Pakistan in the throes of Barbarism Beyond Execution – by A Z
Only in the last few hours, ten innocent passengers were blown up in Peshawar and a father and a son were gunned down in Karachi for the mere crime of being Shias. And this is our routine life as we thank that no big untoward incident has happened. As someone who has travelled the length, breadth, and heights of Pakistan, I could never have enough of Pakistan’s splendour and beauty. When I was growing up as a child after the mayhem of 1971, I never imagined the gory events that occurred in the former East Pakistan were possible ever again. After that ghastly episode, many of us were convinced that the possibility of Pakistani murdering Pakistani again in the manner it was perpetrated in 1971 was remote or even impossible. Some of us were mistaken in believing that Pakistan had crossed the great divides of the past. And now all this violence? Most of it in the name of God. What type of God is He?
Could it be economic hopelessness and desperation? Whatever, nothing can excuse the hatred, barbarity, and bigotry that motivates the irrationality and cruelty of most public reactions on show in Pakistan. Ignorance is not a shield anymore. The ubiquity of cell phones and social medias ensure that we see our evils in real time. Although tribal justice isn’t new to me and neither am I oblivious of the revenge killings in all nooks and crannies of old Pakistan, my country has now achieved a new grade in barbarism. I am shocked when a few Pakistanis, after watching the videos and seeing the pictures of some of the barbaric acts maintain that the victims got what they deserved. Have we lost sanity? Or can it be compared to the people who actually stand aside and watch while such acts take place. Could this be illiteracy, hatred or wickedness? How could people stand and watch while someone is being smashed or burnt to death? As I watched the video of two young brothers lynched in Sialkot after being mistaken for robbers it is heart-rending to see how their pleas for their innocence are drowned by the roars of ‘kill them’ that rented the air. How did we become this inhumane?
What has actually happened is that Pakistan has sown the wind of extremism and is now harvesting the whirlwind of barbaric militancy in various guises. In Taliban’s ways it is commonplace to sever the heads of people for different reasons like being identified as a traitor, belonging to security forces, or being a Shia. The victims are usually forcefully held by others while the executioners set to work amidst incantation and chanting of Allah’s name and glory by the crowd. Quite often the limbs of the victims are severed before slitting their throats. These are videotaped for all of us to witness the gruesome and painful end of these, mostly, young people. Perhaps this reincarnation of ancient barbaric ways is Taliban’s penance for an era that has elevated human reason to the supreme arbiter of human society and nature and has little place for their dogmatic codes of life and religion. Such videos, released by their perpetrators, perhaps help inspire the radical proponents of a Sharia that fuses the spirit of tribalism with certitude of self-righteousness in establishing Islamic fundamentalism while relying on the centuries old customs and traditions of the tribal areas. If that were not the case apologists like Imran Khan would not continually try and placate Taliban, even trying to march to Waziristan for doing so. This barbarism is not unprecedented even in modern era. There have been many far more brutal examples from Armenian Genocide, Holocaust, and America’s use of atom bombs to more recently in Liberia, Congo, Cambodia etc. However, filming and proudly releasing these films with a purpose is indeed without a parallel. That the purpose is fulfilled is evidenced in the fact that many people who do not dare deny or apologise are more concerned about inadvisability of posting such videos instead of rallying support against the perpetrators of such acts. Incapable of knowing civilization, let’s hope they soon pass from barbarism to decadence.
Where Did We Go Wrong? How Did We Get Here? A quick research into violence killing, kidnapping, robberies, sectarianism, victimization of minorities etc. would reveal how far Pakistan has plunged, all within the last 30 years. And each year is worse than the previous. In Africa, there is a proverb that advises to look for a black sheep during the day because once the night falls the sheep would blend with the darkness and it would be impossible to find it. Our apologists and strategists have obstinately refused to heed this wisdom. And now it is dark, very dark and stormy. Yet our discussions are mired in the ideology of a country where bad governance and greed have surpassed all norms, where mediocrity and theft are celebrated, where elections are largely the domain of a few hundred electable families, where religious extremism is on the march. The violence, sectarianism, intolerance, and persecution that we witness today is a natural denouement of all this. Mob killings of innocents and suspected, and large crowds chanting Allah’s glory as people from the opposite sects are identified and killed clearly show that it has now become our culture. It did not drop suddenly from the sky. Neither was it secretly implanted by one of our enemies. It was cultivated and nurtured by those who call themselves guardians of our ideology with the collusion or connivance of our political leaders. Our two major national passions consist in pontificating and harassing in the name of religion and succumbing to the lure of acquiring sudden and stupendous wealth. Impunity is the order of the day as the justice bows to the powerful. Army is beyond accountability and no one from a jihadist organization has ever been meted out justice.
