Don’t punish the people
Don’t punish the people
Editorial
Photos

It was experienced off and on that the Frontier Corps personnel were found panicky and highly agitated when assigned a security task or secure a certain area and they try to use maximum force in absence of their command.

It was experienced off and on that the Frontier Corps personnel were found panicky and highly agitated when assigned a security task or secure a certain area and they try to use maximum force in absence of their command.

It is part of their training to perform their duty with full vigour and commitment. In one of the disturbing cases, a Army personnel was shot dead by a trigger happy FC man for defying a security check post.

In case of policing the more sophisticated society or locality, such measures are considered irrelevant and un-necessary to use force or to push to people to minimum discipline or secure an area for a function.

It was a misjudgement on the part of the decision-maker sending Para-military forces to block the main Saryab Road, the main artery of the Provincial Capital, for hours merely because an insignificant function is being held within the four walls of the maximum security of the University Campus which is already under siege for the past many years. The road remained closed for hours, movement of traffic and people remained suspended only to secure a function far away from the vehicular traffic.

School children and women were not allowed to walk or cross the road about kilometer away from the function. The Chief Guest was a known political activist of the area and never found interested in any level of protocol throughout his life. He is a commoner and a modest man in politics needing no security from his own people who voted him to power. Small school kids remained struck up in the traffic blockade for several hours.

The kids spent several hours in the scorching sun and without water as the FC personnel blocked the road traffic presumably for security reason. Most of the school kids in this area reached home at 5 p.m. They gone to school between 7 a.m. to 8.a.m

Primarily, the Government should take a decision handing over security to the local police and place the FC personnel under the command of the police officers so that handling the people is done by the civilians and in a decent way.

Since the FC personnel had no police training and unaware about the concept of policing, they generally mishandle the situation and create an embarrassing situation for the Government or the public representatives. Thus they should be barred from policing the major cities and population centre.

The Police officers of the area should lead the FC contingent, small or big, in policing the area. Even conducting raids, the police officers should take the lead and FC units should remain in support of the Policemen. The movement of visiting VVIPs in Quetta should be restricted strictly to the Cantonment area so that normal life of the city people is not disturbed.

All the activities of the VVIPS, including the visiting VVIPs should be confined to the Cantonment area. Citizens’ activities should be given more importance that the ceremonious or token visits of the VVIPs in Quetta. Similarly, the officials should stop holding public gatherings and functions if they are afraid of its security or feeling a threat from their own people.

There is no need of holding such function in which tens of thousands of people, particularly the school kids and women, are harassed and intimidated by the security personnel for not being a threat to anyone. Some sycophant officials on the top in the Universities are frequently holding functions as part of their public relation exercises creating difficulties for tens of thousands people.

They also disturb the routine of the school kids and the patients visiting hospitals besides other professional on the city roads. The Government and particularly the local administration should avoid blocking the roads, restricting the movement of vehicles and people on the cover of security.

The VVIPs activities should remain confined to their office premises and should not come out on road if they are afraid of their lives.  The people are no more interested to see a glimpse of their  ‘beloved leaders’ or the public servants.