KARACHI: Suicide bomber of Sehwan blast has been identified, claimed Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Monday.
He briefed the Sindh Assembly regarding the attack at the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan last month that claimed nearly 100 lives and left hundreds other injured.
The chief minister informed the house that police deployment at the shrine on the night of attack was insufficient and claimed that a “VVIP” had taken police personnel deployed in the area with him about half an hour before the attack took place.
“I don’t want to spell out… who had taken police (personnel) with him about half an hour earlier (before the bombing]),” Murad told the house.
Refusing to take names, the chief minister only specified that the person he was referring to was not a politician, as he added “I don’t want to blame anybody”.
Murad said they did not had any “specific” security threat for Sehwan and conceded that the provincial authorities should have been extra vigilant after the blast at the Shah Noorani shrine in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district last year that claimed 52 lives.
He said the functionality of CCTV cameras at the shrine was hampered by loadshedding “which I am not responsible for”.
Because the cameras were being run on generators, he said, their resolution was affected. “Due to low voltage from the generators, the CCTV footage had turned black and white from colour.”
“Despite that, we have identified the suicide bomber after examining the footage from the same cameras,” he maintained.
Five hundred people were affected due to the blast but let’s admit it 500 ambulances cannot be made available in Sehwan, considering the limited resources we have, said Sindh chief minister.
There were eight ambulances available in Sehwan and they all reached the blast site within 15 minutes of the attack.
Giving a breakdown of the casualties from the attack, he said a total of 383 people were injured in the bombing, 10 of whom are still hospitalised.
Among the 81 people killed in the attack 46 were men, 10 women and 25 children under the age of 15, he said. “Of the dead, only three people remain unidentified.”
One of the causes of the massive killing was inadequate security. And on top of that, some VVTP had taken the policemen deployed at the place with him. All the CM disclosed about the person is that he was not a politician and refused to name him saying he didn't want to blame anybody.
Now one could understand some junior official fearing to name names for fear of facing punitive action, even dismissal, in the feudal system that is in operation. However, such cowardice from the top executive of the province is very shameful indeed. In fact, he should not only have named him but also taken disciplinary action against him so that this sort of activity is discouraged. However, by keeping quiet, he gave encouragement to other to do the same with full confidence that they will face no consequences.
I do not know what to call it. Bad governance is too small a word to describe the state of the province. A hundred innocent men, women and children got martyred, with another few hundred injured and the man is holding back out of 'politeness' not naming the person who at least is partly to blame for the tragedy.
Karachi
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