- Judicial inquiry needed to prevent future recurrence
Three truckers were killed and another injured after Frontier Works Organisation personnel fired on a crowd of protester on the Superhighway near Karachi, which had gathered to protest the FWO’s attempt to implement the maximum axle loads permitted in a recent Supreme Court judgement. The DIG Traffic has claimed that the FWO had engaged in aerial firing. How aerial firing could result in such casualties is not known. Only direct firing into the crowd is consistent with the number of those killed. There is also silence on why the FWO was implementing the axle load. That was a policing problem, and should have been handled by those supposedly responsible for it, the traffic police, rather than the FWO.
A judicial inquiry is needed to examine the incident in detail. It must not only identify those responsible for the deaths, but also make recommendations about how in future such incidents are to be avoided. However, even before such an enquiry is held, it would not be out of place to say that FWO personnel consist of combat engineers, who can double as infantry if need be. Having them perform policing functions like checking axle loads is a misuse of soldiers trained to kill. Such events are perhaps inevitable if soldiers have to perform civilian functions, and are perhaps the most potent arguments there are, to keep military personnel isolated, and in a social environment of their own. There are problems caused by that, and it should be remembered that having an axle load greater than the Supreme Court’s maximum should not carry the death sentence.
There was a man shot dead at a park in 2012, by Rangers, who had been inducted to improve law and order in Karachi. Those who had done the shooting were brought to trial, found guilty, but ultimately were acquitted on appeal. It remains to be seen whether the FWO personnel responsible for this incident are brought to book or not.
