As Quetta bleeds

Twin tragedies struck Quetta          on Monday     as nearly 70 people were killed and at least 40 others injured in an apparent suicide bombing at Quetta Civil Hospital, where lawyers had gathered to mourn the killing of the Balochistan Bar Association president Bilal Kasi earlier that morning. As these lines are being written, no one has yet claimed responsibility for either attack and it is not known if they are linked. The dead and injured include lawyers and even mediapersons. What is apparent is that someone is going after the legal fraternity in Quetta. Just last week, a lawyer was shot dead by unknown gunmen and it was Kasi who had announced a two-day mourning period for that killing. In June, the principal of the University of Balochistan’s law college was also shot dead. Lawyers are often the first and only people who will help out the disenfranchised and dispossessed, trying to bring them a measure of justice in a country where so many are excluded and in a province where the sense  deprivation is so strong.

The inhuman targeting of a hospital follows tactics used by many militant groups, who first target a particular group or individual and then go after the hospital where they are being treated or even their funerals. This happened in Karachi in February 2010, when a bus carrying Shias was hit by a suicide bomber and then another bomber went after Jinnah Hospital, where the victims were being treated and their relatives had gathered. Such malice is what we have come to expect from those who go after the defenceless. Who we did expect better from is our political class. Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri, before any investigation scarcely had time to begin, announced that RAW is behind terrorism in Quetta. Sheikh Rashid swiftly followed suit. There may be little doubt about the Indian role in Balochistan, yet we need to be rational in our approach and cover all possibilities, instead of playing politics and issuing statements that do not help solve the problem and may even impede investigations. We know there are many homegrown militant groups operating in the province and facts must be allowed to come even as Quetta is dealing with the trauma of burying so many of its best and brightest. The real challenge of course is how the problem is to be solved. There are no easy and instant solutions. Balochistan has burnt for too long. There are multiple strands of tension running through it and multiple conflicts which remain unresolved.