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Editorial special
report As
it happened... q&a Going
unpunished? Same
place, different stories
Journalistically
speaking, there isn’t anything new in the Badami Bagh story. There is a
non-Muslim minority, Christians in this case, whose property was looted,
destroyed and burnt. There is a police force that was present on the scene,
fully aware of what might happen and yet did nothing to prevent that from
happening. There are accusations of vested interest involved; land mafia
planning to get this area vacated. The issue in question is
once again the blasphemy law. The mob was not spontaneous; it took some time
to gather and came fully prepared and armed, along with the required
chemicals, of course. The accused was arrested and yet the mob did not
relent. After the incident, the
administration becomes active; this time like never before. They carry out
raids and arrest protestors, matching their faces with the video footage
available. A similar incident, Gojra, is immediately searched by the media
from old files and brought before the people as an inconsequential
occurrence. Everybody is concerned
about the country’s image abroad; the burning of churches and torching of
crosses does constitute bad press. In Joseph Colony,
there’s everyone you can possibly think of — the media, the civil
administration, the missionary and the secular NGOs along with the
fact-finding missions, the provincial and the federal governments, and the
odd politicians and philanthropists who are tweeting their every move. The
DCO camp, the medical camp, the Punjab Bank, Nadra are all there to reinvent
Joseph Colony. It seems we have seen this
all before. Badami Bagh may have all the trappings of an old story and yet
it hurts. In it, we see the future of this country. In it we see the ghosts
unleashed by the state now at work in this society. In retrospect, it
appears as if it was easier to hold the state accountable for all the wrongs
it was committing than to get the society back to its normal, tolerant self.
Between this mob of a state and society, the ordinary people of this country
stand somewhat lost.
special
report It seems the
Badami Bagh outrage has shaken the conscience of the ruling elite and the
civil society. One can only hope that shock and grief caused by this act of
unmitigated barbarity will lead to a clearer thinking on the place of
religious minorities in Pakistan, because Pakistanis are notorious for
forgetting their shame and good intentions much too quickly. Before we start talking of
remedial measures let us take a brief look at the fault-lines the ghastly
affair has exposed. The very first question is
whether all people have been equally shocked at the attack on the Christian
quarters. The answer is, ‘no’. A Muslim residing in the area told a
journalist that the Christians had staged a drama to defame Pakistan, and a
woman in the neighbouring colony, Sheikhabad, told a human rights team of
her approval of her son’s resolve to take the Christians to task. This should make us
realise the wide gap that exists between the relatively informed sections of
society and the neglected masses regarding their perceptions of reality,
especially of events that touch Muslim belief or their community interests.
Didn’t many Pakistanis assert, and some do so till today, that the
Americans had themselves blown up the New York Trade Towers with a view to
starting a crusade against the Muslim world? And didn’t many religious
scholars refuse to believe that a man had actually landed on the moon? There should be no
hesitation in accepting the fact that Pakistan has allowed a large part of
its population to wallow in ignorance and prejudice, and that this is a
serious matter. The reason is that efforts at developing a rational society
will be seriously hampered if a sizeable number of Pakistanis are not on the
same wave-length as the one occupied by conscious citizens. What is to be done about
it? The system of education, especially at the religious institutions,
surely needs to be overhauled. The media also should try to upgrade the
ordinary citizen’s understanding of the world around, responsible
citizenship and human values. More than anything else, the state’s
policies ought to be so framed as to clearly convey what a responsible
citizen means. The second question is:
How do we judge or respond to a barbaric attack on the minorities? Mian
Shahbaz Sharif and the man who described the Badami Bagh outrage as a drama
staged by the victims agree on one thing — they are worried about the
country’s reputation. In other words, they are not moved by the anguish,
material loss, and the trauma caused to the victims of mob violence. Have we lost all capacity
for feeling the pain a teenaged girl will have to bear all her life after
seeing her home on fire and the helplessness of her mother as she
frantically tries to protect her little ones? We will never be able to win
