Adil Najam
Today is April 10.
Nineteen years ago, today, on April 10, 1988 the military ammunition depot at Ojhri Camp, Rawlapindi, blew up and unleashed an inferno that sent all sorts of rockets all over Rawalpindi and into neighboring Islamabad. It also let to a sequence of events that led to the ouster of then Prime Minister Mohammed Khan Junejo and, depending on which conspiracy theorist you believe, to the death of then President General Mohammad Zia ul Haq.
Reader Dilnawaz of Bradistan Calling forwarded me an article by Tariq Mehmood on the Ojhri blast. Some excerpts worth reproducing:
21 years ago, on the 10th April 1988 Ojhrii dump in Rawalpindi was blown up. This was a deliberate act of destruction. Hundreds upon hundreds of missiles rained down on Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Over 5000 people were killed. Many, many thousands more were injured.
I was working as a journalist for the Frontier Post and along with a colleague, Imran Munir, went into the camp, early the day after the explosion. Every now and again, a rocket or missile would take off, and land somewhere, causing yet more deaths and destruction.
All manner of rockets and shells were going off. People were sitting around shell shocked. The houses close to Ojhri were reduced to mere shells. I went into one house. A man in his late 20s was sitting amidst shattered glass and broken wood. He was rubbing his hands in the glass. Blood fr om his shredded hands was spreading across the floor. He had a little child’s shoe. He turned to us. I looked into his bloodshot eyes. He said, “this is where my son was martyred.” Imran was about to take a photograph of him, but he lowered the camera. We could not snap him in this position. We stood there for a while, we wanted to lift him up but the man wanted to stay with the memory of his child. Out side his door I saw a dog. It stood in front of us. It was a healthy black and white mongrel. It must once have been a loved pet. I can still see the dogs eyes, filled with unspeakable terror, asking me why? Why? Why? I did not know what to say to the creature. I did not know what had happened. Had I known, I would have sat down and told the dog, that this is the way those that rule, hide one crime by committing another.
Some people I talked to said they saw a missile cut through a buffalo’s stomach. I have found some of my notes from that time. Many people said that the police just ran off, even from major traffic junctions and students took over the posts, directing traffic.
… Some people at the time said they thought the day of judgement had arrived. I have found three eye witness accounts from that time. I only have their names and do not remember much more of them.
“I was going towards Faizabad when I heard the explosion. There was a huge fire. Many people were running towards it, while the police were running away from it. Missiles started flying in every direction. I saw about 12 young men sheltering under a tree. Then they were all dead. The road going towards the CDA (Capital Development Authority) colony was littered with hands and feet of little children. Such great injustice. The world seemed to have died. Whilst the police ran off, students started directing traffic.” Bagh Hussain.
“It was raining missiles and bombs. Everyone was running for their lives. The area was full of explosions and screaming. What the bombs did not destroy the police took.” Mohammad Ishaque.
“Four thousand have died. It was like Qiamat. Even when all hell was let loose, when bombs were spread around liked chopped pieces of wood, these people (pointing to policemen) were robbing – such injustice.”
I, too, was in Islamabad at the time and have vivid memories of the incident and its aftermath. I was driving in front of the Jinnah Super market in F-7 when panic started hitting Islamabad and cars started rushing every which way. I also turned back and rushed home. This was before the advent of the internet or he 24 hour news channels in Pakistan, so rumors ran amuck.
“It was a terrorist attack,” said some. “No,” said others, “its India, can’t you see the direction that the sound is coming from!” Others would chime in, “No, no, no. Its merely one more blast like the ones we are having every day.” Yet others saw ‘saahoni sazishian’ and ‘umreekan haath’ in all of this. And so it went on and on. The phone kept ringing. A friend who had a shell just land outside his gate. A relative, whose car was hit by another car which in turn had been hit by flying sharpnel.
By the end of the day clarity began to emerge. But not really.
It was clear, now, that it was Ojhri. That it was an ammunition dump. Everyone knew that this was related to the Afghanistan operation and ISI controlled the location. Soon, the politics also began becoming clear and before long Mohammed Khan Junejo was booted out. But that was the extent of it. Theories abound, but it remains unclear exactly what happened? Who did what? How? Why?
One would have thought that more would have come out on something this important and of this magnitude. It really has not. One must wonder, why?
