Human Rights Commission South Asia

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Sindh High Court moved for judicial inquiry into Ashura blast, arson.

A petition was filed in the Sindh High Court (SHC) seeking a judicial inquiry into the Ashura procession blast and the subsequent torching of over 3,000 shops by miscreants in Bolton Market and Light House areas.

The Human Rights Commission South Asia through its representative filed a petition in Sindh High Court SHC submitting that as many as 44 mourners were killed while over 100 were injured in the bomb blast during the Ashura procession. He said that soon after the blast, shops and markets in Bolton Market and Light House areas were set on fire by miscreants and personnel of the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) allegedly gave them a free hand to vandalise public property worth billions of rupees. The petitioner also mentioned about the December 26 bomb blast at a religious gathering in Paposh Nagar and questioned the claim made by the government about the security. Naming Sindh Police, Pakistan Rangers, Federal Interior Ministry, Home Department and the City District Government Karachi as respondents, the petitioner submitted that the respondents apparently failed to arrest the culprits involved in the looting and setting the public property including shops and vehicles on fire despite heavy deployment of LEA personnel. The citing Article 4 of the Constitution which states it is the responsibility of the state to provide protection to every citizen, but the authorities concerned have failed to comply with the constitution.  While in the ensuing riots and arson incident, the miscreants set on fire hundreds of shops and business centre in the country’s biggest wholesale markets, causing financial loss of billions of rupees to the shopkeepers, traders and businessmen. But contrary to adopting a rational point of view, the government has been trying to term the blast as a suicide attack. 

HRCSA prayed the court to constitute a judicial commission to probe the Ashura procession blast and consequent ransacking of shops by the miscreants as, according to him, the provincial government was reluctant to set up an inquiry committee in this regard. He also sought compensations for those who lost their family members in the terrorism incident as well as to the businessmen whom property was destroyed by the miscreants.The petitioner also pleaded the court to order a judicial inquiry under the supervision of retired judges into the incident, while order the authority concerned to provide compensation to the victims of the gruesome incident. The petition was accepted, processed and fixed for hearing before a division bench of the SHC on January 4.