Sialkot tragedy cannot be defended, Pakistani Americans say
Published December 5, 2021 -
A man along with others carries a sign, condemning the lynching of the Sri Lankan manager of a garment factory after an attack on the factory in Sialkot, during a protest in Lahore, on Dec 4. — Reuters
WASHINGTON: “The Sialkot tragedy will have a horrible impact on our efforts to promote Pakistan in the US Congress,” says Dr Rao Kamran Ali, who heads the Pakistani American Political Action Committee.
Wajid Hassan of the Pakistani American Congress fears that this incident will have a long-lasting effect. “Every time we go and talk about Pakistan, they will ask about the Sialkot incident.”
Agha Hasnain, a Pakistani runner who has run 135 marathons in each of the 50 US states, says that whenever he gets a chance, he talks about Pakistan after an event. “But now, it will be very difficult to do so. This is unbelievably bad news for Pakistan.”
President PTI Washington, DC Junaid (Johnny) Bashir says he is ‘devastated.’ “We need to act now, arrest all those responsible and ensure that all of them are punished.”
Khawar Shamsul Hassan, a Pakistani American entrepreneur, agrees. “It is the perceived and real absence of law and order and accountability that emboldens the extremists to do such things,” he says.
The incident has jolted the Pakistani American community like the Peshawar school tragedy did in 2014. From Los Angeles, California, to Baltimore, Maryland, Pakistani Americans have posted hundreds of thousands of messages on social media, expressing their grief, anger and fear.
“They have turned the country into a madhouse,” says Bushra Ahmed of Baltimore. “Who will bell this insane cat?” asks Ras Siddiqui of Sacramento, California.
Mr Hassan of the Pakistani American Congress, who is from Seattle, Washington, says his group has been lobbying for Pakistan for the last eight years. “Every now and then, something happens that tarnishes the country’s image,” he says.
“This indicates that we have no tolerance for religious minorities in Pakistan. It will have a negative impact on everything, from tourism to investment,” he adds. “American lawmakers will be asking about it every time we go to discuss Pakistan with them.”
He thinks that it will also impede Pakistan’s effort to come off the FATF gray list and will be mentioned in international reports on religious intolerance as well.
Dr Khalid Abdullah of the Physicians for Social Responsibility NGO suggests “reconsidering policies and laws that encourage such violence. “Burning someone alive! No, people are not going to forget it anytime soon. We have crossed the limits of narrow-mindedness.”
Dr Ali of Pak Pac, who lives in Dallas, regrets the failure of the Pakistani state in curbing such activities. “When something so horrible happens, something that is also evidence-based, it is difficult to deal with,” he says. “TLP committed such atrocities before too. Then it made a truce. It went back to violence and made another pact with the authorities! How long will this continue?” he asks. This must stop.”
“We are so ashamed! No word can describe our feeling,” says Mr Bashir of PTI, who lives in Virginia. “Americans already have a bad image of Pakistan, and this makes it worse. The only way to deal with it is to give exemplary punishment to the perpetrators.”
Mr Hasnain, the runner from Virginia, says his daughter “showed me the news and asked: ‘What’s happening in Pakistan?’ I said those are foolish people. But she, ‘that’s not an answer. Tell me how they let this happen?’”
“Our state has backed down many times in the face of street power and that sends the wrong message. This must stop now,” says Mr. Hassan, the entrepreneur from Maryland.
Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2021
WASHINGTON: “The Sialkot tragedy will have a horrible impact on our efforts to promote Pakistan in the US Congress,” says Dr Rao Kamran Ali, who heads the Pakistani American Political Action Committee.
Wajid Hassan of the Pakistani American Congress fears that this incident will have a long-lasting effect. “Every time we go and talk about Pakistan, they will ask about the Sialkot incident.”
Agha Hasnain, a Pakistani runner who has run 135 marathons in each of the 50 US states, says that whenever he gets a chance, he talks about Pakistan after an event. “But now, it will be very difficult to do so. This is unbelievably bad news for Pakistan.”
President PTI Washington, DC Junaid (Johnny) Bashir says he is ‘devastated.’ “We need to act now, arrest all those responsible and ensure that all of them are punished.”
Khawar Shamsul Hassan, a Pakistani American entrepreneur, agrees. “It is the perceived and real absence of law and order and accountability that emboldens the extremists to do such things,” he says.
The incident has jolted the Pakistani American community like the Peshawar school tragedy did in 2014. From Los Angeles, California, to Baltimore, Maryland, Pakistani Americans have posted hundreds of thousands of messages on social media, expressing their grief, anger and fear.