respect and fame for Pakistan if we do not recognise the inherent dignity of
every citizen regardless of his belief, creed, colour, gender or social
status. No country can claim respect and greatness if its citizens do not
enjoy their basic human rights. The third faultline is the
state’s and community’s response to incidents like Badami Bagh. A
tendency to treat human acts of brutality as natural disasters, for which
human beings have no remedy, is quite evident. The stock response is: issue
a statement expressing shock and anger, make a well-publicised visit to the
area; write out cheques for the victims (some of them), and then go to sleep
till a similar incident occurs. It is after the Badami Bagh incident that we
discover that the report of the Gojra outrage has not been released and the
officials censured for their conduct in that case have already been rewarded
with promotion in rank. Simply disgusting. Shall we say that from now
on each instance of mob attack on the life and property of a group of
citizens, communal, ethnic or of any other nature, will be promptly
investigated by fair-minded and independent authorities and the culprits
will be punished? But who are the culprits? Who killed the old
Karamazov? The mentally challenged son or his scheming mentor? Is the young
Muslim who sets a Christian home on fire an independent agent or does the
title of the culprit belong to his father, or teacher, or employer, or
political leader, who has planted the seeds of communal hatred and violence
in his mind, or to all of them for having carried out this vile mission
collectively? But of that a little later. While examining a case of
communal violence. one normally begins with looking at the law and order
aspect of the matter. The conduct of the police is analysed and often the
task ends there. In the instant case, the failure of the police is manifest.
But the matter does not end there. Is the police force now capable of
performing all its functions? It is said that a better
part of the resources, human and material both, has been reserved for
looking after the present day nabobs and a little capacity is left to
protect the people. That calls for some action. It is also time to find out
whether the grant of autonomy to the police force under Musharraf’s Police
Order of 2000 has made it more responsible or less. Is it correct to persist
with the colonial practice of allowing the centre a say in the appointment
of senior police officers in the provinces? And so on. Matters of police
administration apart, are junior police functionaries properly and
adequately trained to do their duty towards the vulnerable sections of
society or are they still left free to live off the disadvantaged people?
And what kind of intellectual orientation are the police helped to develop?
We know that in the colonial period the law-enforcing agencies, the army
included, were assiduously shielded against progressive ideas and literature
while there was no dearth of the so-called religious and moralistic texts
the forces were required to cram. Has the situation changed?
There is reason to believe that Pakistani officials are indoctrinated in a
manner incompatible with their duty to treat with equal respect people
belonging to different religious and ethnic communities. Finally, it is necessary
to scrutinise the role of the state in dividing the people in the name of
belief and, thus, making it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the
different denominations to live together in peace and tolerate one another.
Pakistan has already paid a heavy price for exploiting religion to avoid
paying respect to democratic norms. Persistence in this path will only add
to the trials and tribulations of the people. Maybe, there is an urgent need
to invite the ulema to seriously rethink Islam’s emphasis on rule by
consensus of the people and not by edicts of priests that this religion does
not at all recognise. They may also find ways of bridging the gap between
the Islamic values of peace, tolerance and compassion and present-day
zealots’ penchant for slaughtering people, blowing up mosques and shrines
and tormenting women and non-Muslims. Purity of faith is no
defence for crimes against humanity. Unless religion is separated from
politics Pakistan has no future as a modern state of happy and contented
citizens. What, after all, is the
people’s ideal of Pakistan? That Muslims and non-Muslims should let each
other live in peace? That is the lowest denominator of a living people’s
expectation. A dynamic, forward-looking Pakistan would have a much higher
ideal — that every Pakistani citizen shall be enabled to realise himself
or herself and learn to cooperate with the fellow-being, without bothering
about the other party’s belief or gender, in scaling the heights of human
endeavour towards widening the boundaries of knowledge and acquiring the art
of a just, happy and fruitful existence.
