Who is responsible for sending police guards on VIP protection duty?
LAHORE: The brutal murder of a brave, progressive, liberal, straightforward man by an ‘elite’ policeman raises many questions. Why was a fanatic deployed on duty for guarding the Punjab governor when his extremist religious views were known to his colleagues and he had been sacked from the Special Branch of the Punjab police for holding such views?
Who is responsible for sending police guards on VIP protection duty? Who are the religious leaders who issued a fatwa against his statements on the blasphemy law? Are citizens not allowed to express their views on those laws which they believe encourage bigotry? If the governor of the country’s largest province could not be saved from the tentacles of the extremists, what hope can ordinary citizens have? What is the government doing to cleanse the security forces from extremists? As long as the state is involved in taking sides and promoting one religion at the expense of others, there will be such killing of liberal progressive leaders. Why is the PPP government frightened by religious forces?
Engr ST Hussain
Published in The Express Tribune, January 6th, 2011.
