‘Just call me Muslim’
This year there have been a number of reports that what were clearly acts of sectarian violence, hatred and discrimination. In January, three lawyers – a father, his son and nephew- were gunned down. They were Muslims who belonged to the Shia sect. On the same day, three other professionals from the Shia community were killed in Quetta. This all follows the year of 2011 where hundreds of Shias were murdered – and it seems as if nothing has, or will change. The Shia community is not the only minority sect that is being targeted. For a couple of weeks, attempts were made to ...
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Shia killing: If we tolerate this, our children will be next
Last week, I heard the news of the targeted sectarian killing of Jaffer Mohsin. The name didn’t ring a bell at the time, but later that day, when a friend told me that a fellow schoolmate’s father had been shot dead, it jogged my memory. I then realised that doctor Jaffer Mohsin was our friend’s father. That’s when the memories came flooding back. Back when I used to live near my school building, Dr Mohsin’s family lived in the lane next to mine. Like regular Pakistani youths who bond over a common love for cricket, his sons and I played the ...
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Kill, in the name of religion
According to a recent news report, an organisation called All-Pakistan Students Khatam-e-Nabuwwat is disseminating pamphlets declaring Ahmadis as wajibul qatl (liable to be murdered) for their religious beliefs. The local police authorities, in their usual style, have swept the issue under the carpet. Pakistan is a boiling pot of sectarian strife. A history of hate Sectarian discord escalated in the 1980s and Pakistan became a proxy battle ground for the Sunni and Shia organisations, heavily funded by Saudi Arabia and Iran respectively. However, the history of sectarian violence in Pakistan goes back to the days of its inception. 1953: When Pakistan was still trying to ...
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Will Bahrain’s sectarian divide impact Pakistan?
Mubarak’s exit was the start of the revolution, not the end. Egyptian protestors gathered after Friday prayers last week, to remind the military that it is them (the people) who had brought down the Mubarak regime. Even though they may have vacated Tahrir Square, the message was that they would not settle for anything less than their original demands. Commentators have attempted to establish whether similar conditions exist in Pakistan for a revolution, drawing parallels and identifying differences. But if comparisons must be drawn then the the ongoing protests in Bahrain are perhaps of greater relevance for Pakistan than events in Egypt. What Bahrain learned from Egypt The ...
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Who is responsible for the al-Quds attack?
A suicide attacker targeted the al-Quds rally this Friday in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s Balochistan province. Fifty Pakistanis are dead and with over 100 injured the figure could rise further. It was highly irresponsible of the organizers of the rally – and the government officials who gave it the green signal – to endanger the lives of Pakistani citizens only two days after attacks that targeted public events. In pure security terms, this is a serious lack of judgment on the part of the organizers. The Pakistani government must proceed with criminal charges against the organizers who, in their callousness, ...
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Murphy’s law of terrorism
Ever heard of Murphy’s Law of Terrorism? It says: “If a suicide attack can take place, it will.” If the province is Punjab and the interior minister is Rana Sanaullah, the probability of a terror attack maximizes. But it would be unfair to other law enforcers (intelligence agencies in particular) if the entire credit of incompetence, criminal negligence and corruption goes to the PML-N minister. After all he’s not the only one who allowed sectarian violence to prosper and flourish under the protected umbrella of law enforcement. Pakistani courts, military agencies, police and rangers made sure not to catch any terrorist ...
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Colours of Pakistan
It is an interesting mix. The place where I work and most definitely where I sit. Every ethnicity is represented and deep in my heart I call the Reporters’ Corner, the ‘Colours of Pakistan’. Why? You’d ask. Well, because my beautiful country is represented by a group of ten reporters at The Express Tribune covering different beats and belonging to different ethnic backgrounds and though I see the men folk most notably lost in their political talk, on ethnic lines I have never seen them crossing the line of respect for the other ethnicities. Not all of them are politically ...
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