Memories of another day

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 Anjum Niaz The writer is a freelance journalist with over twenty years of experience in national and international reporting The causes of events are even more interesting than the events themselves – Cicero In a room forcibly browned by black paper on the windowpanes we huddled together waiting for the sirens to go off. The flickering candles cast a sinister light. Each night, death visited as we smothered our racing hearts expecting a direct hit from the Indian war planes furiously emptying out their bellies of bombs meant to annihilate. We had grown accustomed to darkness at night; had memorized the sound and fury of the enemy planes; learnt the crackle of anti-aircraft guns and accepted death should it suddenly strike. Out of the blue one bright afternoon, an enemy aircraft suddenly appeared. It had dodged our radars. The sirens had no time to warn us. A five-year old clad in bright red sweater played outside in the garden while we sat sunning ourselves in the deep verandah. Like a vulture the plane encircled the little boy. It flew so low that one could almost see the pilot. He too must have spotted the kid. We froze with fear as the grandfather lunged outside to drag the boy in. The next second we heard loud strafing. The plywood factory next door had been hit and labourers sitting out eating lunch lay dead on the ground. Three decades and eight years ago today we lost half of our country. Enough has been written about the role of generals Yahya, Tikka Khan and ‘Tiger’ Niazi. Enough has been said about the role of Z A Bhutto. The Hamoodur Rehman Report traces the darkest days in our history. It mentions widespread atrocities including abuse of power by our civilians and army. It speaks of the killing fields set up by West Pakistanis; of rape and loot. The inebriation of some army officers, an instance of a brigadier "entertaining" women while his troops got shelled by Indian troops is exposed. The Report was so explosive that it had to be kept secret from the public for years. I lived in Jhelum. It had a sizeable number of army families living in the cantonment along River Jhelum. Some of the civilian wives would get together with the army wives whose husbands were fighting on the war fronts. We made comfort packages for the soldiers defending us. After the war ended, we heard of many casualties of people one knew. Going for condolences to their homes became a ritual that bleak December when cries of despair greeted us everywhere. Seventeen years later, I went to Dhaka. It was December 16 and the Bangladeshis were celebrating their ‘Day of Liberation.’ Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was the leader of the opposition then. She was just 39 years old. I interviewed her in her office at the grand Parliament House. Sitting under a huge portrait of her father Sheikh Mujib, the sari-clad Hasina with hazel eyes, the colour of her late father’s, looked small and vulnerable then. But the anti-Pakistan venom was clearly visible that mild December morning. It stemmed more from the shabby treatment we gave to her father than the 1971 war. Later she arranged for me to visit her father’s home in Dhanmandi, converted into a museum. Sitting on a mantelpiece was a photo of Mujib addressing a huge gathering with the words: "This time our struggle is for emancipation (from Pakistan); it’s for independence." This summer in Islamabad I met a retired officer who had a secret to share. When the PPP swept the polls in 1970 and the battle for power between Sheikh Mujib and Bhutto raged, a team of senior officers was sent from Rawalpindi to Dhaka on a secret mission. They were to fly the incarcerated Mujib back to Pindi with clear instructions: eliminate Mujib should India intercept their flight. "Under no condition should Indians get Mujib alive," were the strict orders given by the GHQ. The officer met Mujib in jail at Dhaka. "Do me a favour" Mujib told him one day, "arrange a 30 minute meeting between Bhutto, Yahya and myself. Let the three of us debate as to who is breaking up Pakistan. You be the judge." Mujib and the officer had bonded and trusted each other. "So who would you have pronounced guilty?" I asked the officer. Without batting an eyelid, he said it was not Mujib but Bhutto and Yahya who inflamed the fires of 1971 war that led to the breakup of Pakistan! Till today Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has neither forgotten nor forgiven Pakistan for the ill treatment towards her father nor the alleged war crimes committed by our army. Bangladesh has demanded an apology. Our Foreign Office has rejected the demand saying that it has already regretted the incidents. But Bangladesh has approached the UN for trial of what it calls the ‘1971 war criminals.’ How is our present enemy, the Taliban, different from the Mukti Bahini (freedomfighters) who struck terror by kidnapping West Pakistani officers and torturing them to death. It was gruesome. I know of a deputy commissioner kidnapped from his home near Dhaka, taken to the jungle and made to dig his grave. He was about to be killed when the hand of God saved him. But the trauma cost him his life. Six years later he died of a massive heart attack in Lahore. Captain K who is fighting the Taliban in the tribal area sends me an email. He reads the newspapers, but he says "I don’t know much about politics, still I’m ashamed to know what all is happening in our country," he writes. "Pakistan is facing a crisis but our leadership’s failure to address the issues is sad. Being a Pakistani and a soldier I’m ready to give my life for my country but our leaders are not even ready to give up their power. It’s indeed really embarrassing to see them divided on the issues of national security. Pakistan in unlucky to have today’s leadership. I have received many injuries in this operation but even then I’m committed to do my duty till the last blood in my body. We should learn lessons from our past and try to improve upon issues for the greatest interest of our nation. But please tell me what our future is?" He well knows the future is not bright. Pakistan has been badly let down by its military and civilian rulers in the past. The hunger for power is the real killer. "You can give up women; you can give up alcohol; you can give up smoking; you can give up gambling, but the one addiction you can never give up is power. It’s a devi that sits on your lap!" the officer who accompanied the imprisoned Mujib back to Pindi said of Z A Bhutto. "The Mughal emperors imprisoned/killed their fathers/brothers and all other male relatives competing for the throne." Two wars, one dismemberment and now the military operation. Where is the end? Email: aniaz@fas.harvard.edu  & www.anjumniaz.com