“They have turned the country into a madhouse,” says Bushra Ahmed of Baltimore. “Who will bell this insane cat?” asks Ras Siddiqui of Sacramento, California.
Mr Hassan of the Pakistani American Congress, who is from Seattle, Washington, says his group has been lobbying for Pakistan for the last eight years. “Every now and then, something happens that tarnishes the country’s image,” he says.
“This indicates that we have no tolerance for religious minorities in Pakistan. It will have a negative impact on everything, from tourism to investment,” he adds. “American lawmakers will be asking about it every time we go to discuss Pakistan with them.”
He thinks that it will also impede Pakistan’s effort to come off the FATF gray list and will be mentioned in international reports on religious intolerance as well.
Dr Khalid Abdullah of the Physicians for Social Responsibility NGO suggests “reconsidering policies and laws that encourage such violence. “Burning someone alive! No, people are not going to forget it anytime soon. We have crossed the limits of narrow-mindedness.”
Dr Ali of Pak Pac, who lives in Dallas, regrets the failure of the Pakistani state in curbing such activities. “When something so horrible happens, something that is also evidence-based, it is difficult to deal with,” he says. “TLP committed such atrocities before too. Then it made a truce. It went back to violence and made another pact with the authorities! How long will this continue?” he asks. This must stop.”
“We are so ashamed! No word can describe our feeling,” says Mr Bashir of PTI, who lives in Virginia. “Americans already have a bad image of Pakistan, and this makes it worse. The only way to deal with it is to give exemplary punishment to the perpetrators.”
Mr Hasnain, the runner from Virginia, says his daughter “showed me the news and asked: ‘What’s happening in Pakistan?’ I said those are foolish people. But she, ‘that’s not an answer. Tell me how they let this happen?’”
“Our state has backed down many times in the face of street power and that sends the wrong message. This must stop now,” says Mr. Hassan, the entrepreneur from Maryland.
Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2021
Horror in Sialkot
Editorial
December 5, 2021 -
ONCE again, we are reminded how far this nation has descended into the abyss. This time the sickeningly familiar ritual of savage violence was enacted in Sialkot where Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana, a Sri Lankan national, was beaten to death on Friday over blasphemy allegations at the factory where he worked as a manager.
The mob then dragged his mangled body out on the road and set it on fire, where individuals on the scene — as if to underscore their utter lack of humanity — took selfies with the burning corpse. Where were law-enforcement personnel who should have protected Mr Diyawadana? How was the situation allowed to escalate to the point it did? What followed the grisly murder was predictable: condemnation by the political leadership, with the government vowing to punish the perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law. The army chief too, almost certainly because the victim was a foreign national, denounced “such extrajudicial vigilantism”.
For the same reason perhaps, religious bodies have also shown alacrity where they usually maintain a deafening silence and issued statements to condemn the lynching. Most ironic among them is the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan, the ultra-right group that proudly claims as its inspiration a man who committed murder in the name of blasphemy.
It is indeed a day of shame for Pakistan. Having repeatedly vented our bloodlust on our own, this time the extremists amongst us turned on an individual who was a guest in this country. Not surprisingly, however, the official denunciations only touch upon the here and now, the tip of the iceberg. The bitter truth is, on the last day of his life, Mr Diyawadana came face to face with the consequences of the Pakistani state’s decades-long policy of appeasing religious extremists. Even though the violent ultra-right outfits once used for strategic objectives began to be reined in a few years ago, other sectarian groups that were radicalised as part of the same process have since gained new ground. As extremism seeped into the body politic, blasphemy increasingly became weaponised, an expedient tool that could be wielded in a variety of situations: to take over the land of minority communities, to settle personal disputes — even to engineer protests to destabilise a sitting government in 2017.
All it takes now is an allegation of blasphemy and an individual or two to incite a mob to commit murder. Who can forget young Mashal Khan, lynched by his fellow students in 2017, or Shama and Shahzad Masih, burned alive in a brick kiln in 2014? These are but three victims in a long chronology of horror. Each act of lynching, each desecration of a place of worship, each life destroyed as a result is an indictment of a state that has long made cynical use of religion as part of its playbook. We must reverse course before the flames of intolerance devour us as a nation.
Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2021
ONCE again, we are reminded how far this nation has descended into the abyss. This time the sickeningly familiar ritual of savage violence was enacted in Sialkot where Priyantha Kumara Diyawadana, a Sri Lankan national, was beaten to death on Friday over blasphemy allegations at the factory where he worked as a manager.
