Lahore attacks no conspiracy

The merciless, cold-blooded massacre of members of the Ahmadi community while in prayers in sacred places of worship was a horrible act that shames every thinking and patriotic Pakistani. Let me also call the victims of this ghastly act and every member of the Ahmadi community my brothers and sisters. Also bonds that bring us together as a political community are stronger than narrow religious affinities or divides. That is why we must share their grief and pain and make them as our own as well.

The big and troubling question is why a particular religious group should make another religious group a target of its violence? The answer is simple, and we don’t have to spin conspiracy theories or twist words. Repulsive as it might be, it is hate, intolerance, and false belief in the rightness of violent methods to make a political statement. And unfortunately, the group of militants that carried out the massacre seem to have religious beliefs that motivated and encouraged it to commit violence.

It is not the first time that the Ahmadis have been victims of terrorism; they have been attacked and killed many times before. And their targeting goes back to the early years of independence, the infamous Lahore riots of 1953 in which hundreds of Ahmadis lost their lives, savings and properties. A religious political party and quite a few other groups were the instigators of those dreadful nights and days in the central city of Punjab.

The Ahmadi-bashing from the religious right continued unabated in the later decades as well as the religious parties and groups questioning the loyalties of the Ahmadi community to Pakistan. Starting with the demand of removing Sir Zafarullah Khan from his position as the foreign minister of Pakistan, the religious groups have wanted each and every known Ahmadi thrown out of responsible government jobs.

I would seriously doubt the mental balance and sense of justice of anybody casting any doubts about the patriotism of Sir Zafarullah Khan. No Pakistani after him has ever presented so eloquently and so stridently the Pakistani case for Kashmir before the UN Security Council as did this great man of vision and integrity. Well, if our religious or ideological prejudice covers our thoughts, then no amount of evidence would be enough or necessary to convince us about our Ahmadi benefactors like Sir Khan.

I personally witnessed humiliation, harassment and house burning of Ahmadis when the popular government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto politicised the issue and, in an expedient way, pushed the resolution in the national parliament to declare Ahmadis non-Muslims. Through those weeks and months of movement against the Ahmadis, seeking parliamentary declaration against them, there was fear, helplessness and so much pain within this community.

It was the first of its kind of resolutions in modern times, and written into the constitution, to determine religious authenticity of a particular religious group. And it was done with unanimity, no party, faction or member daring to stand out and say, it was a deviation from the vision of our founders that saw the country as a political community comprising different faiths, beliefs and religions, and on the basis of citizenship.

As if that was not enough, General Zia further humiliated, marginalised and persecuted the Ahmadis to placate the religious right and firm up his credentials as the ‘saviour’ of Islam, Muslims and Pakistan. Unfortunately, very few Pakistani Muslims stood up and spoke against religious persecution at that time because the Ahmadis were others, and ‘not us’.

With this history in mind, we can have a better idea about the religious groups labelling the Lahore carnage as a ‘conspiracy’. Violence against a section of our own population or minorities will hurt all Muslims and Pakistan and would keep us down, never allowing us to rise as a nation.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2010.