The Attack on Masud Azhar in Rawalpindi and The Media Blackout

By Hafeez Hasanabadi

Translate By Archen Baloch

Pakistani media has always remained under the control of Pakistan army and civil establishment. Every bit of news passes through the bottleneck of censorship in Islamabad and only the luckiest news bits of trivialities are the ones which can get quick coverage. But when it comes to important news items that touches the real faces of influential and powerful elites then that will never make its way to open media. However, if the reporter is adamant and insists to prove the truth of his report, then he will be silenced for good. The Balochistan journalists have paid a heavy price for insisting on truth.

Exactly, on the same pattern, a big event took place in Pak Emirates Military Hospital Rawalpindi on 23rd June 2019 when an attack was carried on the leader of Jaish e Mohammed, Masud Azhar. According to eyewitnesses, the attack was so devastating that it shook the surrounding buildings and high raising flames were seen following gunfire. How this blast took place? Who did this? And who was the target? Who were being fired upon by whom? Who were the casualties of this blast? How significantly the building was damaged? Has the authorities investigated it? There are several such unanswered questions.

However, the news that made some round, in the beginning, said that the head of Jaish e Mohamed was attacked in the military hospital Pakistan army had kept him as a guest in the name of treatment.

According to information, ISI has facilitated Masud Azhar his other 10 accomplice in a military hospital some 636m away from their office because India had threatened to carry surgical attacks against terror cells in Pakistan after the Pulwama attack. India also ratcheted up the international pressure on Pakistan for surrendering Masud Azhar because his terror group had accepted the responsibility of the attack. Eventually, after two weeks of intense pressure, Pakistan officially admitted in the March 2019 that Masud Azhar was in Pakistan and being treated because of deteriorating health. Pakistan authorities also said that if India presented concrete evidences [agaisnt Masud Azhar], Pakistan will see them and decide whether to hand him over to India or not.

It is worth mentioning here that China has always taken Pakistan’s side and Pakistan was hoping that If the matter is referred to the UN, China will support her as usual. But this time around things didn’t go the way Pakistan had expected. A resolution was tabled in the UN declaring Masud Azhar a global terrorist. China didn’t support Pakistan and hence the extremist was declared as terrorist by UN on May 1st 2019.

The UN decision increased Pakistan’s troubles, on the one hand, international community knew that JeM headquarters are located in Pakistan, on the other, its external affairs minister confessed that JeM head is in Pakistan and he is not well. After the UN resolution, Pakistan had no justification of keeping him in Pakistan and still has no justification for that.

In Pakistani media, even a single news item of no significance values makes round of breaking news all day, but here in close vicinity of ISI headquarters, in one of the most important hospitals, a bomb blast takes place and goes unheard. They don’t allow media houses to report it despite the fact the flames and smokes of the bomb blast touch the sky.

It means that something significant has happened here which could expose the real face of the powerful section of the Pakistan. They’re the one who forced the media to remain silent on such events otherwise they will be thrown in the inferno for breaking such news.

In a nutshell, two question need to be asked; first, will the Americans and other international institutions force Pakistan to allow this global terrorist be tried at international court after Pakistan’s foreign minister’s admission that Masud Azhar is in Pakistan or America and global powers continue to remain silent in the hope that talks with Taliban will succeed in the face of Pakistani fake drama of peace talks and Pakistan will be exonerated from the crime of hiding him like Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mansoor?

Second, given the fact that Pakistan has put this mysterious bomb-blast in media blackout for reasons that hiding this terrorist along with his other crime partners in Pakistan will disgrace Pakistan and the sword of FATF is hanging overhead; will the world powers hold Pakistan accountable for this heinous crime or continue to remain silent as usual?

We can get the answer of these two questions to some extent when Pakistan presents Masud before international criminal court in shackles or present concrete evidence that Masud Azhar has died in the Emarat Military Hospital on 23rd June 2019. However, silence isn’t the answer of these questions that rose after Shah Mohmad Qureshi’s admission and the bomb blast about which ISPR has forced a situation of calm by threat.