As
it happened... In the Joseph
Colony, a Christian neighbourhood nestled in the centre of the
semi-industrial zone of Badami Bagh, Lahore, Sawan Masih, 28, was accused of
uttering blasphemous remarks against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). He was
arrested and yet there was ransacking and burning of more than 170 houses,
shops and two churches on March 9 in the presence of a heavy contingent of
police. Sawan, a sanitary worker at a local government department, was a
close friend of Shahid Imran, a resident of the same area, who accused him
of blasphemy on March 6. A First Information Report
(FIR) was lodged against Sawan on the complaint of Imran on March 8, after
the local Muslims — trader groups and religious organisations — started
protesting against the alleged act of blasphemy. Subsequently, the
community elders presented Sawan before the police on Friday midnight. Sawan,
in his testimony, has said that they — Sawan and Imran — were friends
and that they were intoxicated at the time and did not know what they
uttered. “Both the accused and
the complainant were friends and used to drink together,” says Multan
Khan, a senior police officer. The situation went out of
control as the local Muslims held protests against the Christian community.
Resultantly, many families from about 200 houses of Joseph Colony fled on
Friday night. “The rest of the
community people, who had not left by then, were asked by the police to
leave the place,” says Altaf Masih, 42, a resident of the colony.
“Instead of providing us security, the police asked us to vacate the
houses immediately, which surprised us.” Later, a resident of neighbouring
area, Shafiq alias Sheeku, came to know of the incident and urged Imran to
lodge an FIR. On Friday evening,
according to the police, more than 3,000 locals gathered outside the colony,
chanting anti-blasphemy slogans and threatening Christians of dire
consequences for committing an ‘unpardonable’ act. “They were equipped with
batons, clubs, chemicals, and even many were armed with pistols and guns,”
says Khan, adding, “They also attacked the police and later ransacked and
set houses of Christians on fire.” “They were the locals,
mainly Pathans, working in the nearby godowns and factories. They first
ransacked houses, looted all valuables and later burnt properties,” says
Muhammad Saeed, who runs a general store in a nearby street. “It took about 12 hours
for the rescue teams to put out the fire with the help of 25 fire
brigades,” says Dr Ahmad, a senior Rescue 1122 official. “They committed
blasphemy and Muslims cannot sympathise with a blasphemer,” says Muhammad
Azam, a local trader in the area. Another trader, Shahid Qureshi, says,
“They were involved in ‘bad’ activities like drinking and drugs. These
activities are un-Islamic.” “Our presence has long
made the factory owners uncomfortable,” says a local Christian, Yaqoob
Masih, 52. “They have urged the residents whose houses were situated on
the main streets to sell their property and move somewhere else. But how
could we do that — we have been living here for the past 40 years,” he
adds. This loss of property was
followed by monetary compensation and reconstruction of damaged houses by
the Punjab government to avoid further embarrassment. “The attackers have been
charged of terrorism and ransacking. Around 54 of them have been identified,
arrested and sent to jail,” informs Chaudhry Shafique, who is heading the
police investigation in Lahore. “According to
preliminary investigations,” Shafique says, “local traders’ groups
tried to gain political mileage in the wake of local traders association’s
elections scheduled on March 20. They wanted to get voters’ sympathy by
politicising this issue in the name of religion.” A senior police officer,
asking not to be named, says intelligence units have come to know that
traders not only displayed provocative banners but also mobilised
communities and local mosques on this issue. There were announcements in the
local mosques and the activists of defunct Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, now
working as Ahl-e-Sunah-Wal-Jamaat (ASWJ), and workers of Sunni Tehrik, a
hardline Barelvi Sunni faction, were also actively involved in these
protests. The police official says
local traders were not happy with the residents of the colony because the
business was expanding in the area and they wanted more land. “General
elections are just round the corner and the marginalised community might be
pressurised to compromise after getting financial compensation and
