Adil Najam
The enemy struck again. Killing Muslims in Lahore and then in Karachi.
In this blog our vocabulary has always been the vocabulary of Pakistan, of Pakistanis and of Pakistaniat. It shall remain so. Yet, today we deliberately choose to use the vocabulary of religion because those who were targeted were targeted because of their faith. The killers were targeting processions mourning those killed at Karballa. There was nothing ambiguous about the horrific murders of Muslims in Lahore and Karachi. There should be nothing ambiguous about our reaction to it.
The intensity and the frequency of violent intolerance may have escalated, but there is nothing new about the scantimonius self-righteousness that has, for so long, and so consistently, made us our own worst and most enduring enemy: Hum he Qatl ho rahey haiN, hum he Qatl kar rahey haiN.
That both attacks were intended to be much bigger had police and security personnel not intercepted the attackers – one reportedly just 13 years old – is of little consolation to the loved ones of those who died. Including the loved ones of the lowly policemen who gave their lives intercepting these murderers. But it should be yet another moment of reflection for the rest of us. As we wrote in December 2009: “… the Pakistani policeman’s life – very literally – [has become] the only thing between a suicide bomber and his would-be victims.” The Pakistani policeman is not perfect. Nor are we. They represent the same violent schizophrenia that the rest of society does; the same violent schizophrenia that has made their job more violent than any job deserves to be.
To Talat,
This is in regards to your comment about “Illam Din had killed a Hindu by attacking him bravely with his own knife”
This shows that there is no difference between you and the animals you criticise.
This ‘Qadri-ism’ is a new cult in the line of ‘Ilam-Dini’ culture, murdering human beings in the name of ‘Hurmate Rasool ‘Rehmatulaalimin”, but with a difference. Whereas, Illam Din had killed a Hindu by attacking him bravely with his own knife, Qadri murdered Salman Taseer, a Halfy-Muslim, cowardly and treacherously, by hitting him in the back with a gun given to him by the government to protect him.
Oh Brother!!! Which word of mine told you that i celebrated any of the event you mentioned. My father was a serviceman in one of the paramilitary forces. how can i make merry when people of my clan are being killed.
I stated a fact about so called TTP which many journalists have already explained in top newspapers of Pakistan. I know there are extremist elements in different sects but they never used suicide bombings for inter-sect killings, they never had the potential nor they have now.
Moreover, in pre-TTP era it was least likely to find a pashtun in sectarian killing in Punjab. Why do we have almost every suicide bomber from Pashtun areas?
TTP are not even recognized by Afghan talibans. They dont even share the same tribal areas. TTP are merely rouge elements funded by anti Pakistan forces to achieve the targets stated in my previous post. They have nothing to do with Islam or Islamic thought but deceivingly portray themselves as jihadists to malign Islam and the concept of Jihad. Disappointment builds when pseudo intellectuals blow the same trumpet to purse the secularist objectives of maligning Islam and Muslims under the cover of terrorism.
Monano.
2 weeks ago you were celebrating the death of Salman Taseer and why his ‘gunah i kabeera’ made him deserve murder, now you are celebrating the killers of Pakistani policemen and Shia mourners. How pathetic. What did these Pakistani policemen or Shia do to you that makes you want to kill them. And what have the fundamentalists given you that you will even defend their murders!
Wow “Monano” Wow.
Are these extremists paying you to write this nonsense? Must be big dollars if you are willing to defend the killers of Muslims and enemies of islam… But maybe I am wrong in my assumption that you are a Muslim. Maybe you are the same religion as the TTP and of other killers of Muslims. By the way, what is that religion called!