When the shocking news regarding the discovery of a mass grave in Totak area of Balochistan’s restive Khuzdar district broke in late January this year, the Balochistan government spokesperson Jan Buledi announced with great flourish that the government is carrying out transparent investigation into this mass grave and would reach those responsible for this brutal crime. Expectations rose further when the Supreme Court took suo moto notice of the discovery of this mass grave, with Chief Justice of Pakistan Tassaduq Hussain Jilani ordering the Inspector General of Balochistan Police and Khuzdar Deputy Commissioner to submit a report on February 4. Under pressure from the apex court, the Balochistan government promptly setup a judicial commission headed by Justice Noor Muhammad Maskanzai of the Balochistan High Court for this purpose. The much awaited report of the judicial commission is finally out. Unfortunately, nothing meaningful has emerged and the finding of this commission too bears a striking similarity with almost every other commission setup in the past to inquire into cases of extrajudicial executions in Pakistan. While the commission has expectedly failed to identify those responsible for these extrajudicial killings, it has predictably exonerated the armed forces and intelligence agencies by concluding that they were in no way involved in this ghastly crime. And so, the Justice Noor Muhammad Maskanzai commission report is destined to join the humungous pile of unsolved mass killings inquiries in Pakistan.
Right from the beginning, the Khuzdar mass grave issue was mired in controversy. While Tahir Hussain, Balochistan’s official of the Human Rights Commission Pakistan (HRCP) lamented that denial of access to the crime scene was deplorable and demanded that the “Government should ensure the access of media and rights groups,” the government spokesperson claimed that the discovery of the mass grave was made by government officials, who told the media about it. This claim is factually incorrect as it has been confirmed that the mass grave was accidently discovered by a shepherd who reported the matter to the local authorities, but this is a minor issue. The more disconcerting issue is that no convincing reasons have been given by the authorities for denying access to the media and rights groups and so, this unprecedented step of suppressing transparency in a democracy naturally raises suspicion. Were the authorities so apprehensive about what lay in the mass graves that they considered it necessary to carry out exhumation without media glare and the presence of any independent agency? Was this done merely to avoid sensationalism, or was this an attempt to conceal the exact number of bodies buried in the mass graves? Could it also be that this was intentionally done to surreptitiously ‘clean’ the site of any incriminating evidence that could help reveal the identity of the perpetuators of this ghastly crime?
That there would be a lot of speculation on the number of corpses exhumed from the mass grave was but natural and expected. Right from the start, it was more than obvious that certain groups and entities with vested interests would use this opportunity to malign the army, intelligence agencies and local authorities by making exaggerated claims on the number of corpses this mass grave contained. Yet, even while knowing this, the exhumation was carried out in great secrecy and in the absence of any independent media or rights group at the site, giving rise to rumours that “dozens of corpses” had been found buried in the mass grave. With a large number of locals having had been ‘picked up’ for questioning in the past and whose present whereabouts are unknown to their kith and kin, these rumours quickly gained currency, forcing Provincial Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti to deny news reports claiming that dozens of bodies were found in the mass grave. This could have easily been avoided had the media and rights groups been allowed to be present at the site during exhumation. Thus even though the Home and Tribal Affairs Department has claimed that a total of 17 dead bodies were retrieved from the mass grave, this figure has been challenged and talking to the media, Baloch nationalist leader, Dr Hayee Baloch has claimed that “The number of dead bodies in Totak is more than official claim.” While Vice Chairman of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VFBMO) Mama Qadir has asserted that 70 persons had been buried in the mass grave, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has quoted locals of area as saying that a total of 169 bodies had been found!
There is nothing unusual about people getting killed in Balochistan. However, whenever such killings are the result of internal feuds, group clashes or even the work of militants, the assailants never take the trouble of trying to conceal their crime by secretly burying their victims in mass graves. On the contrary, being law unto themselves, they ensure that they leave the dead behind to show their prowess and serve as a warning to others not to cross swords with them. So, an attempt to destroy evidence of mass killings by clandestinely assigning the dead to mass graves could only be the handiwork of those, who in some way felt that they could be held accountable for their acts. Thus, a strong finger of suspicion points towards the security forces and the same is reinforced by the proclivity of the army, intelligence agencies and their proxy militias for ‘picking up’ people for questioning and subsequently denying having done so. It is an established practice that the security forces and their proxy militias do take necessary precautions to conceal their identity by ensuring that while ‘picking up’ suspects, they are neither in uniform nor using official vehicles, but due to the impunity with which they go about doing this job even in broad daylight and in crowded places, it is easy to call their bluff. Therefore, with the judicial commission having completely absolved the army and intelligence agencies of any involvement in this crime, the whole issue has only become all the more mysterious!
