EDITORIAL: No words can describe the horror of this ghastly murder. Accusing their general manager, a Sri Lankan national, workers of a garment factory in Sialkot joined by other people, dragged him out on the road and tortured him with kicks, stones and iron rods, killing him on the spot and burning his body. Although three policemen had arrived on the scene, on seeing the size of the mob they stood aside rather than calling in help from the nearby police stations.
In fact, according to some witnesses, they had tried to contact the District Police Officer (DPO) on his mobile phone but to no avail; had he responded in time the lynching could have been averted.
After the mob had done its deed the Deputy Commissioner and the DPO arrived on the scene accompanied by a heavy contingent of police. And an FIR was registered under the Anti-Terrorism Act against a number of suspects for murder and burning of the body, and over 145 persons arrested, including the two main instigators of this profound barbarity.
The incident has been widely condemned. Prime Minister Imran Khan said in a tweet “the horrific vigilante attack on factory in Sialkot & the burning alive of Sri Lankan manager is a day of shame for Pakistan”, adding that he was overseeing the investigation “and let there be no mistake all those responsible will be punished with full severity of the law.”
Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa also deplored the “cold-blooded and shameful murder” by a mob “offering all-out support to the civil administration for the arrest of perpetrators of this heinous crime and to bring them to justice.” The incident has drawn attention at the highest level because the victim was a citizen of another country, which brings a bad name to Pakistan. The ‘day of shame’ also calls for some soul searching. There are hundreds of cases wherein blasphemy laws have been abused out of personal grudges or for property grabs. In the present instance, according to the police, the lynched manager was said to be a strict administrator, suggesting thereby that some disgruntled worker(s) used the blasphemy allegation to settle a personal score with him. In fact, a few years ago, the owner of a factory in Shahdara near Lahore was similarly accused of blasphemy and killed by workers on the instigation of a trade union member annoyed over some financial matter.
This society has been ‘made’ so intolerant that mere pointing of the finger can lead to either immediate lynching, or the police booking a case of blasphemy without proper investigation. Lawyers refuse to defend them and courts decline to exonerate the innocent for fear of their own lives. Not long ago, in Multan, a counsel for one such accused was murdered, and before that a Lahore High Court judge was shot dead in his chambers for acquitting a blasphemy accused.
Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer was also killed by a man in his security detail for advocating justice for a Christian woman implicated in a false blasphemy case. More recently, in the same case, Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) had launched a countrywide protest sit-in, supported also by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, against the Supreme Court verdict in her favour. During the protest, the TLP had even called for the assassination of the three honourable justices of the apex court for acquitting her and the Prime Minister for supporting the court verdict. Yet the outfit faced no consequences. It has now been ‘allowed’ to function as a normal religio-political party.
Little surprise then that abusers of the blasphemy laws feel free to kill people at will.
In its reaction to the gruesome incident in Sialkot, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has rightly averred that “flimsy allegations of blasphemy should bring home once and for all the grim reality of spiraling radicalisation in Pakistan”, adding that “regretfully, the state’s response has been cowardly at best and complicit at worst.” Let all concerned show this time they are really serious about putting an end to such brutal and shameful acts perpetrated by devious elements in the fair name of Islam and its holy personages.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021