Savages at large
THE state’s failure to evolve a strategy for protecting communities that are vulnerable because of their beliefs has resulted not only in an escalation of attacks on them but also in the emergence of new and more vicious forms of violence.
The killing of seven Hazara workers in Quetta the other day confirms the increased use of a standardised procedure for butchering members of the targeted community. The vehicle in which the victims were travelling was ordered to halt and the passengers made to dismount. The national identity cards of the Hazaras, which were supposed to offer the key to their right to life and security, again served as black warrants to what can only be described as their summary execution.
Similar cases had been reported earlier from other parts of Balochistan, such as Mastung, and from Gilgit-Baltistan. These incidents can no longer be attributed to localised sectarian tensions or conflicts between individual actors; they reveal an organised campaign to force Balochistan’s Hazara community to vacate their traditional settlements, if not to exterminate them altogether. If allowed to continue unchecked the anti-Hazara wave of violence could develop into some kind of sectarian cleansing.
These happenings will certainly have a highly adverse impact on the sectarian conflict raging in Gilgit-Baltistan at the other end of the country. The issue there in the beginning was the large Shia population’s aspiration to enjoy their due share in the democratised management of public affairs and the other community’s resolve to resist this legitimate demand to the extent of foregoing its own democratic rights.
Left to themselves the two communities might not have failed to work out a framework for peaceful coexistence and mutual accommodation. The chances of that happening began to be undermined by Gen Zia’s narrow-minded sectarian predilection. By blinking at an external lashkar’s bloody assault on the Gilgit Shias he helped the rise of an interventionist force that has apparently decided not to let the people of Gilgit-Baltistan settle their matters amongst themselves.
These outsiders have never relented in their efforts to keep the sectarian strife going. One is amazed to see that all those who always blame foreign hands for any outbreak of lawlessness have not cared to expose the mischief being done by non-local elements in Gilgit-Baltistan.
And in Balochistan too, for credible evidence is available to show that the campaign against the Hazaras is being carried out largely by militant groups based in other provinces. It has often been alleged that these groups finance their operations out of the ransom money collected from victims of abduction and make regular remittances to their head offices, most of them believed to be in Punjab.
That the government’s failure to apprehend and punish the culprits in most cases if not all is a major cause of increase in belief-related violence is widely understood. The need to probe the causes of this failure has not received due attention. The view that Pakistan as a whole has moved into a new cycle of violence against the weaker segments of society receives considerable support from the affair of the Christian girl rotting in prison on the charge of desecration of the Holy Quran. Nothing reveals Pakistani Muslims’ divorce from sanity as thoroughly as the slogan that the glory of Islam depends on the execution of this mentally challenged adolescent from an oppressed community.
Normally one avoids commenting on matters that are in the stage of investigation but those calling for justice to be done have as much right to have their say as those calling for the girl to be punished before her guilt, or even her ability to consciously commit the offence she has been charged with, is established. The case has acquired additional significance as it displays a new pattern of minority-bashing.
We are familiar with the abuse of blasphemy laws for settling scores with business rivals or to facilitate individual efforts at grabbing the property of members of the weaker communities. The sack of Shantinagar and attacks on Christian churches in Khanewal some years ago and the more recent pillage of Christian quarters in Gojra were attributed to vengeful mischief by the losers in the race for economic advancement.
There was no indication that the law was being abused to force a minority community to vacate the land under its possession or that communal interests of the majority were involved.
A design of this nature has been exposed by the case of the young Christian girl. Her persecutors wanted her community to move off the land occupied by it. Whether those behind the outrage wanted the land to build a colony or a plaza or whether the pious ones only wanted to be rid of some contemptible neighbours is yet to be established. The latter cause is surely much more shameful and distressing than the former. In it can be seen the germs of a segregationist trend the consequences of which will be too horrible to be viewed with equanimity.
Several factors could have contributed to Pakistan’s accession to new heights of holy terror. Only the purblind will fail to see a link between the killing of Hazaras in Quetta, the target killings in Karachi, the persecution of the blasphemy accused, the Peshawar explosion that took a dozen lives, and the beheading of 12 soldiers in the tribal belt. Instant justice by self-appointed judges and executioners is apparently an offshoot of extremist theories, such as the rule of takfir, that have been introduced into Pakistani people’s religious thought by the so-called revivalists of foreign origin.
The law-and-order paraphernalia possesses neither the mind nor the means to meet the threat from these elements; their challenge calls for a well-thought-out and consistent intellectual response. An example of this kind of exercise was furnished by an Islamabad-based NGO, the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, when it held a series of discussions among religious scholars on the phenomenon of Muslims killing fellow Muslims by branding them as renegades.