It would be improper to doubt or cast any aspersions on the commission investigating the Khuzdar mass graves without perusing its report. However, from the information available, it appears that this commission has solely relied on the testimony of witnesses and failed to investigate other evidence to determine what could be probable reasons as to why those buried in the mass graves were killed in the first place. Even an amateur would agree that the identity and leanings of victims would atleast give an indication of the likely motive for the killings and point towards its perpetuators. However, there appears to be no mention of this; as to whether the deceased were ordinary citizens, militant sympathisers, individuals with criminal background, persons belonging to a particular community or sharing any such common link. Moreover, in concluding that “No evidence of involvement of intelligence agencies has been found in connection with the mass graves,” solely on the basis that “no one has recorded any statement against the armed forces and security agencies,” the judicial commission, instead of finding answers, has only thrown up more questions.
It is no secret that in Balochistan, testifying against the army and intelligence agencies is fraught with danger. It is also a fact that with the army and intelligence agencies having spread its tentacles over the entire region to combat the militants, the act of digging up a mass grave, ferrying the dead to this site and then burying them, is something that could not have escaped their notice. Even if all this was done secretly, the army and intelligence agencies with its extensive network of spies and informers would have come to know of the same sooner or later. It is also worth mentioning that except for two corpses that could be identified from slips found on their person, none of the other dead bodies had any identification papers on them. This is indeed intriguing as everyone knows that the locals invariably carry their identity documents with them in order to avoid harassment and possible arrest on suspicion by the army and intelligence agencies. Therefore, the absence of identity documents on the corpses could be only due to two reasons- the first, that the deceased were ‘picked up’ from their homes and thus may not have been in possession of their identity documents at that time and the second, that these documents had been intentionally removed from their bodies to prevent identification, either before they had been killed or subsequently during the secretly conducted exhumation process. That this elementary yet important aspect has been overlooked by the commission headed by a judge is inexplicable.
However, the commission has not drawn a complete blank. Using the same analogy on which it absolved the army and intelligence agencies, the commission, on the basis of statements made by witnesses, has pointed a finger of suspicion at Shafique Mengal, a local tribal elder, who is the son of former State Minister Naseer Mengal. While this accusation has been outrightly rejected by Shafiq Mengal who claims that the same is ‘politically motivated’, it may make things difficult for the army and intelligence agencies. As per the AHRC report, “These mass graves were found very close to the residence of Mr. Shafique Mengal, who is a well known man of the security agencies and who is heading a militant organisation with the name of Nifaz-e-Amn. The organisation claims itself to be affiliated to the Pakistan security forces, working for the implementation of Islam and against Anti State elements. He has been provided with 30 armed vehicles. Whenever the security forces fail to conduct actions in tribal and mountainous areas they ask for Mengal’s help. The Frontier Corp (FC) own this organisation as the true one working body for the protection of Balochistan. The FC and other forces, as claimed by Baloch nationalist groups, have helped him to make private jails and torture centers in Totak where the missing persons are brought and tortured before being extra- judicially killed. There is no power supply in the area but interestingly, electricity lines were provided to his private jails and his ‘fort’ which is guarded by the law enforcement agencies.”
So, now what remains to be seen is whether the authorities can ‘walk the talk’ by pursuing this investigation to its logical conclusion. However, if what the AHRC has claimed and locals have stated is correct, then further investigations would be an uphill task, as persecuting Shafique Mengal could open a can of worms. Presently, the government seems to be caught between the devil and the deep sea, as its failure to go ahead with the investigations based on the judicial commission’s report will only confirm the strong suspicion that the real aim of this commission was not to investigate the mass grave but merely to give the army and intelligence agencies a ‘clean chit’. The situation is grim, but not hopeless. This issue can be easily resolved if Shafique Mengal was simply made to disappear and another judicial commission to investigate this disappearance were to establish that this was the handiwork of ‘unidentified persons’!
Tailpiece: With the killing of a president as well as a general secretary of the Khuzdar Press Club and 12 journalists in the last six years, Khuzdar has the dubious distinction of being amongst the 10 most dangerous places for journalists in the 2011 list prepared by Reporters Without Borders. Now, with the unsolved mystery of who actually killed and buried an ‘unknown’ number of men in a mass grave in the Totak area, Khuzdar could well end up as being listed amongst the top ten dangerous places for humans too!