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| India-Pakistan |
| Stuff of farce |
| 2016-04-13 |
| [DAWN] AS the judges, lawyers and others who work at the Anti-Terrorism Court-II in Clifton, Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , go to work in the coming days, they might be forgiven for thinking privately that no matter what their work environment, there, but by the grace of God, could have lain a scene of destruction. Thankfully, given that everyone on the premises remained mostly unharmed, and the damage to infrastructure was not significant either, it is possible to make light of an incident that could so easily have turned into a tragedy. As things stand, the story belongs to the genre of comedic fiction. On Monday, a lawyer and a policeman got into an argument. The former insisted that the latter did not have the expertise to understand how a hand grenade, allegedly recovered from his client, functioned. The policeman stiffened, informing the court that he was a retired soldier, and, when further goaded by the lawyer about how a detonator worked, proceeded to pull the pin out and set off the charge. It seems the policeman was under the impression that the detonator had been defused. Obviously, he was proved wrong as the roomful of people who were left cowering in the courtroom would confirm. Having said that, pause to think of what could have ensued had the part involved not been a detonator but the grenade itself. It is sobering indeed to think of such explosives in the hands of obviously untrained persons; and worse, those who by the very nature of their jobs are expected to have at least basic working knowledge of dangerous materials. This is a country that has spent more than a decade fighting on the front line of terror and militancy; moreover, the incident occurred in a city where the rates of violent crime are such that the police force should have by now been honed into a lean, mean force. Clearly, such expectations are wishful thinking. Citizens can legitimately wonder, what real chances are there of winning this war? |
| Posted by:Fred |