Another voice is silenced with jihadi guns
Pakistan’s Minister for Religious Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti was assassinated on Wednesday, March 2, a short distance from his home in Islamabad. His killers, three men armed with Kalashnikovs, riddled his body with bullets. One report said the autopsy showed he had been shot 35 times, another put the figure at 25.
That number is really irrelevant. What is relevant is that his assassins are members of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. Pakistan’s largest daily, Dawn, in a report attributed to ‘Agencies’ and not a staff writer or reporter, says:
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing, saying the minister had been “punished” for being a blasphemer.Salman Taseer, Governor of Punjab, was assassinated by his bodyguard, an elite force personnel, Malik Mumtaz Hussain. The killer was showered with rose petals by lawyers when he was produced in court.
Witnesses said the attackers scattered leaflets signed by “The Qaeda and the Taliban of Punjab” at the attack scene, which read: “This is the punishment of this cursed man.”
Taliban militants had called for Bhatti’s death because of his attempts to amend the blasphemy law.
“He was a blasphemer like Salman Taseer,” spokesman Sajjad Mohmand said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani (said) “Such acts will not deter the government’s resolve to fight terrorism and extremism,” adding that the killers would not go unpunished.
The attacks on those seeking amendments to Pakistan’s inhuman and harsh anti-blasphemy law began ever since voices of protest were raised against a poor and illiterate Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, being sentenced to death for blasphemy.
As after Taseer’s assassination, the Left-liberal commentariat in India has been vociferous in denouncing the murder of Bhatti and shedding copious crocodile tears.
The libbers’ grief would have been touching but for the fact it is so much bunk.
Here’s why. The Left-liberal commentariat remained stunningly silent when Bangladeshi dissident writer Taslima Nasreen was being hounded by mullahs and their storm-troopers. There were no voices of protest when Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen goons assaulted her in Hyderabad. There was undisguised glee when the CPI(M) used manufactured mullah rage against Taslima Nasreen to chase her out of Kolkata.
I know it for a fact that many of those who are waxing eloquent on the “assault on freedom of expression and liberalism” in Pakistan had ‘advised’ the Government of India not to extend Taslima Nasreen’s residence permit.
The Left-lib commentariat has been vicious while lashing out at those who have dared criticise the abuse of sharia’h and Muslim Personal Law in India, or sought a uniform civil code to protect the rights of Muslim women. They pitilessly mock at those who denounce the burqa, insisting it’s a matter of “individual choice” which is of course not true. They gloss over the most regressive actions and utterances of the mullahs and accuse their critics of indulging in Islamophobia.
Their hearts bleed for Pakistan’s assassinated Minister for Religious Minorities yet they cold-heartedly denounce those who seek the protection of rights of religious minorities in Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley. They are frauds and charlatans.
To see them ‘mourning’ over the killing of Taseer and Bhatti is laughable.
The point is simple. Left-liberal intellectuals who preach tolerance are the most intolerant lot when confronted with contrarian views. For them tolerance means to meekly accept their bunkum.
As for Pakistan, it’s a state that continues to crumble, bit by bit. Jinnah’s dream has turned into a frightening nightmare. But, and tragically so, Pakistanis refuse to acknowledge this simple fact.
Blinded by their hate-India agenda, Pakistan and its citizenry can’t see the terrible reality. The monster they have lovingly nurtured and nourished has turned on them. This is the 21st century version of Frankenstein’s Monster. As in the story, both monster and its master shall die in the end.
Not all the nuclear bombs in Pakistan’s arsenal can save it from its fate. If at all anything can yet rescue the country, it’s the people if they take a stand. But that seems unlikely. Why else would Jamaat-e-Islami blame the CIA for Bhatti’s murder and mainstream newspapers offer space for this amazing allegation? (This question has been dealt with in a post Pak Journalists: Conspiracy Theories and Willful Ignorance on Pakistan Media Watch, to which my attention was drawn by Raza Rumi.)
Pakistan’s enemy is within. Not without.
8 comments:
forget Tasleema Nasreen, what about when secularists chopped off the hands of a christian professor in Kerala? where was the outrage?
Nice write-up! You've torn the left-libs apart, unmasked them like no one else! They have been conspicuously silent when Hindus were attacked in Deganga!