The proceedings are available in a publication Mas’ala Takfir-wa-Kharooj; and it is a useful introduction to a subject that is likely to have a considerable bearing on our lives. Much more needs to be done in this vein in addition to the promotion of pluralist values from various perspectives, if Pakistani people are to be saved from becoming a horde of savages.
Zia is dead – a crook or a traitor or a saviour is for history to judge. Let us try to resolve the current issue by providing protection to the minorities and punishing these mindless killers!
This article reminds me of many written by Cowasjee. His was a voice of sanity in the wilderness of Pakistan. The wilderness has since become even darker.
A truth well written.
nh,
I totally agree with sharma and jibran. A drastic determined action by the Govt. of Pakistan is needed on an urgent basis to eradicate the menace of all types of killings.
While there is no body in pakistan who does not wish an end to relentless terrorism , kidnappings,target killings inthe name of religion but our Ruling parties don’t have time to find out real forces working behind this new kind of war-fare.They are always busy findind ways to keep their co-olitions intact to stay in power.It is true whole thing was planned and progrmmed during Zia period with his consent and connivance and some of his prominent proteges are stil either in the Govt or their suppoters Our various Intelleget agencies have to be re organised retrained to do preventing the unfortunate situations.
Excellent article. May your tribe increase. Hate and killings never solved any problem. It is the moral responsibility of the society to take care of its needy and weak. It is the legal responsibility of the government to protect all people including very vulnerables in the community. Both are failing here and thus the killings continues.
@ Sultan khan
Dear Sultan, you r right when u said how to resolve them?
Didn’t u see the writer’s suggestion: ‘The law-and-order paraphernalia possesses neither the mind nor the means to meet the threat from these elements; their challenge calls for a well-thought-out and consistent intellectual response.”
That’s one way, we can resolve the problem: first intellectually, then followed up by the law and by its implementation. That process was begun by Mr. Jinnah himself on 11 Aug – 1947.
His was not mere an address, ‘…religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State,.,’ it was much more and deeper. Basically, all was related to, as to how the lawmakers should be framing the constitution of the new country, mind it, it wasn’t any speech of Jinnah, it was an address to the Constituent Assembly for Pakistan on the occasion of its first meeting.
The crux of our problems now lies in our not respecting the words of Mr. Jinnah in that address.
Can any country survive and prosper without those fundamentals? It is naive, then, to think we can do without those principles in Jinnah’s address. The loss of one part of the erstwhile Pakistan bears the proof of the un•a•void•a•bil•i•ty of the basics that Jinnah laid open in his 11 Aug – address.
It’s not only Zia bashing; his irreparable damage to this country need to be mentioned time and again. And when Zia’s name comes up, its only because he was the one in the saddle; but when one mentions Zia this includes all his partners in the wrongdoings as well.
Interesting how more and more people in the country are falling over each other trying to show their regard and sympathy for minorities while still supporting the terrorist organizations in their hunt of innocent men, women and children.
Stop blaming other for our own misery. I think it’s time for Pakistani people rise up against the extremists and eradicate these people that call themselves muslims.
agreed with Sultan
I think now its time to stop Zia-bashing. He is gone decades ago and cannot defend himself. Whatever he did was approved by an overwhelming majority of people, politicians and so-called ulemas of his times some of whom are still shining stars on the horizon of politics and religion. Now is the time to focus on the issues and and how to resolve them instead of bickering as to who was the initiater.
sir, u have forgotten to mention one thing, what zia did, was also approved by the champion of human right, usa.
I dont think it is all about Zia bashing. I think to correct some error first acknowledgement has to be made about such an error being corrected. Focus on issues will come once the source of error is identified. If Zia supporters still persist as you have said ” shining stars and all..” then the problem still remains. First the majority has to be convinced as to what Zia did was wrong. Thus this writeup is a step in that direction.
I agree with you to the extent that lamenting the failures of the past is a useless exercise and in no way does it help us to improve out today, but Zia remains a symbol of bigotry, hate mongering that divided our society. Railing against him for what he did is an expression of our commitment to building a better Pakistan.
“Railing against him for what he did is an expression of our commitment to building a better Pakistan.”
Correct. How to put that commitment into action? We are fortunate to be able to discuss it freely here. But in the broader public it is not well received. The bigotry and ignorance of mullahs that pollute the education of youth (future voters), and the heavy inertia and lethargy of politicians, do not bode well for the future. Where is leadership? One can only hope it isn’t becoming too late.