reconstruction of houses.” The Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), in its preliminary fact-finding report on the
Badami Bagh incident, says the local administration was aware of the
possibility of such an attack and failed to take adequate measures either
before or during the attack. The warning issued by the police on Friday to
the residents establishes conclusively the fact that the administration knew
about arson and plunder in advance. Incidents of mob violence
by religious extremists are not new to Pakistan. There have been many in the
past 30 years or so, especially after the invoking of new sections in
blasphemy laws, fixing life imprisonment and death sentence for desecrating
the Holy Quran and uttering the derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad
(PBUH), respectively. In November 2012, in a
nearby area of Lahore, police arrested a Muslim headmaster on blasphemy
charges after a mob ransacked his school over allegations that a test paper
insulted Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). A crowd stormed Farooqi Girls’ High
School, a reputed school in the area, after students told parents about
derogatory references to the Prophet. Furniture of the school and the
principal’s car were set ablaze and the school, which was established in
1978, remained closed for many days. Later, a political compromise was made
between the local clerics and the accused ending in the bail of the
principal. In July 2012, hundreds of
Muslim extremists accused a ‘deranged’ man of blasphemy, mercilessly
beat him and burnt him alive in district Bahawalpur in southern Punjab while
he was in police custody. In 2009, two Christian
colonies with over 100 houses were ransacked and burnt in Tehsil Gojra in
central Punjab. At least eight people were burnt alive in the tragedy.
Defunct religious groups were involved in the attack according to police
reports. Later, a one-man judicial commission was formed to probe the
criminal act but its inquiry report — headed by the then Lahore High Court
Justice, Mr. Iqbal Hameedur Rehman — was never made public. In the FIR, the prime
accused, along with the local leadership of Sipah-e-Sahaba, were hundreds of
local residents. However, all of them were set free one-by-one because the
complainant in the murder case decided against pursuing the case. The Gojra
tribunal report said that the police high command should have deployed the
personnel in sufficient numbers to stop violence against the Christian
community. The Gojra riot was a
result of the inability of the law enforcement agencies to assess the
gravity of the situation and take adequate precautionary and preventive
measures. Last week’s incident in Lahore is no different. We do not seem
to be learning from our past mistakes. vaqargillani@gmail.com
q&a The News on
Sunday: You have been to the site, what is your sense of what may have
happened? Hina Jilani: When you look
at the extent of the damage that has been done and imagine the trauma the
people must have undergone when the crime was being committed — people
whose property has been burnt and their home destroyed — I find nothing
that can be over-exaggerated in their grief as well as their complaints they
are making. The other thing that we
have to remember is that they are a very poor population. Because they
probably take years to buy something or own something that, for the general
middle class, may not be that big an issue. I have noticed that some people
have looked at their grief with some skepticism, which is totally misplaced. Secondly, we must
understand that this is a ninety-five per cent Muslim majority country. The
majority can be very intimidating for those who are smaller in numbers.
Besides, we have a history of targeting minorities, at least in the past two
and a half decades. So, the non-Muslim minorities are even more fearful. And
it is not their imagination alone that brings this fear to them. These are some things that
we as human rights people have to take into consideration when we are
looking at the facts of a particular incident and the reaction of the victim
population. This victim population is not only afraid because this incident
has happened to them; they are more fearful of the majority because of the
series of incidents that they have experienced, especially in this
particular province. TNS: After the recent
incident at Joseph Colony, how do you look at the blasphemy laws
retrospectively and aren’t they rendered irrelevant by people willing to
take action outside the law? HJ: We have always held
the position that the blasphemy law as it has been framed is legally flawed.
