The Pakistani government must seriously address the security failure in Balochistan and work to achieve lasting peace and security.

QUETTA — Four women were doused with acid on Monday in Balochistan and two young sisters had acid thrown at them in Mastung for their simple crime of visiting a shopping center.

The Mastung attack comes in the wake of a series of attacks that had already taken place off and on against women, sometimes scaring them away from schools and at other times scaring them away from visiting the markets, especially in Baloch-dominated districts.

The latest victims of the attack were two adolescent sisters aged 13 and 14 who were identified as Mahawish and Sehrish. They had visited a shopping center ahead of festive occasion of Eid in District Mastung.

“On their way back to Mujhaid colony, two masked men doused the teenage sisters with acid which left Mahawish’s neck and Sehrish’s face badly burned,” said sources.

Both the teenagers were shifted to a private hospital in Mastung and were later referred to Quetta for better treatment.

So far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack but the suppression of women is not a new story in Balochistan and religious rhetoric has been used by extremists to suppress women in an otherwise a tolerant Baloch society. The story of the Panjgur incident, where women were threatened not to visit schools, is still fresh in the minds of the people of this beleaguered province.

Social, religious and political officials have issued condemnation statements from time to time but condemnation statements alone do not suffice.

The security apparatus in the form of Frontier Corps (FC), Police, and the intelligence agencies pocket huge amounts of public money and budget for ensuring security to the common man but such incidents are manifest of how and where their priorities rest.

It is time that government takes immediate action against the security failure which destroyed the lives of the women and children for the rest of their lives and make sure that such incidents never occur again.

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Mir Behram Baloch is a journalist covering government and social issues in Balochistan. Read other articles by Mir.