The buck stops at the CM’s desk
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s failure to stop the terrorists from attacking the jail in Dera Ismail Kan (DIK) to get their comrades released is too blatant to be covered up through lame excuses. The jail housed scores of militants, including some of the most wanted killers belonging to banned organizations. Others released by the attackers had targeted personnel of the law enforcement agencies and innocent people in FATA and adjoining districts. The heavily armed TTP activists set free about 50 militants and over 200 criminals. In the process seven persons were killed. The personnel of the intelligence and LEAs had to often risk their lives to apprehend the criminals who are now free to once again indulge in killings. The negligence on the part of the KP government has brought to naught all the good work done by the LEAs. Besides, it forced the people of DIK to pass through the trauma caused by bomb and rocket blasts and an hours-long curfew.
One can understand that the chief minister took over office less than two months back. What is more he has inherited a police force whose efficiency is not up to the mark. One had expected that he would be upfront about the DIK affair. He has instead hinted at the involvement of ‘hidden hands’– a familiar excuse that has been used too often to cover up personal and institutional shortcomings. He has also wrongly accused the intelligence agencies which at least this time provided concrete and actionable information ahead of the incident. We are told that on July 27 a federal agency dispatched a letter marked ‘most urgent’ to commissioner, deputy commissioner, deputy DIG, district police officer and SP Dera Ismail Khan central jail, warning them about the impending attack on jail. The letter was followed next day by a demarche from National Crisis Management Cell to KP Home Secretary, Provincial Police Officer, Additional Chief Secretary FATA, IG FC, IG Prisons and Commandant Frontier Constabulary, informing them all that a TTP group had reached the vicinity of DIK. To reinforce the urgency of the matter, officers were again warned through text messages on Sunday to take appropriate security measures. The claim by the CM who also has the portfolio of home ministry that he was not shown the intelligence report indicates how weak his grip is on the provincial bureaucracy.
The claim by Imran Khan that the incident took place because there is no provincial security agency in KP to provide real time intelligence is preposterous. The failure in KP was not due to lack of timely intelligence but due to inefficiency and cowardice on the part of the DIK jail authorities and police for which the ultimate responsibility has to be borne by the chief executive of the province.