My very simple position is, when people challenge this statement they keep
saying well, the law can’t be bad but it is the abuse of the law and all
laws can be abused. My position as a lawyer and as a human rights activist,
with an experience of over thirty five years of seeing popular reactions
where mob violence has been committed, is that a law that is amenable to
abuse and misuse is a bad law. Technically, there are
flaws in the law which we have pointed out several times which allow this
kind of malicious use of the law for ulterior motives. And you can pick up
reports of several such incidents. In this particular case,
in Badami Bagh, the population insists and makes allegations of a very
serious nature against the business community of that area and the political
influentials in that area, which they attribute as a motive to this crime. I
think it is upto the government to make sure that all investigations,
including the judicial inquiry are conducted with full transparency in
public view with full access to the victims and other independent observers
so that nothing can be hidden from the public eye. I have suspicions, from
the fact-finding mission that the Human Rights Commission, that many of
these allegations may be true. I cannot give an opinion at this time because
we always wait for the result of our inquiry but, prima facie, it does seem
the allegations may be true. And if they are true, they amount to gross
crimes as well as gross human rights violations for which there has to be
accountability. So far, there has been total impunity. You can remember
Shanti Nagar several years ago, Gojra more recently, and this again and
intervening that there are several smaller incidents which we have
investigated. TNS: With what happened to
Salmaan Taseer, Shahbaz Bhatti and even Sherry Rehman, it seems that any
talk of procedural improvement in blasphemy laws is out of question in the
near future? HJ: The question is that
the law will have to be amended and reviewed. I can say categorically that
while there is no political will to do it at this time, these various
incidents indicate that there are forces in this country that will
continuously target people, hiding behind this particular law. So unless the
Pakistani society and the state of Pakistan want this country to be in
continuous turmoil, they will have to rethink this law. TNS: Do you see this
incident as a case of administrative failure which was inadvertently
mishandled or is it a sign of the collapse of the state? HJ: I don’t think it is
a question of failure. I think it is a deliberate policy to evade holding
these kinds of elements to account for both political reasons at the local
level but also because of a state policy that has been going on for two and
a half decades to foster, promote and protect religious fundamentalism and
the use of religion to create mischief in this country. TNS: With the Joseph
Colony case coming in quick succession after Rimsha Masih’s case last
year, do you see an element of hatred among the majority community against
the minority Christian community that leads to quick assembling of mobs
(even if you leave the land mafia concerns aside)? HJ: Why do the Muslims
hate the Christians? This is a minority. They have no capacity to put
Muslims at risk. Do you think five per cent of this minority can jeopardise
your practices of religion? This is rather strange. When we were in
non-partitioned India, the Muslims were afraid of the majority and now when
they have become a majority, they are afraid of the minority. There must be
something wrong with their thinking. And I can tell you that
this thinking does not prevail with the common man, it may come to that
eventually. But at this moment, I do believe that this is a small group and
this element, which is still a small minority, is able to influence
incidents and occurrences in this country much beyond their own numbers.
TNS: When we say that the
hate-mongers are a small group, aren’t we in a state of denial? HJ: No, we are not in a
state of denial. I think that is a fact. But what we forget in that
statement is that the society is generally apathetic, unless something
happens to them or in their backyard. So, I think it is basically apathy of
this society and its total failure to act responsibly and take social
responsibility of what happens in the country. And I think the media is also
encouraging that all negative tendencies are put on the shoulders of the
state. Yes, the state is responsible if it is avoiding accountability, or it
doesn’t do anything about the impunity. Then, by assumption, it is part
and parcel of the violations that occur. They have colluded in that. At the
same time, I would suggest that we look beyond the state and political
leadership and look at the state of the society. TNS: Isn’t dealing with
the society a long-term process? HJ: Dealing with the
society can be a long term process but it can be very well shortened. If the
state changes its policy, when the state gives backing to a certain policy,
it has a faster influence on social thinking. Once the state withdraws it,
this tendency will disappear. It emerged when the state started pushing this
policy of religious extremism, religious intolerance, of sectarianism, and
of hatred towards all minorities. Probably, the Christians attract more of
their hostility because they are slightly bigger than the other minorities
and they have a stronger backing of their own Church. So, even this little
bit of strength provokes that particular element. The other thing is that
this is the community that lives adjacent to Muslim homes and lands. They
are a minority that also is occupying lands. And the land-grabbing element
also gets incorporated by the religious element for this kind of mischief. TNS: What is the way
ahead? Did we not learn anything from Gojra? HJ: There has to be
zero-tolerance for any kind of mob violence. We have to make sure there is
no impunity for this kind of violence and these trends that hurt people —
their life or their property or their security in general. People must be
punished for this crime. Nobody should be under the misconception that if
they commit a crime, as a part of a mob they will remain invisible. Today,
there are modern technical devices that can help identify people. So,
anybody, who, even without a motive just for fun, has participated in such a
crime must be indicted and punished so that people in general who join a mob
are also deterred. That has not happened. We tried to get it done in Gojra. We did achieve some progress there but none of the people who were indicted in Gojra has still gone to jail.