Before Zia ul Haq, assassinations in the name of religion were never a concern in Pakistan. When Zia introduced Jihad, it came with vengeance and anger. Since then the religious fanatics have conveniently succeeded in indoctrinating and arming the zealots to do the killing for them. None of them had any qualms about setting their killing squads. Onward from IJT’s unprecedented strong-arm tactics in the educational institutions in early 1980’s, violence and assassination in the name of religion took on a life of their own. It seems that this atmosphere has now numbed our senses. Slightest of provocation suffices for us to sniff out life in the most gruesome manner. With millions of unemployed youth at hand and thousands of madrassas available to indoctrinate them, the right atmosphere has been created to commit any atrocity with the slightest provocation let alone in the name of religion. Most of the people who participate in these killings may not be members of any religious or political or ethnic party. All they need for going into the streets killing people like enraged demons is for somebody to gather them to one corner, give them an overdose of some religious or ethnic conditioning, fire them with some hate-speeches against some people they have always been taught to regard as mortal enemies, and unleash them on society to wreak boundless violence. For example, the sudden violent reaction following Benazir’s assassination, a mob’s beating and brutally killing two young and innocent brothers in Sialkot, lynching on mere suspicion that is rife all over Pakistan, continued mutilation of bodies following the death after torture, pillaging and burning down of entire Christian neighbourhoods etcetera all reflect wild celebrations of raw barbarity and extreme savagery with zealots rushing into the streets to do something they know how to do so well, and derive immense pleasure and animation from, namely, killing and maiming. It is a pity that an average Pakistan is condemned to share the same environment with some irredeemable savages in a lawless country where many people now believe they can just do anything that excites their warped minds and get away with it. While the State’s writ stands eroded, all we can do is to fold our hands and continue to pray that nothing happens to inflame passions and offend habitual murderers perennially baying for blood and looking for the slightest reason to assuage their bloodlust.
http://www.mp3uing.net/media-arshad-pappu-fotball
http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-103-2008
http://current.com/groups/religion/88901932_hindu-worker-lynched-for-blasphemy.htm
http://videos.geo.tv/VideoGallery.aspx?ID=8033
http://tribune.com.pk/story/482927/mob-justice-alleged-blasphemer-lynched–right-in-front-of-police/
There is so much more Pakistanis have in common than most Pakistanis realize or are willing to admit.. One of my eternal pain and regret is actually the fact that I have had to live outside Pakistan. And I still get excited anywhere in the world on realizing that the other person in the room is a Pakistani! It does not matter to me, whether such Pakistan is a Christian, Muslim, Shia, Sunni, Ahmedi, Pathan or Punjabi etc. But meanwhile, the Pakistanis who are in Pakistan appear not to be able to stand each other’s ethnicity, religion or region! Why can’t we get along, regardless of our subtle differences? We are Pakistanis. We are one. Though ethnic and tongue or religion may differ, we are forever one. Pakistanis!
I strongly believe now, more than ever, that there is an urgent need for a national awareness campaign regarding our Pakistaniat, the advantages, benefits and worthiness of our Pakistaniat. ALL Pakistanis must realize, and must be made to realize that the plight of the average Pakistani is essentially the same in all areas of Pakistan. The issues of abandoned, neglected, decayed public infrastructures are the same everywhere in Pakistan. The absence of clean water, electricity, employment etc are same nationwide.
Pakistan’s urgent issues are economic and political, actually more economic than anything else. I know Pakistanis here in Canada, who are professionals, and of different faith and they are married and happy. And in Pakistan, when the economy was good, Christians and Muslims existed cordially side by side, peacefully and without animosities and these murderous riots. All Pakistanis at home and abroad must rededicate to fixing Pakistan and uplifting Pakistan. When Pakistan is economically buoyant, we will or at least, tend to forget who is Muslim or Christian, or who is Shia or Sunni.
In Pakistan, when people wake up and start killing their fellow human beings, instead of calling a crime by its real name and visiting it with the exact punishment it merits, we go ahead to dress it up in such self-serving phrases like “ethnic conflicts”, “sectarian violence”or even the complex term, “ethno-religious crises.” As this happens the bereaved quietly bury their dead where they are able to find the corpses, mourn silently, cleane tears from their eyes, nurse their pain and anguish, and everybody goes about their normal businesses, waiting for the next opportunity for another mass murder to occur. But if the government puts its foot on the ground, and insists on having all those who participate in the killings, especially those who instigate them (which I believe they can fish out if they really want to), to taste the full wrath of the law, in future, some other people would think twice before embarking on the next killing expedition. Already, the very hideous criminal act of mass murder of men, women and children in bomb explosions has already been dubbed “sectarian/terorism crises”, and another useless probe has also been set up to buy time, and let the bereaved forget their pain and anguish. And the children who had been brutally orphaned and women cruelly widowed by the mindless killings would now be abandoned to eat their loaves of sorrow and bitter sufferings all alone. That is the nature of our country. I am not against dialogue. I am not against probes and reconciliation meetings, but we deceive ourselves if we continue to give the impression that dialogue and making people account for their hideous acts are mutually exclusive. Both must be allowed to play their separate roles in the peace and reconciliation process. Until this nation arrests and prosecutes the prominent criminals who instigate violence and bloodletting among the citizenry just to make a political or religious point, these killings would remain a regular occurrence. And if we continue to treat this very serious matter with kid gloves, maybe, because it is only the poor and nobodies that usually die, one day, the killers would grow wilder and extend their murderous adventure beyond the high walls of the cosy quarters where the affluent, highly placed bloodsuckers hide to instigate the poor to kill themselves. But I blame it all on our lawless country, Crime has no other definition known to civilized man and should attract no other treatment except commensurate punishment capable of deterring other potential criminals. So long as human beings are aware that their nation’s laws are too weak and pitiably toothless, that they can always manage to escape the just rewards for all their misdeeds, no matter the magnitude, the incentive to commit even more heinous crimes would always be abundant.