Lives at airport threatened by bogus bomb detectors

By Hasan Abdullah
Tuesday, 26 Jan, 2010

An Airport Security Force officer with explosive detector ADE-651 patrols Benazir Bhutto International Airport in Islamabad. Pakistan’s Airport Security Force continues to use ADE-651 despite strong warnings from the British govt and scientists. – AP/File photo

Briton arrested for fraud over bomb detectors

KARACHI: The lives of thousands of passengers are at stake owing to a major security flaw at the country’s busiest airport, technical experts have warned.

The Airport Security Force is continuing to use a bomb detector at the Jinnah International Airport despite the fact that British government and scientists have declared the device “not suitable for bomb detection”.
The device known as ADE-651 has been manufactured by a British company ATSC (UK) and has been exported to over 20 countries, including Pakistan at “exorbitant” prices. It consists of a swivelling antenna mounted via a hinge to a handgrip. It requires no battery or other power source and the manufacturer claims it is powered by static electricity of the person holding it. According to ATSC (UK), the gadget works by detecting “the frequency of a particular explosive or other substance”.
“We will be making an order, under the Export Control Act 2002, banning the export of this type of device to Iraq and Afghanistan. The reason the ban is limited to these two countries is that our legal power to control these goods is based on the risk that they could cause harm to UK and other friendly forces,” says a statement from the British government. Furthermore, British authorities have charged Jim McCormick, the Managing Director of ATSC (UK) for fraud.
However Pakistan’s Airport Security Force continues to use this product.
“What we use at the Jinnah airport is not ADE-651. The ASF has designed it and it is in huge demand. Even agencies like the ISI are calling on us to provide them with this technology,” said a senior official posted at the Jinnah Airport. However, when cross-questioned, other ASF officials acknowledged that the device they were using operated on the same principle as ADE-651.
Many technical experts have expressed surprise at Pakistani officials who still believe the device works.
“There has to be an electric, magnetic or electromagnetic field for a device to work in such a manner. Furthermore static fields don’t move around the way it is being claimed by some. Also don’t forget that there are so many radio waves of different frequencies all around us. I just don’t see how this device would work,” said Professor Shahid Zaidi from the Applied Physics department at Karachi University.
Dawn even sought written permission from the Airport Security Force to bring in an explosives sample to test the device but ASF officials refused while insisting that their device works.
“The problem here is that we have unqualified and non-technical people holding posts which require technocrats. I just hope that the Ministry of Defence takes serious notice of this flaw before the terrorists do so,” argued Sheikh Mohammad Iqbal, a technical consultant.
Despite repeated attempts, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukthar was not available for comment.