The mob then dragged his mangled body out on the road and set it on fire, where individuals on the scene — as if to underscore their utter lack of humanity — took selfies with the burning corpse. Where were law-enforcement personnel who should have protected Mr Diyawadana? How was the situation allowed to escalate to the point it did? What followed the grisly murder was predictable: condemnation by the political leadership, with the government vowing to punish the perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law. The army chief too, almost certainly because the victim was a foreign national, denounced “such extrajudicial vigilantism”.
For the same reason perhaps, religious bodies have also shown alacrity where they usually maintain a deafening silence and issued statements to condemn the lynching. Most ironic among them is the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan, the ultra-right group that proudly claims as its inspiration a man who committed murder in the name of blasphemy.
It is indeed a day of shame for Pakistan. Having repeatedly vented our bloodlust on our own, this time the extremists amongst us turned on an individual who was a guest in this country. Not surprisingly, however, the official denunciations only touch upon the here and now, the tip of the iceberg. The bitter truth is, on the last day of his life, Mr Diyawadana came face to face with the consequences of the Pakistani state’s decades-long policy of appeasing religious extremists. Even though the violent ultra-right outfits once used for strategic objectives began to be reined in a few years ago, other sectarian groups that were radicalised as part of the same process have since gained new ground. As extremism seeped into the body politic, blasphemy increasingly became weaponised, an expedient tool that could be wielded in a variety of situations: to take over the land of minority communities, to settle personal disputes — even to engineer protests to destabilise a sitting government in 2017.
All it takes now is an allegation of blasphemy and an individual or two to incite a mob to commit murder. Who can forget young Mashal Khan, lynched by his fellow students in 2017, or Shama and Shahzad Masih, burned alive in a brick kiln in 2014? These are but three victims in a long chronology of horror. Each act of lynching, each desecration of a place of worship, each life destroyed as a result is an indictment of a state that has long made cynical use of religion as part of its playbook. We must reverse course before the flames of intolerance devour us as a nation.
Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2021
Mirror, mirror on the wall…
Fahd Husain
Published December 4, 2021
Fahd Husain
Published December 4, 2021
The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Islamabad.
NO one is responsible for lynching a Sri Lankan national in Sialkot on Friday. Absolutely no one. That is the lesson we may as well internalise once we are done being shocked and outraged.
Not that this will take too long. We are a resilient nation, as we are so fond of saying. There have been lynchings before — remember Mashal Khan and the two brothers in Sialkot — and we have survived those with our grace and dignity intact, thank you very much. That said, the official machinery’s experience of dealing with shocking incidents will once again keep it in good stead. The SOP files detailing a response have already been dusted off the shelves and are being followed in letter and spirit.
Prime minister’s tweet of shock. Check. Chief minister’s expression of sadness and ordering of inquiry. Check. Inspector general police’s vow to arrest the culprits. Check. DC/DPO’s arrival on the scene registered in a ‘timely’ fashion. Check. Cabinet ministers’ random vows/ outrages/ condolences. Check. Official maulana/ ulema/ cleric reminder this is not what our religion teaches us. Check. Usual suspects’ denial of involvement. Check. And check, check, check…,
This is followed by the unofficial reaction. Celebrities’ tweets of sadness/ what-have-we-become lament/ tsk tsk-ing. Check. Random politicians’ statements holding the government/ state/ society responsible for the incident. Check. Usual suspects’ finger-pointing at the establishment for mollycoddling hatemongers. Check. Right-wingers blaming left-wingers, middle-wingers and no-wingers for equating lynching with beliefs and institutions instead of looking inwards. Check. Talk shows, columns (including this one) seminars, webinars, Twitter spaces triggering high-decibel noise amounting to nothing more than a catharsis whose time has long passed. Check. And check, check, check…,
Read: 'What have we become?' — Activists, celebrities express horror over Sialkot lynching
We are a resilient nation, as we are so fond of saying.
Finally the post-event file is extracted from the drawer and the SOPs implemented like clockwork. Those arrested to be produced in front of cameras and the courts. Check. PM/ CM/ IGP/ ministers’ statement claiming no one will be spared. Check. PM/ CM/ ministers’ media talk lamenting the state of affairs over decades and how it will take them time to steer things in the right direction. Check. PM/ CM/ ministers’ announcement of compensation for the heirs. Check. Speeches in the National Assembly and Senate on random points of orders leading to a whole lot of nothing. Check. Local administration officials transferred/OSD-ed/ reprimanded. Check. General calls for tolerance/ interfaith harmony/ review of hate literature. Check. Candlelit vigil/ walk/ run/ moment-of-silence. Check. And check, check, check.…
Then, just like that, it’s over. And done. And dusted. Because, you see, no one is really responsible. Or everyone is. And when everyone is, no one really is.
