Sialkot mob lynching: A perspective
NO amount of outrage, condemnation and stern vows could lighten mountain of shame and regressive pain and loss heaped upon a beleaguered Pakistan when on last Friday at Sialkot, a band of bigots, saboteurs and hangers-on tortured Sri Lankan factory manager, Priyantha Kumara Diyawadanage, to death and torched his body to ashes over an absurd allegation of blasphemy.
The horror and terror dwarf in comparison to what was perpetrated upon on the name of most exalted personality of the universe; Holy Prophet Hazrat (M-PBUH) who is Rahmatul Lil Alameen including for infidels also.
The heinous act of mob was perversion of what is contained in the Holy Quran revealed upon him “whosoever kills an innocent life, it is as if he has killed all of humanity…” —Surat Al Ma’idah:32.
Despite such unambiguous injunctions, horrific incidents of similar nature continue to recur here every now and then and accusing fingers straightway goes upon the clergy whose conduct in percept and action is at odds with each other though they are never shy or tired of making resounding claims to the contrary.
Notwithstanding dubious conduct of such people, it leaves one baffled that how a society with vast majority of people, inherently imbued with genuine liberal and harmonious mental makeup could fall prey to radicalization and extremism. This is by no means an over exaggeration.
First, are we as a nation, liberal, tolerant and humane people? Yes, we are so plentiful. In the world, Pakistan ranks very high in philanthropy work.
Ungrudgingly, its land has housed/continue to house the largest number of refugees in contemporary times.
We spurned hectic international efforts of sectarian divide among us particularly, between Sunni and Shia sects whereas, similar efforts succeeded elsewhere.
Terrorism found place in our home but when the state decided to dislodge it, nation stood united behind its valiant defence forces and terrorists were isolated.
Altaf’s MQM kept Karachi strangulated with ethnicity and terror for long but the moment, people found the opportunity to throw off its yoke, they did it as it was foreign to their taste and stomach.
Take the example of instant incident, carrying unqualified condemnation across the country and calling for stern action against the culprits.
A fishy character of Pakistani politics, Maulana Fazalur Rehman did it conditionally but now he has to condemn it unconditionally under immense public pressure. The statement of Mufti Muneebur Rehman is most refreshing.
He did not only denounce the ugly occurrence but also made it conceptually clear that there was no ground to take law into one’s own hands when a constitutional and legal system is present in the country regardless of whatever deficits it may have.
He is the man who mediated between the government and TLP thus, his statement is quite weighty.
In the face of death peddlers, courageous upcoming of two people to save the slain Sri Lankan manager shows amply righteousness embedded in our society.
It is worth noting that even in the midst of grief and pain, Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Pakistan could not remain untouched by intensity of reaction of Pakistani people and actions being taken by the government to bring the hounds to justice. He expressed satisfaction on ongoing reactions/proceedings following the vigilante killing.
The radicalization/extremism is being readily cited reasons behind the dastardly act, however, this is not exactly so.
There are two types of people who participate to commit such a gory act. One is purposefully indoctrinated people with their handlers/leaders in the background. They are handful in numbers. Other is participation of ordinary people whose raw sentiments are tricked by the crook people. They are large in number.
They tend to get swayed emotionally for a cause of Islam, presented to them artfully with craft and guile nevertheless, these people are not radicalized rather, misled temporarily.
On the surface, often reasons are different than underneath to provoke people to take the law in their hands for a holy cause.
The hidden reasons are personal vendetta, money and securement of multiple mileages of various sort.
Besides the explicit holy cause, there are plethora of reasons which spur people to spring into action for street justice.
Chiefly, these are indifference, insensitivity, a sense of impunity and happy-go-lucky attitude which have seeped inside us because of prevalent moral degeneration, social disorder, parochial politics and laxity/inaction by the state to make defaulting people accountable for their misdeeds.
The Sialkot city had a standing invitation for such a dreadful/appalling episode because it was the same city where a few years back, two brothers; Mughees and Muneeb were lynched, mutilated and paraded through city and state showed leniency and commuted their death sentences to imprisonment.
This is an instance of local level but there is no dearth of similar kind of leniency rather appeasement at national level.
Recent example is a sell out to the TLP in order to avert trouble for the time being and hiring the full pain for long term. Another problem is that we tend to overrate the strength of extremists and their reaction if they are dealt with an severely.
Pakistan has torn apart the TTP. It straightened Karachi and the TLP is no equal to them in comparison. An inch out of the comfort zone now, could save us from disaster later. A proverbial truth is a stitch in time, saves nine.
Its hardcore cadre needs to be dealt with an iron hand and ordinary flock needs to be treated differently. They need to be educated through well thought out awareness campaign.
We need to build a narrative as we build it against terrorism that fight against terrorism is our war and it found readily acceptance among people as they are fundamentally good people; liberal, tolerant and progressive.
Last but not the least, principle of accountability has to be enforced. This does not only drill sense in heads of wrongdoers but also infuses a profound sense of sanity in the society.
— The writer, a retired Lt Col, is a senior columnist based in Islamabad.