Going
unpunished? Mob violence in
Pakistan often goes unpunished and, in a way, encourages people to take law
in their hands. Many a time, cases against perpetrators of mob violence are
tried in anti terrorist courts but the fate of these cases is not different
from those tried in ordinary criminal courts. Sooner or later, the attackers
are acquitted. People saw violent
protesters burning houses and belongings of the Christian minority community
in Joseph Colony, Lahore, and then posing before the cameras representing
the media. What is the conviction
rate in cases of mob violence and the reasons behind easy acquittal of those
found guilty of destroying public and private property with impunity? The
reasons are diverse, ranging from loopholes in criminal justice system to
social and political. Babar Ali, Deputy
Superintendent of Police (DSP), Investigations, Punjab, says it is very
difficult to clearly define the roles played by different individuals
forming violent mobs. For example, in case of burning of a property a person
standing close to that fire can be suspected of being a culprit but there is
no evidence to prove that he lit a match stick, poured petrol on a structure
and then literally put it on fire. Babar says it is a
misconception that video footage is enough to convict an accused, “It does
help identify people but in order to convict them, the law enforcers have to
rely on traditional prosecution system. Until and unless there are witnesses
and corroborating evidence, conviction is impossible.” “With the passage of
Investigation for Fair Trial Act,” he says, “there is a possibility that
images — both still and moving — of the accused will be enough to
convict them and serve as admissible evidence. The main purpose of the law
is to facilitate prosecution of cases which cannot proceed for lack of
eyewitnesses or their reluctance to appear before the court. To make this happen, Babar
believes, there is a dire need to develop technical abilities among
law-enforcing authorities, especially those dealing with forensics, to
identify a doctored image or footage from an original one. The courts have
traditionally not depended on these for this very reason, he adds. Babar says it takes cases
long to be decided which deter complainants and witnesses from pursuing the
cases endlessly. Out-of-court settlements are deemed the most fit solutions
to such cases. Haroon Suleman, a
Lahore-based lawyer who has pursued several cases of mob violence, arson and
civil disobedience in courts, tells TNS that “lack of awareness among the
masses and their inability to evaluate things are major causes of such
orchestrated attacks. “What happens is that
one person levels an allegation against an accused and all others follow him
blindly, without even bothering to find out whether the accuser wants to
settle a score with the accused or not.” In cases of blasphemy, he says,
the police is also carried away by the religious sentiment and has a soft
corner for participants of violent mob. “Due to this very sentiment, they
frame weak cases and do not follow them properly, which results in
acquittals.” Haroon says many a time
NGOs and rights groups come to the help of victim communities and become
complainants on their behalf. Though their intentions are good, the cases
they file through their in-house lawyers are vague and their applications
not as precise as they should be. These lawyers may be competent but not
smart enough to deal with such complex cases. Citing an example, he
says, he has read a report which was filed against a mob and there were
hardly any names, description of the suspects, or description of actions
leading to violence. On the perception that
these crimes are non-compoundable, he says, this does not mean people cannot
win acquittals. The accused can be freed of charges the moment the
complainant refuses to recognise him or submit that he leveled the charges
on the basis of a misunderstanding. Haroon informs that
political personalities and other influentials of a locality are immediately
out to broker a truce or compromise in such cases, quite often in exchange
for monetary consideration. “Once this happens, there are 101 ways to get
the desired results.” Raghib Naeemi, Principal
Jamia Naeemia, Lahore, believes the accused are acquitted because innocent
people are rounded up whereas the guilty roam around freely. “The police
find it easy to nab people who are easily traceable. Whenever there is an
incident the locals are arrested from houses, regardless of their being
guilty or not. Raghib says his father, Dr
Sarfraz Naeemi (late), was arrested on charges of instigating a mob to
attack private property on the Mall Road, Lahore on Feb 14, 2006, during a
protest against objectionable caricatures. He had to stay in jail for two
and a half months before being granted bail and later declared innocent.
