Even Dawn--a bastion of liberal thought and a forum which doesn't seem to find a single good thing in Pakistan is calling the poor Sri Lanka guy lynching as a 'watershed' moment. And I believe so. Just like the attack on the Army Public School finally stirred the Pakistani State to action against TTP, I believe the tolerance and the space given to the likes of the TLP is going to be greatly reduced. TLP, in contrast to TTP, is full of cowards anyway. TLP is much more feared because of what happened to Gov. Taseer than it is liked; this is a crucial point people need to bear in mind. But now, even those living in Pakistan such as the blogger Makhdoom Shahabuddin, have been openly taunting and cursing those so-called religious vigilantes; they do so at great personal risk but still they do. THEY are the heroes of Pakistan, similar to Mr. Adnan who threw himself over the poor Mr. Diyawadanage to protect and took the blows from the damn lynch mob.
THE bitter truth has been staring this nation in the face for years. Religious violence spawned by allegations of...
www.dawn.com
THE bitter truth has been staring this nation in the face for years. Religious violence spawned by allegations of blasphemy has taken on a life of its own, destroying the fabric of society slowly but surely. And yet it is only now, with the
gruesome murder of Sri Lankan national Priyantha Kumara Diyawadanage at the hands of a mob in Sialkot, that the leadership appears to have realised this.
Addressing a condolence reference for the slain man at the PM Office, Imran Khan
vowed that no one will be allowed to kill another in the name of religion and perpetrators of religiously motivated violence would be strictly punished. He went on to say that such was the climate of fear that t
hose accused of blasphemy rotted in jail with no one even willing to investigate what had actually happened. “Everyone is afraid of it. In fact, lawyers do not come forward and judges also refuse to hear the cases.” That, he added, was all the more reason to laud the actions of Malik Adnan, Mr Diyawadanage’s colleague who
tried in vain to save him from the mob.
...
Judging by appearances,
the lynching in Sialkot seems to be a watershed moment. Whether it proves a catalyst for real change is as yet unknown. Sadly, history tells us that this nation has a very limited capacity for self-reflection, let alone taking the difficult steps that would be needed to root out what is no less than a cancer of the soul.