Not the prime minister. Because, after all, he can’t be expected to ensure personally that lynchings don’t happen. He’s got bigger things on his plate/ other fish to fry/ important matters to attend to/ take care of the big picture. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Not the chief minister. That’s why he has a police force. And a Pakistan Administrative Service force. And all other forces/ departments/ organisations/personnel/ MNAs/ MPAs/ local grandees who are supposed to keep an eye on the situation on the ground and pre-empt such tragedies from happening. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Not the IGP. Because you know, why else does he have his SSP/ SP/ ASP/ DSP/ SHO/ ASI on the ground? Precisely. Sitting far away in the provincial capital, he can’t really stop crowds from lynching people now, can he? What he can do is to order inquiry/ scold subordinates/ transfer/ reprimand/ demote/ suspend. And he does that as responsibly as he can. So why point the finger at him? Etc. Etc. Etc.
Not the cabinet/ ruling party/ government. Because you see, they have only been in power for three years and therefore really cannot be expected to stop lynchings that are — as per logic — a by-product of hate seeded into the soil over decades. So the cabinet/ ruling party/ government will do what it can do: condemn/ bemoan/ lament/ blame/ politicise/ spin/ move on. After all, they can’t be held responsible for everything that happens in Pakistan because — as we all know — they have only been in power for a measly three years. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Not the establishment. Never. What have they got to do with the lynching? There they are in their barracks, minding their own business far far away from problems that have little to do with their mandate as the guardians of the borders. Previous dictators responsible? Perhaps but that was a long time ago. Nurturing extremist groups and their ideologies? That was in the past and the past is, as they say, another country. So they have no skin in the game. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Usual suspects/ extremist ideology peddlers/ madrassahs. Wrong again. Because they teach tolerance/ love/ peace/ righteousness. Their job is to educate society why such lynchings are against all teachings. They will be the loudest to condemn and shall remind everyone again and again and again that they are, and have always been, part of the solution and not part of the problem. And what choice do we have? Of course, to believe them. Not to blame them. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Read: Acts of faith — Why people get killed over blasphemy in Pakistan
And so we come a full circle. A little bit of theoretical/ rhetorical/ oratorical blame for everyone so that there is real blame for none. We are who we are and someone else at some other time for some different reason in some distinctive situation in some particular context will try find an answer to the riddle of lynchings/ intolerance/ hate/ bigotry. A time will come for this to happen, but that time is not now and that place is not this one.
For this place, there are set ways of doing things. Those things are included in checklists and shall indeed — never fear — will be done tomorrow/ day after/ next week/ next month. And while they are being done, state/ government/ ruling party/ other parties/ religious organisations/ civil society/ all of us will pretend we have learnt our lessons after having our sensibilities ravaged once again, and that this was indeed the last incident of lynching/ mob murder/ shocking violence/ barbarism. This will make us feel slightly less bad/ slightly more good/ marginally less guilty.
And so shall end the story that begins with us asking ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of us all. We lie. The mirror does not.
Twitter: @fahdhusain
Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2021
NO one is responsible for lynching a Sri Lankan national in Sialkot on Friday. Absolutely no one. That is the lesson we may as well internalise once we are done being shocked and outraged.
Not that this will take too long. We are a resilient nation, as we are so fond of saying. There have been lynchings before — remember Mashal Khan and the two brothers in Sialkot — and we have survived those with our grace and dignity intact, thank you very much. That said, the official machinery’s experience of dealing with shocking incidents will once again keep it in good stead. The SOP files detailing a response have already been dusted off the shelves and are being followed in letter and spirit.
Prime minister’s tweet of shock. Check. Chief minister’s expression of sadness and ordering of inquiry. Check. Inspector general police’s vow to arrest the culprits. Check. DC/DPO’s arrival on the scene registered in a ‘timely’ fashion. Check. Cabinet ministers’ random vows/ outrages/ condolences. Check. Official maulana/ ulema/ cleric reminder this is not what our religion teaches us. Check. Usual suspects’ denial of involvement. Check. And check, check, check…,
This is followed by the unofficial reaction. Celebrities’ tweets of sadness/ what-have-we-become lament/ tsk tsk-ing. Check. Random politicians’ statements holding the government/ state/ society responsible for the incident. Check. Usual suspects’ finger-pointing at the establishment for mollycoddling hatemongers. Check. Right-wingers blaming left-wingers, middle-wingers and no-wingers for equating lynching with beliefs and institutions instead of looking inwards. Check. Talk shows, columns (including this one) seminars, webinars, Twitter spaces triggering high-decibel noise amounting to nothing more than a catharsis whose time has long passed. Check. And check, check, check…,
Read: 'What have we become?' — Activists, celebrities express horror over Sialkot lynching
We are a resilient nation, as we are so fond of saying.