P.S. In preparing this post I was also struck by how little there is on this over the internet. Especially in terms of photographic record. It may be because this was a pre-digital camera event. If any one has access or links to photographs of the outfall, please do share.
P.P.S. This is a repost of an original post published at ATP on this date in 2007.
This incident was the end of Zia ul Haq and also of a good man, Mohammad Khan Junejo.
It was a very sad day, I was home at the time of the blast and out house was behind the Ojhri camp,
It was huge blast and all galss inour house shattered I immediatly ran up to the roof to see what happened ans saw a big flame going up. and than a second blast that just took all HOSH o hawas away . cam down and saw all people runnig in or out, strange situation the neighbours were standing outside and ran inside but realised it was not there house, we ran out me bare foot, just started runnning , It was all our family and rest of galli wallahs. dont know who went where,My brothers friend was visiting sitting in his car , i bleieve some fit in the car, and i started running, A neighbour Khala ji had three little kids I took one and handed him to my borther in the car, i think they had some random people in the car, did not even know where my mother was, I think i picked up another of khal gee kids nad what i remember is that we took a dead end street and ended up in a house, realized I was bare foot, my elder borther was with us and khala gees kids. there was no light but the phone in the house was working . Brother called and was given advice to sit below the atairs so we did, only could hear Hissing sounds, I am not sure how long it was but than a blast at the wall, and smoke, looked out and saw a missile in the lawn, another one landed on the roof water tank , we thought war had broken out, We just panicked furthur and walked out again, Just listlessly walking back to the house , people still runnign waay, than saw my uncle coming this way crying, ” everything is destroyed , he had four daughters and no one knoew where , I told her i saw one sit in the car the other was in school, than some one said there were some female dead bodies by govt college on sixth road, my heart stopped as i Relaized my mother was not with us. I have no idea how long it was but than A friend who cam looking for us from Islamabad came, We wento t my borther in laws house and my mom was there. That was releif, we than decided to go look for others when suddenly got the news that that friends Uncle and cousin were his in islamabad and died, I got off his car as he went to Islamabad and i walked to my house, I cant forget , every house had all glasses shattered,and missiles lying around every where, naive we even picked up some and kept them, still have one exploded one somewhere.
It was heart wrenching for my father who was in saudia and heard the news that al that area was detroyed, my sisiter in school in islamabed thought the same, and my borther and sister in Murree and my friends from school in Lahore thought i am dead
well we got the park and the stadium afterwards and even the road built and still amazes me that army was collecting and putting all those missile most of which in fact were only projectiles and had been unexploded right in front of our Galli
we all lived thru it but do wonder on whose shoulder is all this blood, may some one in the military care about their after life and come out themselves, some one knows ???????????
Hur roz nikalta hai janaza gareeb ka !!
That can happen only in Pakistan where thousands and thousands people die in one shot and “nero baansari bajata rahe”.
Zia was the biggest curse for this country.
In the book The Bear Trap by Muhammed Yousef( Brigadier in the Pak Army who was charged with the responsibility of organizing and training the Afghan fighters) which is about how Pakistan fought a proxy war for the US with Russia in Afghanistan, there is some detail on why Ojhri was blown up. Later editions of the book might have editted this out. The author’s take was that the depot was blown up by the Pakistan military (example, there are at any given time 3000 or so soldiers inside the camp and no one died) to stop the Americans from auditting missing arms that were meant for the Afghans, armaments that were either supplied directly by the US (the famed Stinger missiles) or for which money had been sent but ended up somewhere else. Some of the US supplied weapons (Stingers) were being sold to Iran or/and Iraq (also at war at the time) by top military brass and their relatives (he mentions Zia’s son, Ijaz ul Haz and Akthar Abdul Rehman’s son being the main beneficiary).
True or false, the fact that the Pakistan government, and especially the military has done nothing to get to the bottom of this just gives credence to arguments that the military was behind this.
http://www.fascistarmy.org Saga of Khaki Cosa Nostra – Click Now
A dedication to the two million victims of East Pakistan, who became the target of khaki fascism in 1971.
The day of 12th October 1999 is marked as the day when democracy was ambushed fourth time in the history of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. This is the day when the Fascist Generals of Pakistan’s Rogue Army practiced the legacy of their naked aggression and toppled the elected parliament of Pakistan. It has now been seven years since the “Khaki Cosa Nostraâ€