Its easier said than done. Prime Minister Gilanis call for further tightening of anti-terror laws was backed by the Armys demand for plugging the loopholes in the existing Act to prevent the suspected terrorists from escaping punishment. The issue repeatedly raised in the Cabinets Defence Committee meetings figured in the National Assembly following a State Department report that brought into question extrajudicial killings by our security forces.
The Prime Minister defended the Army and its intelligence agencies against the smear campaign run by the international media on the basis of fabricated reports. There is no doubt that the security forces have taken heavy casualties in actual combat with insurgents using hit-and-run tactics and also while overseeing re-settlement of the displaced persons in the areas reclaimed from the terrorists. The issue of the Army engaged in extrajudicial killings cropped up a few months ago after a video surfaced in Swat showing some men in uniform lining up and shooting six handcuffed people. That such an incident took place was readily denied by a high-powered committee formed by the Army Chief to investigate the matter. But our intelligence agencies cannot be absolved of the charge of committing human rights violations when they had been apprehending innocent people on the mere suspicion of their involvement in acts of terrorism.
The need to bring those charged with militancy and terrorism to justice cannot be disputed but then the requirements of justice must also be fulfilled. The elected government should have a different approach in dealing with the matter than the one adopted by the military regime in the past. There is no denying the fact that statutory loopholes help terror suspects walk away unpunished but it is the failure of prosecution and lack of evidence that boost the morale of such elements. It is time to revamp the existing system of investigation by incorporating modern scientific techniques in it.
