Over the last few weeks, particularly since the return of the IDPs, the locals have had quite frequently sighted bodies dumped in the fields or hanging from the trees - a la the Taliban practice of delivering justice. Some of the corpses even carried notes saying something like 'it's the fate of a militant'.
Some 102 bodies are said to have been discovered since mid-July when the IDPs started coming back to their homes. But the macabre scenario moved to the front pages of newspapers only last Sunday when on a single day not less than a score of bullet-riddled bodies were found dumped in different parts of Swat district.
A team sent to the area by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has returned convinced that the dead were militants and that they were murdered in cold blood by the security forces. It even claimed being informed of at least two mass graves in the Valley believed to contain remains of the militants.
The Commission also quoted some instances in which militants found dead were previously in the custody of the security forces. The ISPR officials have denied any hand in these extra-judicial killings, asserting Pakistan Army has a strong chain of command and would not behave so irresponsibly by responding terror with terror. Acutely conscious of the sensitivity of the issue DG ISPR Major General Athar Abbas has offered a "full scale inquiry into these incidents, in the presence of independent journalists".
Every conflict has its own peculiarities. So is in Malakand where fighting was largely done by the non-locals who took over from Sufi Muhammad's supporters by sabotaging the Nizam-i-Adl agreement he had concluded with the NWFP government. The militants had different objective, sharply at variance with the locals' - they were acting in pursuance of the al Qaeda's great design to carve out an 'Emirate' straddling the Pak-Afghan border. After the initial shock as the military operation progressed the locals recovered their composure and decided to stand up against the Taliban.
A heroic account of their recovery was given by the 'lashkar' of the Upper Dir. Now that locals have come back and the militants are on the run one would not be surprised to know that there are incidents that could be the revenge killings. To take revenge - even when it may take the life-span of a generation - is an essential part of the Pushtun honour code. Then there is also this phenomenon of vigilantism when the defeated are hunted and hounded and often given the street justice. That the mass graves may be the Taliban's own work, also appears quite plausible given the guerrilla aspect of the conflict.
All we said above falls in the realm of conjecture, expecting the reality to emerge from a thorough and impartial inquiry. An inquiry into these mysterious killings is must, not only to ensure that truth is found out and justice is done but also to clear the name of the Pakistan Army. No national army can afford to be seen carrying the blood of innocents on its hands. Not surprisingly then the ISPR chief has readily offered full scale investigations.
The HRCP wants the inquiry to be conducted by a parliamentary committee. Since there is no mismatch of opinion between the two sides on the need to hold an impartial inquiry the difference as who should comprise the investigation team can be taken care of. What is important, however, is the sensitive nature of the issue and imperative of its prompt resolution. To get an idea how serious the army high command is about such matters one may recall how quickly it tried and punished a serving major in 1990s for his involvement in a Tando Bahawal massacre.