Baghlan carnage: Govt assailed for failing to arrest culprits.

Participants of a gathering commemorating the second anniversary of the 2007 carnage in northern Baghlan province slammed the government for its failure to arrest the perpetrators.

The massive bombing ripped through a ceremony to re-open a sugar factory as part of a plan to improve and build the economy in the northeastern Baghlan province on November 6, 2007. Large groups of people, including children and elderly people were lined up to assist in the inauguration of the facility. At least 75 people, among them 59 children, were killed or wounded severely in the massive bombing.

It is widely believed that the blast was caused by a bomb full of ball-bearings as a suicide attacker could unlikely cause such a massive carnage. Six members of the parliament were killed in the blast, including key opposition figures. The lawmakers killed in the bombing were former Commerce Minister Sayed Mustafa Kazemi, the prominent private sector representative Hajji Muhammad Arif Zarif, as well as Abdul Mateen, Al Hajj Sahib Al-Rahman, Nazuk Mir Sarfaraz and Sebghatullah Zaki. All six were members of the ten-member Economics Committee of the National Assembly. Syed Ali Kazemi, the brother of deceased Mustafa Kazemi, criticized the government for being unable to net the conspirators of the massacre. Speaking at the gathering of about 300 people in capital city of Baghlan, he said some powerful hands were behind the suicide attack. But he would name anyone. However, Attorney General Office has claimed some suspects in the attack had been arrested and prosecuted. Baghlan governor, Mohammad Akbar Barakzai, also confirmed the arrests.

A tribal elder, Haji Yaqoob Stanakzai, said the government at that time had vowed to compensate each family who lost their relatives in the attack with a flat and cash money but he said those promises are yet to be materialized.

"The children of the martyrs are still hungry and awaiting assistance from government as no one has so far helped them," he said. However, the governor promised that he being a representative of the government would make efforts to honour the pledges made by the government with the victim families. A similar gathering in Kabul on Friday criticized the government for not capturing the culprits. The gathering was participated by Kazemi's family who condemned the attack.

Also a week back, a similar gathering of some MPs led by Mohammad Younus Qanoni, speaker of the parliament, also criticized the justice and judicial authorities for not being able to arrest the culprits. The MPs then laid floral wreathes on the graves of their slain colleagues.

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