Amongst the 152 who died in last Wednesday’s tragic crash of Air Blue flight were six members of the Youth Parliament. All death in this tragedy were sad. The death of these talented youth with aspirations of building a better Pakistan was no exception. Maybe it was tragedy compounded. But the story of one of them is sadder even than the others – and because of what happened to him after he died!
This is the story of Prem Chand, a bright young social worker from Sanghar (Sindh), one of the members of Youth Parliament, and one of those who died on the ill-fated AirBlue flight 202. His death – like the death of everyone on that flight – was a matter of national tragedy; the treatment of his dead body a matter of national disgrace.
According to news reports in The News and The Express Tribune young Prem Chand’s coffin was marked “Kafir” – a word that literally means ‘infidel’ or ‘non-believer’ but is mostly used as a serious slur in Pakistan. Literally labeling someone’s coffin as “Kafir” and not even giving them the respect to list their religion by its proper name, is a shameful and disgusting way to disrespect the last remains of anyone. All the more so the last remains of a patriotic Pakistani who was on that plane solely to represent Pakistan and to seek to be a better Pakistani – he was on his way to the ‘session’ of the Youth Parliament!
According to The News:
The members of Youth parliament [on the day following the crash] protested against the marking of the coffin of one of their colleague Prem Chand as ‘Kafir.’ “It was shocking. He could have been marked as Hindu or non-Muslim, but using the word ‘Kafir’ is the worst example of intolerance,” said MYP Muneeb Afzal.
The Express Tribune writes:
Ehsan Naveed Irfan is a member of the youth parliament and he is the one who identified Prem Chand’s body. He told me that his coffin was marked as “Kafir” first with black and then outlined with red to make it more prominent. He told me that he and his friends removed it with a marker and wrote “We love you – from the youth parliament” instead.
A friend of Prem Chand made this comment on Syed Ali Abbas Zaidi’s blog:
I am Muneeb Afzal, a Member of Youth parliament of Pakistan and a Colleague and Friend of Late Prem Chand. An extremely hard-working person he was a symbol of tolerance. My last communication with him was on night before the Air Crash, he gave his greetings to me on occasion of 15th of Shabaan.
At PIMS fortunately another friend of ours was there when Prem’s Cousin Nanik Das came to search for his body, he quickly hid the tag ‘kafir’ by putting marker lines on it, so that Prem’s family which is already suffering from great grief does not have to bear more hurt. Although later at a memorial session where media was present I criticized the inhumanity and intolerance of those who did this shameful act. I felt this was my duty to my late friend Prem Chand that I make it clear to the world that we condemn this act of intolerance and narrow mindedness. But a lot of my other colleagues have since objected to my speaking out, believing that my saying this and this news spreading in media would add to hurt of Prem’s family, and in a way they are right too. I would like you all to also keep this in mind as well…
This was probably not an official act or some state sponsored standard procedure. It is much more likely that this was an act of some sick minded individual. But it is still important for the authorities to investigate and punish those responsible, and set an example for future. Intolerance must not be tolerated. To tolerate it, or justify it, is to accept it. The authorities need to take responsibility for this incident and why it happened at all; no matter who did it. After all, it is the state of Pakistan – and we as a society – which creates the conditions in which the persecution of minorities thrives at various levels, directly and indirectly; and that is what gives individuals license to go even further – including such shameful acts.
Author’s Note: My deepest apologies to friends and family members of Prem Chand and my fellow Pakistanis from others faiths (Pakistani Hindus in particular), specially those who may not have heard of this yet and for whom this incident will no doubt be deeply painful. But we must raise our voice and condemn such acts. The one lesson that Pakistan’s history teaches us is that discrimination and intolerance must never be tolerated.
I am glad people are speaking out against these things. We have kept quiet too long and that has only encouraged the bigots. Let’s all speak up please.
My apologies to Prem Chand’s Family.
Thank you ATP for highlighting this and for raising this issue. It is things like this – everyday intolerance – that corrupts the whole nation and the hatemongers who support this.
The sad thing is that it is NOT just one person but too many who do these things or tolerate them.
But the good thing is that because of your writing about it people are speaking against it and that is important. Let us all speak against this and do the real jihad : Say something is wrong when we see the wrong. Least form of jihad, but an important one.
These hatemongering extremists who call others kafir are even worse themselves and are poisoning all of society and we must not let that happen.
Some comments from the ATP Facebook Page:
– “Very sad. When will we realize that we’re all citizens of the same nation. =(”
– “True. When we do realize that, we will realize the Quaid’s dream.”
– “That is reallly a very heavy loss…”
– “Very shameful act, the culprit should be punished”
– “very bad”
– “jitna afsos kia jaay kam hay. :-(”
– “jab jahilo say kaam krwaya jayga to yahi hoga!
Jab hkomat hi jahil hay to kaam karny waly kia hongy?”
– “How low can they stoop in their sick mindedness ? Guess this low has no bottom!”
– “this is sick. at least give the minorities equal human rights to live.”
– “aik gandi machli”
– “Kafir is a subject based on the verb Kufr. One who commits Kuf’r is Kafir. Kuf’r in Arabic dictionary bears three meanings.
1. To conceal,
2. To be ungrateful
3. To deny or to reject.
This word has been used in all these three meanings in the …Holy Quran.
In Islamic terminology the word, is used for those who reject the islamic Faith.
The word kafir is not an abusive statement but describes the belief of a Person. If Non-Muslims dont want to be called Kafirs then they may revert to Islam the Deen E Haq n they wont be among those who Deny The Haq or KAFIRS.
Those Muslims who dont agree with my view point tell me, Even Quran calls them Kafir, Is Quran doing wrong…? Nauzbillah.
I repeat KFIR is not an abusive statement but represents the one who Denies….!!
Allah Knows Best.”
– “euphemism is a necessary part of society during such occasions. the deceased guy’s family needs sympathies, not such strong language.
Allah knows best.”
– “…what you are saying is truly a logic based theory. Which i by no means can disagree with…but yeah the point is if he was a Hindu…why could he not labelled as HINDU…why not? Kafir is every non-muslim…here was a matter of identifying people for their last rituals which would be based on thier religious identities…so then why not Hindu?
May Prem Chand’s sould rest in Peace with all the other nationals…May God forgive them all Ameen!!!”
– “ure kidding, right? so just because he follows a different religion, we should call him kafir instead of using his name. why didn’t the other 153 people be called “Muslim” instead of their name?
im amazed at ur idiotic argument. once you die, perhaps they should write “Idiot” instead of your name. after all, its not offensive. the dictionary defines an idiot as:
1) an utterly foolish or senseless person.
2) a person of the lowest order in a former classification of mental retardation, having a mental age of less than three years old and an intelligence quotient under 25.
ps: please don’t take this personally. im simply pissed because this is exactly what i think is wrong with pakistanis. we’re generally good people with good intentions. however, we don’t realize when we cross the boundary and start interfering in other people’s lives. if someone in the western world did this to a muslim (label him infidel instead of using his name), we’d come out on the street and start killing people and destroying property.
pps: im deeply ashamed at this story. it speaks very low of our country and our religious and moral values. id personally apologize to anyone/everyone who is offended by these actions. and obviously im saddened by the tragic death of a fellow pakistani. everyone seems to think extremely highly of him, and im sure Prem was a wonderful person. hope his family can eventually overcome this huge loss.”
– “its not their fault…
they have been taught to do so…
ask them and they will justify this Act like Awan did..
must be a zakir naik..follower… “
How disgustingly shameful. We need to get our act together as Muslims and as Pakistanis. The whole nation should apologize to the family…and others treated like them.