad’s high-security Red Zone after they arrived in the capital. The group was planning to stage a demonstration outside parliament to register their protest against the government’s failure to order a judicial inquiry into the massacre, as had been announced by the president. They also wanted to meet the prime minister to demand that the state fulfil the commitments made to them in connection with the attack. Upon being thwarted, the protesters chanted slogans against the government and threatened self-immolation. Finally, a minister from Islamabad’s development division, CADD, brought the fraught situation under control with assurances that the meeting they sought would take place next week.

One could argue that an appointment with the country’s chief executive cannot take place without going through the formalities. However, the niceties of protocol are irrelevant here. For most of the country, Dec 16, 2014, was a watershed that, in its remorseless brutality, brought home the urgency with which the battle against terrorism had to be fought. But for the families of those who met their end that day, it was the beginning of a never-ending nightmare, a torment that can perhaps only partially be assuaged by getting answers to burning questions: eg, who exactly were the attackers, how did they succeed in their task in such a high-security area, etc. That is far from an unreasonable demand: we too should be asking the same instead of accepting glib, pre-packaged responses. Some of the planners and perpetrators of the attack have been brought to book, or so we are told. But as they say, “Justice must not only be done; it must also be seen to be done”. Closure continues to elude the APS victims’ families.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2016