Either way, it’s pretty certain that he died in service to the Lord and to his country. If many of his countrymen didn’t appreciate his service, it’s certain that the good Lord does. There are many less Christ-like ways to meet death than as a suffering servant.
Either way, it’s pretty certain that he died in service to the Lord and to his country. If many of his countrymen didn’t appreciate his service, it’s certain that the good Lord does. There are many less Christ-like ways to meet death than as a suffering servant.
It would do good to Pakistan if they concentrate on cleaning up their country, rather than try to disturb others. Or else may soon disintegrate
2 Mar'11
It is time for all Pakistan well wishers / global think tanks etc to advice Pakistan to think of their own good... saving the country..concentrate on development, education, health,employment generaation etc and stop worrying about India.
Stop financing war machine, army & fingering / bleeding India. This will be of great help to the Pakistanis'; help Indians more so the Kashmiri Indians, better their lot.
Both these countries govt. need to become more open & give up Hypocrisy.
When Qadri, the Taseer killer brought to the court many advocates showered flower petals on the vehicle which brought him. These advocates are part of cream of the Pak society. They are not the illiterate jihadists. This clearly shows the mindset of the people of Pakistan.
I wish to draw your attention to an incident so ghastly, a bestiality so blood-curdling, that it’s very mention fills my heart with immense sadness and pain, and yet, it is so surprising that apart from the local media of the city where this devilish incident took place, state & national level media has been completely ignoring, in fact it seems that media is not even aware of the occurrence, of this incident.
Since, around a week ago, in the city of Jabalpur in MP, a young schoolgirl named Akansha, studying in Class XI, was returning to her house from her coaching class. Some school boys of the same coaching class stopped her & tried to molest her. She vehemently protested and went home. Next day, when her parents were out of the house and Akansha was in her house along with her 13 years old younger brother Priyanshu & her aged grandmother, the same boys barged in to her house & started mercilessly and ruthlessly beating Akansha, Priyanshu & their grandmom. So devilish was their assault, so ruthless their attack, that 13 years old Priyanshu, & Akansha’s grandmother succumbed to their injuries and died. Akansha received critical head injuries, was rushed to hospital where she was operated upon, she received more than 250 stitches in her head, and is since in a semi-conscious state, fighting for her life in a hospital at Nagpur.
But the tragedy is still unfolding. The entire city of Jabalpur is rife with rumours, that all those satanic boys are still roaming scot free because their tremendous pressure on Jabalpur police from powerful local politicians to somehow hush up the case. Police is yet to make ANY headway in this broad daylight double, almost triple, murder case!!!!!!!! This when the entire city of Jabalpur is claiming that it knows who those boys are who turned cold-blooded murderers.
With Jabalpur police climbing new heights of inaction and disgrace, young people of Jabalpur, pushed to the wall by an uncaring establishment, formed a Facebook group and are organising a protest rally on Sunday, i.e. 13th March, 2011, evening, at a prominent business area of Jabalpur.
Here is the main document of their Facebook group,
“Akanksha- an unsaid desire!!”
“This particular petition is a small effort by the students who are fighting to get justice for their friend Akansha Usretay¬. She is an 11th grade student from the maharishi school. She is a brilliant student who has been victimized by a gang of boys…to whom she retorted because they had misbehaved with her. The boys had barged in her house while her parents were out. She had tried her best to handle the matter but the outraged boys had stabbed her, her 13 years old brother and her grandmother with an iron . they were severly injured and were rushed to the hospital. her brother died after being on ventilator for several hours and grandma passed away after being in coma. Akansha is still fighting for her life . she underwent an operation bacuse her head was completely smashed by the iron. She has got 273 stitches on her head and is very very critical. The police has been refusing to take any action in this matter, sources reveal that there is strong political influence involved here.
This petition will be presented to the police of jabalpur to help her family get justice…we shall be extremely obliged if you all could take out some time from your busy lives and extend a helping hand in this noble cause. Your every signature will make a difference.
Justice has been denied ..we pledge to do everything possible to help her family…please join our hands and be united!!!
We pray that Akansha recovers soon and her family gets the courage to bear the pain of the loss..may the departed souls rest in peace
I request you, I request every reader of your esteemed newspaper, and I request each and every media house of this country, please take up this matter. It’s a ghastly, devilish thing that has taken place at Jabalpur. An entire city is filled with sorrow and anger. Please help Akansha, please help human society. Please act as humans.
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