During, and more so, just after the countrywide four-day sit-in in January against Shia Genocide, my friends had questioned and commented on certain aspects of the event. I had promised my daughter (one of the persons who asked some pertinent questions) that I will try to collect and write down my scattered thoughts.
Then, on January 16, the martyrdom of Shabbu (as my cousin Hasan ibne Husain was lovingly called by all in the family) who was shot from the back in the jugular vein outside his gate when leaving for his office with his 12-year old daughter whom he was to drop off at her school. All those thousands of martyrdoms of my brethren in faith were very tragic for me and I have attempted to do my humble best to help alleviate the sufferings of those they left behind, but none had hit me as personally as this one. The faces of his mother, sisters, brothers, wife and kids flashed before me, making me think what they would be going through right now.
And then …. anger at the animals who did this ….. a wish to somehow avenge what had happened …. feeling of helplessness at not being able to do it, not knowing who to avenge it from ….
As I tried to clear my confused thoughts and get rid of my anger, many answers to questions of past few days became evident to me, though about others I was already quite clear.
I now put before you what I think. Do correct me or improve upon what I have submitted, wherever necessary.
These were the questions/suggestions that had been put to me:
*Both episodes of the Quetta carnage were major tragedies for Pakistani Shias, but not the largest – statistically that still remains the Thehri massacre of June 1963, when 118 Shia Muslims were butchered in Khairpur in an attack on the Ashura procession. And there have been at least two episodes in Quetta itself statistically almost matching the 2013 ones in number of casualties. This is besides attacks by lashkars in Gilgit in 1988 and on many occasions in Parachinar when hundreds were martyred. Why then the reaction to this one was dissimilar to any tragic episode before this?
*Considering the momentum that was gathered countrywide, was it not inappropriate to discontinue the countrywide sit-in? Wasn’t the discontinuation possibly a sellout, and, if so, by whom?
*What was our major achievement from the sit-in?
*Was it a joint Shia/Sunni protest or a purely Shia thing?
*After Shabbu’s martyrdom in January and now Dr. Haider and his young kid Murtaza in my own city, I was told by some friends and relatives that I should be more careful about myself, given that I am active in azadari and also in Shia politics.
*When will this (Shia Genocide) end?
* Why don’t we retaliate? Wouldn’t that bring about an end to Shia Genocide?
The unprecedented nationwide reaction to Quetta was a
result, yes, of the martyrs’ blood and the absolute resolve of their relatives
who silently sat out the below freezing point Quetta nights till their major
demands were met, but more so a nationwide reaction to apathy by all branches
of the government – de jure as well as de facto, as also a generally prevalent feeling
of ‘enough is enough’. That is what brought the whole country – Shia, Sunni and
non-Muslim – on one united platform. The vigils at Liberty Roundabout in Lahore
and the now famous sit-in outside Bilawal House in Karachi were initiated not
by any Shia organization, but by the civil society. Many of those participating
in the sit-ins were persons who had never before taken part in a protest of any
kind. For them it was a much needed catharsis that made them a part of this
effort.
I was among the organizers of the sit-ins outside Governor
House, Lahore. Unlike the norm at public events, no protestors were bussed-in
or had to be ‘invited’. From the burger crowd of DHA to a motorcyclist to a bus
commuter, people came on their own after hearing of the protest. In fact, quite
a few asked me on the day after the carnage if any protest was taking place in
the city. Having a crowd of thousands under the open sky was nothing short of a
miracle. Another phenomenon that contributed to this was that those leading the
protests were also sitting on the same roads and pavements as the rest of us,
and they acted not as ‘leaders’ as such but servants of the nation.
As I said, some of the protests were organized by the civil
society, and while all protests had support of the whole nation except extremists
and their sympathizers, the January sit-ins were, by and large, a Shia
phenomenon, except for token presence by political activists and visits by
their leadership – the major exception being JUI, the ‘ideological’ parent of
ASS/LeJ. This is an area in much need of attention, whereby scope of the
protests needs to be widened, so that non-Shia Pakistanis join these protests
in larger numbers. The February sit-in depicted increased participation by
non-Shias, alhamdolillah! Suggestions are welcome as to how to further improve
this.
Having said that, as one who has seen the pre-9/11 atmosphere when even many educated persons saw the Taliban as heroes, I feel that we have come a long way in the right direction, where not only no fingers were raised on the sit-ins despite the obvious discomfort they caused to daily civic lives, but general public opinion was very sympathetic to the peaceful exercise of this right. Initially the media covered the protests very cursorily, but later the level of coverage became reasonable. There were some outlets though which, based on their own agenda, were spreading disinformation.
Having said that, as one who has seen the pre-9/11 atmosphere when even many educated persons saw the Taliban as heroes, I feel that we have come a long way in the right direction, where not only no fingers were raised on the sit-ins despite the obvious discomfort they caused to daily civic lives, but general public opinion was very sympathetic to the peaceful exercise of this right. Initially the media covered the protests very cursorily, but later the level of coverage became reasonable. There were some outlets though which, based on their own agenda, were spreading disinformation.
