RAWALPINDI: The competence and seriousness of the police force can be judged from its ‘progress’ into two of the recent, high profile terrorist attacks in Rawalpindi.

The hard working force has more or less washed its hands of the suicide bomb attack on a Muharram procession in Dhoke Syedan in November 2012 and the R.A. Bazaar suicide bombing on January 20, 2014.

Police denied CCTV footage of R.A. Bazaar blast

This is despite the fact that the R.A. Bazaar incident is officially still being investigated and so far more than 20 suspects have been interrogated and some arrested by security agencies for the attack that took place close to army headquarters, killing 14 people and injuring more than 30 others.

Seven army personnel, two civilian employees of General Headquarters (GHQ), three students and a shopkeeper were among those killed.

Pindi police happy to identify accused, unwilling to go further

According to security sources, about 20 suspects were interrogated. Among those taken into custody was an engineer of the Pakistan Ordnance Factory (POF), Wah.

According to sources, the POF engineer is now included in a list of missing persons by the judicial commission set up to follow cases of enforced disappearances.

However, critics claim that the police have washed their hands of the case because the joint investigation team declared Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Maulana Fazalullah and TTP spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid as the accused under section 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (for abetting the bombing).

This was done on the basis of a video clip, in which they claimed responsibility for the suicide attack in R.A. Bazaar.

Unusually, these two were declared the accused at a time when the government was holding talks with the TTP.However, in retrospect, it seems as if the move didn’t mean much as the police now seem to think that it has done its job by tracing the culprits and need not go any further.

Rawalpindi Regional Police Officer (RPO) Akhtar Umar Hayat Laleka claimed the “case is already solved because the TTP had claimed responsibility and its two leaders had been named as the main accused.”

“If their whereabouts were known to the police, efforts would be made to bring them in,” he added.

If more proof is needed of the police’s apathy towards terrorism cases, consider its conclusions in the attack on a Muharram procession in Dhoke Syedan, Rawalpindi in November 2013, which left 20 people dead.

According to law enforcement personnel, the case was been put aside, after being classified as ‘untraced’.

When asked why, Mr Laleka claimed: “Whenever the police have no clues in cases, those are temporarily labelled as ‘untraced’.”

“If we succeed in making any arrests, the case file will be re-opened and investigations will be restarted,” he said.

However, this does not mean that the investigations did not lead anywhere – as with the R.A. Bazaar case, the probe pointed to an infamous militant, at which point the police officials seem to have felt that their job was done.

The Counterterrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab concluded that the attack at Dhoke Syedan was orchestrated by the Asmatullah Muavia group, which is linked to the TTP.

Asmatullah Muavia formed his group after the Lal Masjid operation in 2007.

Critics say if the government is serious about checking the menace of terrorism, it has to strengthen and revamp the police investigation wings alongside other steps. Till then, it is quite clear that most terrorist attacks will end up being labelled ‘untraced’.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2014