There were around 200 accused who had to stay in jails before they won
acquittals on merit. Kamran Zaman Khan,
Inspector, Punjab Police, and Station House Officer (SHO), Badami Bagh
Police Station, is quite convinced that this time the culprits will not go
scot-free as before. Cases are being tried in anti-terrorism court and the
crime is non-bailable and non-compoundable. “That’s because the
police has become a complainant itself. Had the victims been the
complainants, there would definitely have been attempts by culprits to reach
a compromise with them or intimidate them,” he adds. Same
place, different stories Badami Bagh may
never fall in the to-do list of most uptown residents of Lahore. But last
Monday morning, many including mediapeople and government functionaries were
headed towards that polluted smoky part of the city. The journey up until
the Lari Adda (the intercity bus station) was familiar but then you had to
stop for directions — to Joseph Colony. Actually you only had to ask for
the place of the ‘incident’. The locals knew the rest. Christians at Joseph Town The colony was nestled
between huge godowns of steel and scrap, almost all of which were locked,
with not a soul in sight. The vehicles were stopped a little short of one of
the various entrances to Joseph Colony. Half the street was blocked with
barbed wire while the policemen deployed were expected to undertake a body
search for each entrant. Two trucks carrying tents had just landed there. The Basti, as the
residents like to call the colony, was a scene of chaos. Women and children
were sitting outside on charpais, and as many were in and around the charred
and looted mostly one-room houses. With feet smudged in mud and smell of
burnt chemical clogging the senses, we roamed through the streets of Joseph
Town, interrupted by trolleys carrying construction material and men who
looked like government surveyors wearing masks. Two days after the
incident, people appeared to have absorbed the initial shock and were
willing to talk and show their vandalised houses and churches. An odd woman
stopped you to ask if she would get the cheques as promised. Another one
stepped out to tell how her daughters’ dowry has been destroyed, stolen. Someone pointed at the dog
in their midst and hinted that it too was disoriented. A group of men began
talking. “The protestors were deendars, Pathans and musalis from
Sheikhabad (the adjacent Muslim colony). They gathered people from godowns;
we saw them with our own eyes. The traders contesting the market elections,
Amir Siddique and his opponent Tariq Mahmood, did the mischief. They even
burnt the car of our pastor. “On Friday, in the
afternoon, the police told us to stay back and that no harm would come to
us. But some people decided to leave because outside there were groups of
people saying they would attack this locality, accompanied by traders
contesting the election. When more than half the mohallah had left, at
night, the police asked the rest of us to leave the place. They said they
would protect our houses. “On Saturday morning,
when the basti was vacated, banners were displayed about blasphemy, strike
call and rallies. But there was no rally. There was only attack on the basti.
There was no administration to stop them or put out the fire. It began its
work when all the destruction was done. We have been living here
for 35, 40 years. We were born here. But now we don’t feel safe. The
government should provide us a sense of security. No we won’t lie. We
don’t feel insecure at our workplace. “Sawan Masih and Shahid
Imran used to drink together. They would fight every day and this was going
on for the last three months. It was not a fight over anything religious. It
was made out to be an issue of blasphemy by three people from Sheikhabad.