Another aspect of the sit-ins was that while the protests in
major cities and towns were visible to us, these were taking place even in
small towns and villages throughout the country, but were so disciplined and
peaceful that when in January the leadership asked the protestors to give way
to the Qadri march, it was facilitated without any hitch. People voluntarily brought
food for the participants, and the organizers or the protestors did not have to
worry about this aspect. At Lahore, I was witness to the cleaning arrangements
on Upper Mall outside Governor House which were so good that when the municipal
crews came after the sit-in, they remarked that their job had already been
done. And then, of course, the fact there was no destruction of public or
private property, not even the abhorrent flexes with photographs of Zardari,
Nawaz and Shahbaz.
The conclusion of the dharna was not a sellout. These are
the first battles in a very long war – battles that were conclusively won by
the unarmed peaceful protestors. The objective was a show of force strong
enough to jolt the authorities into action. The objective was not to lead the
country to total collapse. Through a countrywide blockade of roads the
objective was achieved, and for the first time in the country’s history a
provincial government was fired as a result of a peaceful protest. Sadly
though, in January, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, who takes suo moto notice of
much lesser happenings (whiskey bottles and a slap) failed to notice this
bloodiest tragedy during his custodianship in his own home city. It took a
repeat performance by LeJ for His Lordship to wake up and ‘notice’ the mayhem.
I do not know if many of us are aware that these protests
were led by persons who have faced loss of their own kin to Shia Genocide,
those who have faced jail sentences for protesting, those who have been lashed during
General Zia’s misrule for this ‘crime’, and those who have lost their limbs to
this cause. Would such persons no w sell us out?
From a pre-9/11 situation when Pakistani Shias were ostracized and terrorist Taliban were heroes, to the participation of Sunni Muslims and Christians - ordinary people, not just representatives of political parties – we have come a long way. Having said that, the attendance was still overwhelmingly Shia, but then, for us this is a life and death issue. Isn’t it?
From a pre-9/11 situation when Pakistani Shias were ostracized and terrorist Taliban were heroes, to the participation of Sunni Muslims and Christians - ordinary people, not just representatives of political parties – we have come a long way. Having said that, the attendance was still overwhelmingly Shia, but then, for us this is a life and death issue. Isn’t it?
Migration is not a practical option for fifty million
Pakistani Shias. Yes, a few like me can leave for what they consider safer
shores, but that will mean leaving the ‘have-nots’ at the mercy of these animals,
as happened in Iraq during Saddam’s rule. We made Pakistan. We will live – and die
– here to save it.
Shia Genocide is not targeted at our physical annihilation.
Even if an average of 10 (higher than the present figure) Shias are martyred
daily, it will take 300 years to kill just a million. And we are already 15 to
20 million in Pakistan. Shia genocide has existed for over 1400 years and it is
actually targeted at eliminating Tashayyu (Shiaism) through terrorizing Shia
Muslims. The choice is clear. Do we want to keep living as zombies at the cost
of death of Tashayyu OR do we agree to save Tashayyu even at the cost of our
lives?
With this in view, we should be ready for Shia Genocide to
continue till the appearance of the Mahdi (atf), crests and troughs in the
interregnum notwithstanding. That, however, does not mean that we should not be
actively combating it.
How to go about it? The first major step – these peaceful
sit-ins that have united us as nothing else could – have gone a long way in
displaying our latent force and awakened non-Shia conscience towards this cause.
The fact that one call of our leadership can jam the country, and another call
can instantly un-jam it has been amply demonstrated. More importantly, it was
also demonstrated that for us the country is more important than even hundreds
of our lives. The dharnas could have been carried on indefinitely – even after
burials had taken place, but two factors made us refrain from this: possibility
of serious negative effects on the country’s economy AND to preclude
possibility of hijacking of this protest by nefarious elements. In February,
some sit-ins in Karachi were attacked by goons of a linguistic outfit known for
its terror tactics – an outfit that sees Shia platforms like MWM intruding into
its “territory”, i.e. the Urdu-speaking Shia block vote in Karachi and Hyderabad.
It was a sagacious decision by the leadership to end the sit-ins when they did,
even at the cost of slurs on them by the runaway chief of the terror-friendly
linguistic outfit.
Another majot step is to keep real azadari alive. By ‘real’ azadari
I refer to remembrance of Imam Husain (a.s) with objectives similar to his
stated objectives. And real azadari is a ‘public’ protest by its very nature –
not within four walls, as demanded by our killers, and now seconded by some
unwitting ‘friends’.
Retaliating terror with terror should not take place. That
will make us loose the moral high ground that we now hold. However, not
resorting to terror does not mean that we should forego proactively defending
ourselves, especially when the state – all three organs of it, the legislature,
the judiciary and the executive – has clearly failed to do its duty. A bitter
reality, however, is that when pushed to the wall, the instinctive reaction is
to attack your attacker. So, while there is active discouragement for such
action from Shia religious leadership, some individual desperate youth may
indeed resort to militancy targeted at our killers if no solace is forthcoming
from those responsible for providing it. Let us pray – and act – to stop this from
becoming inevitable.
In the end, let me make it clear that while I am a worker of
Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM), the views expressed here are entirely my
own.