First of all, the phenomenon of these barbaric act is one of the attributes of South and Central Asia. Critically analysing this issue in Pakistan, some of the blame falls on the failure of the judicial system to function properly. People have resorted to taking laws into their hands because of the lack of confidence in the judicial system. In other words, in advanced countries, whenever there’s a crime anywhere, the first thing that comes into play is informing the appropriate authorities. However, here in Pakistan, it’s a direct opposite. We have heard, and seen, cases where armed robbers were apprehended by civilians and handed over to the police for due process only to find the said robbers roaming the streets freely the next day, probably plotting another attack. Also, we have heard cases of policemen working hand in hand with armed robbers. All these and more might have contributed to citizens taking laws into their hands under the guise of serving justice. Even though I have been a victim of numerous robbery attacks which have seen me lose valuable properties in the process, I do not think, in my right frame of mind as a human made up of flesh and blood, that suspects should be treated the way the people treated the two Sialkot brothers.
The Pakistanis in tribal areas and many others in cities have one thing in common, and it is their absolute disregard for human life, the lives of fellow Pakistanis, and worst of all, they demonstrate absolute disregard for the tenets of Islam. Any religious that inspire the killing of another Pakistani is not worthy of respect in my opinion. Any religion that does not emphasize the sanctity of life is not worth my respect.
Murder is murder, in Waziristan or in Karachi, there can be no excuse for a Pakistani who kills another Pakistani. Observing Pakistani public debate in the past many years has led me to believe that our nation is in dire need of re-orientation as to the value and worth or benefit, of our ideology. I am a strong believer in the multitudes of advantages inherent in Pakistan’s wondrous diversity.
Pakistan is composed of an exciting quilt of ethnicities, religions, and regions. I have come to believe that too many Pakistanis unfortunately, emphasize the negative variable and negative common denominators.
Growing up in Pakistan, there was no escaping the hardship that gripped the air and stifled breath. It was everywhere you went: handicapped countrymen begging for alms, young boys and girls selling pouches of water and everything else thinkable, old men trudging along on walking sticks, wives and mothers hustling on roadsides for daily sustenance. A people left to themselves, to whom government is a caricature of what it is in decent lands, often found itself assuming the dual role of government and citizen. Alas, out of this morass, only a menace would emerge. Now it has. But nothing, and I mean nothing, prepares one for what we are seeing now. My mind is riveted on two young brothers in Sialkot being viciously hit with planks and other materials. These boys, no more than 20 years of age, had been wrongly accused of stealing a phone. The mob was merciless and possessed. Looking into the eyes of one of the boys there on the ground, helpless, struggling to keep his eyes open, I was overcome with a terrifying sense of my own hopelessness and helplessness. This could easily have been me; brutalized thus on mere accusation. Some minutes later, the mob would hang the bodies of these boys. And now it is being repeated all round us.
The Pakistan blasphemy laws’ vague formulation, along with inadequate investigation by authorities and intimidation by militant religious groups, has promoted vigilantism in Pakistan. Religious minorities have been disproportionately accused of blasphemy, but a large proportion of victims are from the Muslim majority. Pakistan authorities must urgently reform blasphemy laws to ensure that they cannot be used maliciously to settle disputes or enable private citizens to take matters into their own hands.
Goodness! How did we get here? One can hardly walk a block or two in Pakistan without stumbling upon a mosque, madrassa, or a place of worship. A country where a nation that consistently ranks as one of the most religious on earth exhibits such high wickedness that the devil can’t but nod in admiration. It is obvious, this population is frustrated.
And in a nation where over two-thirds of the population lives in poverty, and government is a business venture where a state governor can steal hundreds of millions without jail time, one would expect that frustration will lead Pakistanis to demand government provide order and opportunities. No, we have become cowards and hypocrites. Petty thieves get burnt alive in the public square while kleptocratic politicians and officials live like Kings. We know this sort of brutality has been happening for a long time. We have become savages. Savages living in an animal kingdom and jungle justice is a consequential feature of this ethos.
Pathetic. These and many more are the stories of how innocent bloods are spilled on a daily basis around Pakistan by our own brothers. We hang the petty thieves and adore the big ones. We are inching closer to the brink on a daily basis. War is imminent in Pakistan and I tell you authoritatively that the ingredients are already available.
Pakistani sectrain voilence starts after Khomeni Shia choas in Iran that funded by france jews where khomeni spend 20 years along with prince karim aga khan.
“… that the ingredients are already available.”
Correct. It will slowly transform into Holocaust on minorities and secular-minded ANP and individuals. It will be one-sided only.