Sheeku was instrumental in the fight. They came and broke Sawan’s billiard
table and said that there was blasphemy committed. “The traders, Arhatis
(middlemen), Pakhtuns have made offers to buy our land. Ever since the
Arhatis came here, since the last four five years, there is talk that this
basti should be vacated. They are after the front houses first. They think
people at the back will be forced to sell their houses too. “When we came to live
here, this was a jungle. Where will we go now? We can’t, even with some
money in our hands.” Muslims at Sheikhabad Across the street is
Sheikhabad, the Muslim part of the neighbourhood. There is disquiet here
too. The Muslims, men and women, deny they were involved at all. “The protestors were all
maulvis and Pathans. Yes there was insult of the Holy Prophet (pbuh)
committed. But then they ought to have burned the house of the person who
committed blasphemy, not the entire basti. “Yes the traders, the
leaders contesting the election Amir Siddique and Tariq Mahmood, were
involved. Pathans became enraged, and each and every house was separately
burned. There were too many people; too many Pathans. There was no one from
Sheikhabad. “Why don’t you help
us? Our entire mohallah has been taken into custody. They are all innocent. “Of course, we are sad
about what happened. We have lived together for 30, 40 years with them. They
are like brothers and sisters. We are sad about the girls whose dowries were
burnt; those girls passed from our streets and our sons did not dare say
anything to them. We have grown old and raised children and grand-children
together. We share the same bazaar. “Our men have been
arrested because we have houses here. The Pathans live in these godowns. I
think this should not have happened when the main accused was arrested. The
entire Sheikhabad is suffering for one person’s fault. And now the entire
world is watching us. “The incident took place
because the police mishandled it. They did not make the announcement (about
the arrest of Sawan) in time nor did it get enough nafri (force). “No harm will come to
him [Sawan]. He will be taken to America. “From a human angle,
this is wrong. Our religion does not allow this. This was planned. There
were people who did not even know each other. We don’t know if they wanted
to buy their land but the market election, due on March 20, has something to
do with it.” At the Medical Camp next
door “There are many people
coming. Many of them are coming with “tension”, having been awake for
days and fatigued. We are giving them first aid if they are hurt or
anything. We have all the required staff — doctors, paramedics,
ambulances.” Traders in Badami Bagh A man in his early 50s
sitting at his scrap shop in Badami Bagh, who appears to be a follower of
Barelvi school, says: “The leaders of the [market] election were involved.
All the people Alhamdullilah love the Prophet (pbuh). You can protest
peacefully but the matter should have ended after the accused was arrested. “The media is pumping up
the Christian community. They are trying to instigate them. And let me tell
you there aren’t even 178 houses as is being told. They are much less. “This place [Joseph
Colony] was a den of evil (burai ka ghar). They sell alcohol, charas and,
because of these people, the entire young generation in the area is being
corrupted. There’s adultery, alcohol and what not. When we go from here,
at night, another ‘business’ starts. The sellers are Christians while
the buyers are Muslims. “So this place was
generally disliked, especially by the Pathan arhatis surrounding them. They
got a chance to vent their anger. If you make evil easily available, then
everyone gets involved. Even before the issue of blasphemy, there was hatred
in people’s minds about this community because of the evil they’re
spreading. “The matter is with the
Supreme Court now. If it’s a genuine investigation, then these leaders
[contesting the market elections] will be arrested. The people behind these
leaders are the ones who are now doling out money to the Christians. They
are PML-N supporters and the PML-N will make sure nothing happens to these
leaders. “The protestors they
have caught are only daily wagers who earn Rs300-400. Their families will
suffer. They should arrest the people who are behind them.” Across the street, in
another shop, two bearded old men sit. “We don’t know what happened. But
we do know the traders are not behind all this nor has this anything to do
with the market election. In Canada, they burn the Quran and the government
does not move an inch. It’s the people who come on the roads. They just
send the blasphemers to America. “They [Christians]
committed the original sin by uttering insults to the Holy Prophet. That’s
how the fire was set in motion. And then the Christians also protested on
Ferozepur road and tried to burn Metro buses.”
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