Finally the post-event file is extracted from the drawer and the SOPs implemented like clockwork. Those arrested to be produced in front of cameras and the courts. Check. PM/ CM/ IGP/ ministers’ statement claiming no one will be spared. Check. PM/ CM/ ministers’ media talk lamenting the state of affairs over decades and how it will take them time to steer things in the right direction. Check. PM/ CM/ ministers’ announcement of compensation for the heirs. Check. Speeches in the National Assembly and Senate on random points of orders leading to a whole lot of nothing. Check. Local administration officials transferred/OSD-ed/ reprimanded. Check. General calls for tolerance/ interfaith harmony/ review of hate literature. Check. Candlelit vigil/ walk/ run/ moment-of-silence. Check. And check, check, check.…
Then, just like that, it’s over. And done. And dusted. Because, you see, no one is really responsible. Or everyone is. And when everyone is, no one really is.
Not the prime minister. Because, after all, he can’t be expected to ensure personally that lynchings don’t happen. He’s got bigger things on his plate/ other fish to fry/ important matters to attend to/ take care of the big picture. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Not the chief minister. That’s why he has a police force. And a Pakistan Administrative Service force. And all other forces/ departments/ organisations/personnel/ MNAs/ MPAs/ local grandees who are supposed to keep an eye on the situation on the ground and pre-empt such tragedies from happening. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Not the IGP. Because you know, why else does he have his SSP/ SP/ ASP/ DSP/ SHO/ ASI on the ground? Precisely. Sitting far away in the provincial capital, he can’t really stop crowds from lynching people now, can he? What he can do is to order inquiry/ scold subordinates/ transfer/ reprimand/ demote/ suspend. And he does that as responsibly as he can. So why point the finger at him? Etc. Etc. Etc.
Not the cabinet/ ruling party/ government. Because you see, they have only been in power for three years and therefore really cannot be expected to stop lynchings that are — as per logic — a by-product of hate seeded into the soil over decades. So the cabinet/ ruling party/ government will do what it can do: condemn/ bemoan/ lament/ blame/ politicise/ spin/ move on. After all, they can’t be held responsible for everything that happens in Pakistan because — as we all know — they have only been in power for a measly three years. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Not the establishment. Never. What have they got to do with the lynching? There they are in their barracks, minding their own business far far away from problems that have little to do with their mandate as the guardians of the borders. Previous dictators responsible? Perhaps but that was a long time ago. Nurturing extremist groups and their ideologies? That was in the past and the past is, as they say, another country. So they have no skin in the game. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Usual suspects/ extremist ideology peddlers/ madrassahs. Wrong again. Because they teach tolerance/ love/ peace/ righteousness. Their job is to educate society why such lynchings are against all teachings. They will be the loudest to condemn and shall remind everyone again and again and again that they are, and have always been, part of the solution and not part of the problem. And what choice do we have? Of course, to believe them. Not to blame them. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Read: Acts of faith — Why people get killed over blasphemy in Pakistan
And so we come a full circle. A little bit of theoretical/ rhetorical/ oratorical blame for everyone so that there is real blame for none. We are who we are and someone else at some other time for some different reason in some distinctive situation in some particular context will try find an answer to the riddle of lynchings/ intolerance/ hate/ bigotry. A time will come for this to happen, but that time is not now and that place is not this one.
For this place, there are set ways of doing things. Those things are included in checklists and shall indeed — never fear — will be done tomorrow/ day after/ next week/ next month. And while they are being done, state/ government/ ruling party/ other parties/ religious organisations/ civil society/ all of us will pretend we have learnt our lessons after having our sensibilities ravaged once again, and that this was indeed the last incident of lynching/ mob murder/ shocking violence/ barbarism. This will make us feel slightly less bad/ slightly more good/ marginally less guilty.
And so shall end the story that begins with us asking ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of us all. We lie. The mirror does not.
Twitter: @fahdhusain
Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2021
Comparisons between highly vaccinated nations and those at the bottom, most of which are in Africa. — From: Our World in Data.
