Terrorism has many faces.
The sooner we recognise this, the sooner all the recent hoopla about crushing
terrorism in the wake of the Peshawar barbarity will assume concrete,
comprehensive and effective shape. The attack by baton-wielding fanatics on a
peaceful candle-lit vigil to commemorate the fourth death anniversary of
murdered Governor Salmaan Taseer at Liberty Chowk, Lahore, must surely be
counted amongst the long chain of terrorist or terrorist-inspired attacks ov
er
the years. The attackers did not even spare the media covering the vigil,
subjecting them, as the video footage shows, to pushing, shoving, kicking over
their equipment, letting the media personnel feel the sharp lash of their
batons, etc. The police on duty remained bystanders, allowing these fanatics to
take the law into their own hands. When after the attack, the SP police in
charge of the area was asked on television why this was so, he lied through his
teeth that no police were deployed at the site of the incident and that the
police had only responded to a distress call after the event. Anyone familiar
with any manifestation at Liberty Chowk over the years knows that no matter how
big or small the protest, police are always deployed there. Eyewitnesses
confirm police were on the spot but did nothing to stop the violent attack on
peaceful demonstrators. Although the protestors have registered a report at the
local police station, the chances of action being taken against the offending
maulvis, all of whose faces were caught by the cameras, are slim, to say the
least. Nor is it likely that the police who did not perform their duty to
uphold the law, protect the right of the protestors to peacefully express
themselves, and prevent such an untoward incident will even be punished. For
one, the police deployed there probably share the mindset of Salmaan Taseer’s
cowardly coldblooded killer Mumtaz Qadri, who too was a policeman of the
special security detail of the late Governor when he riddled him with bullets
from behind as he left an Islamabad restaurant. Second, who does not know the
penchant and tricks of the police when one of their own has broken or fallen
foul of the law they are supposed to defend? No, we are not hopeful of an
outcome that upholds the law, the rights of the protestors to peaceful
assembly, or the fundamental principles of a democratic society. We now look to
the Punjab government of Shahbaz Sharif to see what if any action it takes on
the matter. If it does nothing, or muddies the water to get the attackers and
the police guilty of dereliction of duty off the hook, not only will it blacken
its face, it will encourage the revival of the accusations against it of being
soft on terrorism and terrorists.
Salmaan Taseer did not do
anything to deserve the fate he suffered. He bravely stood up for a poor
illiterate Christian woman falsely accused of blasphemy and, in one more
miscarriage of justice under these controversial laws, Aasia bibi was sentenced
to death, a verdict shamefully upheld by the Lahore High Court. The inherent
problem in blasphemy cases is the tendency of the courts to rely on hearsay and
less than credible witnesses’ word against that of the accused. In a trailer of
what many fear will happen when the military courts being touted as the panacea
to terrorism start operating, blasphemy accused are subconsciously or even
explicitly presumed guilty even before they come to trial, that is if they have
not been killed first by vigilante mobs, as happened to the Christian couple in
Kot Radha Kishan who were tortured and then thrown into a brick kiln. The fact
that the woman was five months pregnant did not sway the beasts who carried out
this murder. There too the police did nothing to prevent the crime. Clearly,
Aasia bibi and the Christian couple in question were considered children of a
lesser God.
The tragedy of Salmaan
Taseer’s assassination was compounded by his abandonment by his own party, the
PPP, and all other forces in our insane society. Had that not been so, had the
courage to confront obscurantist maulvis who exploit religion for their vested
interests, including defending the blasphemy laws as if they had descended
straight from heaven, been on display four years ago, perhaps Pakistan would
not have suffered many other tragedies since. Even now, after the Peshawar
massacre of schoolchildren, it may not be too late to salvage this bruised and
wounded society. But for that, terrorism in any shape or form, including the
intolerance, violence and violation of the law and democratic right of peaceful
assembly and protest on display in Liberty Chowk must be dealt with severely
and crushed. Courtesy DT
No comments:
Post a Comment