ISLAMABAD: Justice Qazi Faez Isa questioned the government’s strategy of dealing with terrorists, saying how long we will be afraid of the terrorists.
A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Isa, hearing the post-arrest bail of the accused, remarked on why negotiations were being held with terrorists. He was reacting to the Peshawar blast.
A suicide attack on a mosque in Police Lines area of Peshawar, on Monday, claimed at least 100 lives and injured over 150 others. The suicide bomber, who was standing in the first row when Zuhr prayers were being offered in the mosque, blew him up. The blast was powerful enough that a part of the mosque caved in, leaving several worshippers trapped under the rubble.
During the hearing of a case, Justice Isa remarked how long we would be afraid of terrorists. “Today the terrorists will kill two people and tomorrow they will kill five people,” he warned. “I don’t know what kind of society we are living in. A judge issued a report on a terrorist incident but it was thrown in the trash.”
Sometimes negotiations are held with terrorists and sometimes they are told to give terrorists this and that, he said. He questioned where the state was during this time. One of our judges was killed but nobody cares.
“Why is the government negotiating with the terrorists? Terrorists will kill two people today and five people tomorrow.” Last year in September, while speaking at the 9th judicial conference, Justice Isa had also expressed surprise over negotiations with the terrorists and wondered what was being offered to them and by whom.
The senior puisne judge questioned what offers were being made to the terrorists. “Are we saying to them “please bomb five schools and not six and please take some money and weapons,” he remarked sarcastically, before asking where the negotiations were taking place and who authorised them.
The judge, while sharing data from the Global Terrorism Database 1970 to 2019, stated that there were about 1,000 attacks on educational institutions in the country.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023