Gulmina Bilal<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that my brother will not come back with the arrest of the killers, but this process of taking innocent lives must come to a stop.\u201d This was Barrister Aman Ullah\u2019s brother, talking to the media after the death of his brother, the young barrister and principal of the Law College of Quetta.
\nSadly, \u201cthe process of taking innocent lives\u201d continues…
\nIt was the same process that took away the life of senior lawyer Bilal Anwar Kasi, and it is continuity of the very same process that took away a whole generation of lawyers from Quetta. Lawyers who had gathered at the Civil Lines Hospital in Quetta on Monday to receive the dead body of Anwar Kasi were targeted in one of the most horrific attacks taking place in the country during 2016.
\nAccording to a young lawyer and member of the Balochistan Bar Council, Barkhurdar Khan, \u201cAll, I repeat all senior practising lawyers and barristers died today.\u201d This is the extent of damage that the lawyers\u2019 community in Quetta had to bear. They not only lost their seniors, but the most well-known lawyers the city had ever produced.
\nThe whole country is asking the state and the government the very same question: what happened to the National Action Plan (NAP)? It was the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar that led the country to formulate and implement NAP, but are we still committed to the cause as we were back then? No sir, I don\u2019t think so.
\nDo we need another plan to stop attacks like the one in Quetta? Or do we need to revisit our priorities when it comes to saving the country from terrorists and their heinous agendas? Well, I personally believe that instead of switching from one plan to the other, it is better if we stick to the original, and take a look at our individual and collective actions.
\nNAP was formulated after a detailed consultation with all the important stakeholders then why are we lacking in its implementation? It is true that the implementation of NAP is not the sole responsibility of the armed forces or the various law enforcement agencies, and that it is the collective responsibility of all of us, especially those who have been given a mandate by the voters from across the country.
\nBy killing lawyers, media personnel, academicians, youth, doctors, engineers and members of civil society, terrorists are trying to prove that they can hit us where it hurts the most. There is no doubt that this attack or the others before it represent the worst form of extremism that the country has ever endured, but this shouldn\u2019t be the end of it. We must stand firm against this threat.
\nIt is always heart-wrenching to see that we as a nation have developed a dependency on such horrible incidents to renew our resolve against violent extremism. Why can\u2019t we take preemptive measures to avoid such incidents? Why can\u2019t we develop and, most importantly, follow standard operating procedures (SOPs) and codes of conduct for every public place or gathering, especially at places that remain vulnerable to such attacks?
\nIt is true that suicide attacks are hard to avoid, but I firmly believe that by following certain SOPs and codes of conduct we can avoid damage of this scale. It is shameful for all of us, especially the provincial government and law enforcement agencies, that despite warnings by intelligence agencies, we were unable to avoid this or other similar incidents. The security personnel responsible for the security of the hospital were unable to protect the hospital premises, especially when a large number of lawyers and media personnel were expected. The provincial police department was unable to deploy extra security even though the intelligence agencies had given a prior warning. Similarly, the hospital management and administration and every other department that was responsible for the safety of those entering the hospital premises failed, and with them failed the National Action Plan.
\nIt is about time that we started taking responsibility for our actions instead of blaming one another. The National Action Plan is an agreed upon plan that must be followed by every responsible government and department in order to make
\nit successful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gulmina Bilal \u201cI know that my brother will not come back with the arrest of the killers, but this process of taking innocent lives must come to a stop.\u201d This was Barrister Aman Ullah\u2019s brother, talking to the media after the death of his brother, the young barrister and principal of the Law College of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-article"],"yoast_head":"\n