QUETTA: The National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) has said that the Aug 8 suicide bombing at the Civil Hospital Quetta has exposed the failure of intelligence agencies, security forces, government departments and doctors and urged the government to conduct a ‘merciless inquiry’ into the incident to fix responsibility.

“Those responsible for the failure must be exposed,” NCHR Chairman retired Justice Ali Nawaz Chohan said while talking to journalists at the Quetta Press Club here on Tuesday. He had come there to offer his condolences on the death of two journalists in the attack.

Retired Justice Chohan said that the commission could conduct an inquiry into the incident if it was assigned the job by the government.

He emphasised the need for ascertaining why the agencies concerned could not prevent the attack. He called for capacity-building and improving performance of intelligence agencies, security forces and law enforcement agencies to preempt such an incident in future.

He said that it had been noticed that the agencies responsible for providing security to people had failed to study patterns of terrorism often repeated by terrorists.

He urged intelligence agencies and security forces to study the pattern of suicide attacks and acts of terror to prevent such incidents. “The same pattern has been witnessed in the Civil Hospital blast which was earlier seen in large-scale killing of people of the Shia Hazara community in the city in the past,” he said.

The NCHR chairman deplored that 470 doctors working at the hospital could not provide emergency medical aid to the victims of the blast.

“It has been observed that doctors working at government hospitals in Quetta lack professional skills and training to deal with an emergency situation,” he said and asked health department to ensure the doctors’ capacity building in this regard.

He recommended that the Balochistan government take stern departmental action against doctors and paramedics who were not performing their duties at government hospitals.

“The government should suspend or transfer those doctors who are not willing to work in the cities/towns other than Quetta despite being posted there.”

Retired Justice Chohan said that he was extremely grieved over the huge loss of life in the attack. “It is a national loss as the cream of senior lawyers have been killed in the blast.”

He recommended that the government send junior lawyers of Quetta to foreign countries to seek master’s level education in law so that the vacuum created by the death of a large number of senior lawyers in the attack might be filled.

He urged the government to provide same amount of compensation and similar facilities to the families of the two slain journalists which were being given to the families of slain lawyers.

NCHR member from Balochistan Fazila Aaliani and its provincial coordinator Ameer Jan Jamaldini accompanied retired Justice Chohan. President of the Quetta Press Club Shehzada Zulfiqar and senior journalists of the city were present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2016