20 years on, Ojhri Camp truth remains locked up

ISLAMABAD, April 9: Twenty years have passed but the images of

destruction caused by the Ojhri Camp disaster are still fresh in the
minds of many residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Over 100 men, women and children were killed and many times more were
wounded by the missiles and projectiles which exploded mysteriously and
rained death and destruction on the twin cities on this day in 1988.

Physical scars of the tragedy may have healed but the nation is unaware till
this day what, and who, caused that disaster and why. An investigation was
conducted into the disaster but, like in the case of all other probes into
national tragedies, its report was not made public.

The then prime minister Mohammad Khan Junejo appointed two committees,
one military and the other parliamentary, to probe the military disaster. His
action so infuriated military dictator Gen Ziaul Haq that he dismissed his
handpicked prime minister on May 29, 1988 - the main charge being that he
failed to implement Islam in the country.

While the parliamentary committee, headed by old politician Aslam Khattak,

went out with the Junejo government, the military committee under Gen
Imranullah Khan submitted its report before the government’s dismissal.

Subsequent governments of prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif

which followed Gen Zia’s fiery death in a mysterious plane crash on August 17,
1988, also kept Gen Imranullah Khan’s findings under covers.

Some opposition members called for making it public during the last five years
of Gen Pervez Musharraf’s military rule but the PML-Q government took the
position that it would not be “in the larger national interest”.

Neither political observers expect the PPP and the PML-N doing so even when
they have been swept into power again by the people and run a coalition
government.

Interestingly, when contacted, leaders of both the parties agreed that the Ojhri
Camp inquiry report should be made public but refused to commit to do so.
Junejo’s defence minister Rana Naeem Ahmed had told Dawn in an interview
last year that he had received the report but said it did not fix responsibility on
any one and declared the huge disaster an accident.

Even then the ISI seized it in a raid on his office the day after the Junejo
government was dismissed, he claimed.

“They returned all my belongings, except the briefcase that contained the
report,” he said, disclosing that the report was inconclusive and focused just
on the causes of the blast.

It was a bright and sunny morning on April 10, 1988, when the citizens of
Islamabad and Rawalpindi were startled by huge explosions and swishing
sounds as if fireworks were going off.

Thousands of missiles and projectiles soon started raining down on the two
cities the Ojhri Ammunition Depot, situated in the densely-populated
Faizabad area, blew up.

Officially the death toll was 30, but independent estimates put the figure much
higher. Prominent among those killed was a federal minister Khaqan Abbasi
whose car was hit by a flying missile while he was on his way to Murree, his
hometown.

His son accompanying him was hit in the head. He went into deep coma and
died some two years ago after remaining on artificial respiration for 17 years.

The Ojhri Camp was used as an ammunition depot to forward US-supplied

arms to Afghan Mujahideen fighting against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
There were reports that a Pentagon team was about to arrive to take audit of
the stocks of the weapons and that allegedly the camp was blown up
deliberately to cover up pilferage from the stocks.

Some reports said that Ojhri Camp had about 30,000 rockets, millions of
rounds of ammunition, vast number of mines, anti-aircraft Stinger missiles,
anti-tank missiles, multiple-barrel rocket launchers and mortars worth $100
million in store at the time of blasts that destroyed all records and most of the
weapons thus making it impossible for anyone to check the stocks.

Prime minister Junejo had promised to the National Assembly that the inquiry
report would be made public and the guilty would be punished but was sacked
by Gen Zia.
Senior members of the PPP and the PML-N admit that their governments in
the past made no serious effort to make the report public.

A PPP member however claimed that the second Benazir Bhutto government
did attempt to do that but failed due to resistance from the “concerned
quarters”. There are some elements in the Charter of Democracy, signed by
the PPP and the PML-N, which could be pursued to make such reports public,
he said.

https://www.dawn.com/news/297623/20-years-on-ojhri-camp-truth-remains-locked-up