THE pain of Balochistan, particularly Quetta, is such that even those not directly affected would find it difficult to contemplate the recent tragedies without a shudder. The violence-weary city had not yet come to terms with the killing of 70 lawyers in August, when on Oct 24 another unspeakable slaughter occurred. This time the assailants crept into Quetta’s Police Training Centre and, under cover of darkness, laid to waste one of the four hostels on the 150-acre facility. The lives of 62 recently graduated policemen were snuffed out under the most terrifying of circumstances. Survivors — the young men had all been unarmed — recount hiding behind beds and of being unable to distinguish between their colleagues and the attackers. The latter had come dressed in camouflage and used the despicable tactic of pretending to be from the army to get their targets to unlock doors. What the victims’ families are going through can only be imagined.

What need not be left to the imagination, though, is the callousness of the state and official apparatus and functionaries, which could not even ensure, for example, that all the fallen made their final journey back home with dignity and in ambulances. Their relatives have horrifying tales to report: where some families received no word at all from the authorities, others talk of having to delay the mourning and burial process because they had to wait until VIPs had wrapped up their photo-op visits. And of course, there is the valid observation that the state was more focused on the dharna-related events in Islamabad than the Quetta tragedy. If this were not shameful enough, there are other, deeply troubling questions that the official apparatus must be made to answer. This was not the first time the academy has been attacked; why was security so weak when even the speech delivered by the Balochistan IGP at the facility’s passing-out ceremony on Sept 6 referred to it? Then, the young men had graduated and gone home, but were compelled to return for no specified reason — only to meet their deaths. Their families, in fact the public at large, should be taken into confidence about where that order came from, and why. Ultimately, Pakistan needs to face the fact that our law enforcers as well as the general public are in mortal danger from unflinching groups that deal in terror; measures must be taken accordingly across the board.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2016