Remembering Mashal Khan

Any number of security measures will be futile or partly successful as long as the mindset continues being nourished

In his introduction of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, novelist Edward Morgan Foster writes: “It is certainly not a comforting book. But it may help a few grownups to be less complacent and more compassionate, to support Ralph, respect Piggy, control Jack and lighten a little the darkness of man’s heart.”

Rich with artistic allegory, the novel, in the words of its author, “traces the defects of society back to the defects of human nature.” Left unchecked, people, like the bunches of boys in the novel whose plane crashes on an uninhabited island, will challenge the order, resort to savagery and set the very island afire where they are supposed to live in peace and harmony.

What happened in Mardan on April 13^th, where an angry mob lynched a student to death, reveals the bitter and unpleasant truth about the state complacency towards elements challenging its writ, and a failure to safeguard peaceful citizens against the fallouts of pro-jihadist and extremist propaganda over the past few decades.

Mardan, the birthplace of Khudai Khidmatgars and non-violent movement of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, aka Bacha Khan, is one of the most politically and culturally rich parts of K-P. Ironically, the killing scene was a university campus named after the son of Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the man whose lifetime struggle was focused on educating his fellow Pashtuns and coaching them to refrain from violence.

The brutal killing of Mashal Khan, the latest among those butchered at the altar of ill-defined laws, reminds me of the fellow boys-turned-savages who kill Piggy, the voice of sanity in Lord of the Flies on that uninhabited island.

Unlike the well-planned attempt on the life of Nobel laureate Malala Yousufzai and the killing of rights activist Sabeen Mahmud, vice-chancellor of Swat University Dr Muhammad Farooq Khan or senior minister of K-P Bashir Ahmad Bilour, the murder of Mashal and the governor of Punjab Salman Taseer were impromptu.



Although the fingers that pulled the triggers were different, the mindset in either case was the same. While it is easier for the state security agencies to act against planned and organised incidents, it is quite difficult to prevent the ones that happen on a spur-of-the-moment. Yesterday, the victim was Mashal. Tomorrow, that can be anyone, anywhere. Hence, the state needs to fight the mindset.

Any number of security measures, including the much-hyped military operations, will be futile or partly successful as long as the mindset continues being nourished on a steady stream of radical and extremist narratives, originating from the very cities and towns known to be the power seats of the ruling elites, both civilian and military.

After emphatic statements of condemnation, few protests, vigils in some cities and visits by political leaders to meet the dejected parents, Mashal is practically out of the scene and almost a forgotten story. Leaders are busy with political campaigning, the 24/7 media has stumbled on new and more juicy topics and the few hundred rights activists feel threatened, lest they be labelled blasphemers.

And as the dust settles down, proponents of the very mindset that killed Mashal are on the roads justifying the murder and literally threatening the state against trials of the accused and any amendments to the blasphemy law.

The legal maxim of ‘justice delayed is justice denied’ seems to be out of fashion in Pakistan as Mumtaz Qadri, the police guard and assassin of Salmaan Taseer, continued to enjoy life to the full in jail despite the handing down of the death penalty by the court. The same mindset, a tiny minority though, that stalled Qadri’s punishment for several years, is again at work pressuring the state, manipulating the local machinery and harassing those seeking justice for Mashal.

Iqbal Jan Shair, father of Mashal Khan, hit the nail right on the head when asked what he wants to be done with the killers: “They did not lynch my son. They challenged the writ of the state. And the state must make them accountable.”

But will this really happen? My reply is a certain NO. Like many other happenings of the past, Mashal’s murder will dissolve the clamour of media talk shows, mudslinging in political gatherings, and ‘more important’ issues such as the Panama Papers investigation, Dawn Leaks or the rebirth of Ehsanullah Ehsan et al.

As if we are living on the island of lotus eaters, we need a jerk to open our eyes and then return to our slumber. The APS massacre, the Lahore park attack, the bloodbath at Sehwan and the killing at Parachinar, to mention only a few, failed to shake up the nation’s collective conscience to stand up against all kinds of violence.

Continuous complacency and compromises are encouraging the Jack(s) among us to the level of challenging the writ of the state. Let them be stopped before they endanger the very island they live in.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2017.

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