I hope action is soon taken to rectify this
KARACHI: With reference to the story, “Sectarian strife: Six ASWJ men shot dead” (November 5), I would like to point out that the organisation in question, the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), is a banned terror outfit, and while no killing of any human being can be condoned, this newspaper owes it to its readers to at least inform them of the aforementioned fact. That the ASWJ is banned was reported by BBC Urdu in March 2012, and later by other newspapers.
The act was reprehensible, as is any killing, but to label it “sectarian strife” is to validate the ASWJ’s narrative as legitimate. Let there be no doubt that the ASWJ is a hate-spreading organisation, whose leaders have, time and again, called for violence against minority groups and indulged in hate speech. In an ideal country, these men would have been put behind bars; not in Pakistan, though.
Keeping in view Pakistan’s volatile situation, any coverage regarding terror organisations must ensure it does not, even inadvertently, give legitimacy to their claims. Newspapers carry the responsibility of setting the discourse around news. Painting the activists of hate-spreading organisations as victims while ignoring their pernicious presence runs contrary to the ideals of journalism, and I hope action is soon taken to rectify this.
Not doing so would help bring these views into the mainstream and in the long run, spell the end of the dream for a plural and peaceful Pakistan.
Muhammad Taha
Published in The Express Tribune, November 10th, 2016.
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