Honouring Martyrs

The dithering response by his own party, by his own government insults Gandapur's martyrdom.

It is six years since the blast at Karsaz in Karachi happened. A lot of people died, perhaps, the highest number of casualties ever in Pakistan in one blast. The scene remains unforgettable, jubilation turned into misery, hope engulfed by death. Rivers of blood have flowed under the bridges since. We have suffered too many blasts to maintain count; too many people have died to remember all of them. Death remains a constant; however, how we react to it has certainly changed. The aftermath of the blast saw Shaheed BB immediately going to hospital to call upon the wounded, to mourn with her people and then hold a press conference. She spoke like only she could, of not backing down, of standing with her people and she spoke as someone who was acutely aware of the message sent to her, someone who knew that the odds were on death and not life.

Would she still have been killed, had she not displayed that courage immediately after the blast? The answer is yes, ‘they’ would have killed her nonetheless. Yet, she had honour and a sense of loyalty and responsibility to the people. Why do we go to funerals? Why do we condole with people? The dead are gone; condolences and show of support don’t bring people back. Yet, we do it, to show that we care, to do what we can. Shaheed BB was doing just that and more, also telling them that those dead have not died in vain; that they were martyrs and she stood by them fearlessly and ready to embrace the same fate.

A few years on, Mian Iftikhar Hussain’s only son was martyred. Just hours later, Mian Iftikhar Hussain talked to the press and recalling that scene is still chilling. Those of us who have lost loved ones to violence and brutality know what it feels like. Even standard and limited capacity for human empathy will tell you that much. Mian Iftikhar Hussain’s clear-eyed, steady voiced resolve to continue fighting is the stuff heroes are made of.

Shaheeds BB and Bashir Bilour are gone, Mian Iftikhar Hussain has lost. One missed them, when Mr Israrullah Gandapur was martyred. Martyrdom without ownership, without acknowledgement is what bruises the spirit. The dithering response by his own party, by his own government insults his martyrdom. Vague condemnation, as he if was killed in an accident, or perhaps, some nauseous view that it was a justifiable retaliation of some sort. Those who were taught not to respect martyrs of others have learnt to disrespect their own. They, perhaps, miss the point; that all martyrs are ‘ours’. The cruel ignorance that those from other parties were somehow killed because of their ‘corruption’ and ‘inefficiency’ was their excuse in the past. Now the K-P government has ‘requested’ the TTP to stop. Mr Imran Khan does not deem it worth his time or energy to attend the funerals of his party members. The ‘corrupt’ ANP is now gone, their policies no longer in force, yet killings have not ceased. The only change is that the dead are not honoured anymore.

‘Honour’ and ‘martyrdom’ are not hollow superlatives, particularly in times of conflict. They are concrete and tangible values and incentive structures in battles. Nothing else explains soldiers of our army and police forces willing to sacrifice their lives. Yet, their funerals are now attended only by members of the forces themselves, members of the federal and K-P government, of course, are busy doing stellar jobs of fixing the economy and governance, etc. The K-P chief minister (CM) as we should remember, and perhaps continue to make him remember, ‘does not know of the Taliban’. Who is the K-P government making a ‘request’ to then? Has the CM no respect for our soldiers dying daily? Was General Niazi martyred in an ‘understandable’ response to drones? To dumb down ideological and structural problems, abuse all others and give 90-day deadlines to solve everything might have worked as a campaign strategy. Denial, abuse and apology are no cornerstones for running a government.

The people have given Mian Sahib and Mr Khan a mandate, and with the All Parties Conference’s (APC) token validation, they need to get on with it. If you want to ‘talk’, then go ahead and talk; in God’s name, end the limbo. If we are destined to suffer another round of failed talks, let’s have them as soon as possible, while there still may be time. The cost of indecision is not only the lives of our civilians and soldiers, but also an erosion of the State. A few years earlier, Mian Shahbaz Sharif ‘requested’ the Taliban to ‘spare’ Punjab; now the K-P CM is asking for compassion from those whom he also believes do not exist. On the question of the State, there are numerous things that General Musharraf can and should be tried and held accountable for — Lal Masjid is not one of them. Unfortunate as the incident was, to describe that as murder entails that the officers and soldiers killed while trying to contain baton-wielding women and gun-wielding men vowing to take over the capital were, in fact, the ‘aggressors’.

While Mr Khan rightly deserves criticism of his politics and world view, there remains a curious reluctance surrounding Mian Sahib. The primary reason is that the now ‘matured’ Mian Sahib understands that laying low is a great survival strategy. Mian Sahib has almost the same policy towards terrorism as Mr Khan. He just has learnt to say very little on the matter or most other matters. Mian Sahib’s present guiding principle is an ancient one, if one does nothing, one does nothing wrong. He waits for Mr Khan and his supporters to say something that will deflect all criticism onto themselves, and they continue to oblige. This, Mr Prime Minister, is not how you run a country.

Even after responsibility is claimed, condemnation takes no names, the FIRs are against ‘unknown people’, the funerals deserted. This state of affairs, by its nature, cannot last for very long. It will go one way or the other. The balance right now is tipped towards the wrong side. Appeasement and denial will not secure the federal or the K-P government in the Emirate. Mian Sahib and Mr Khan, act now, there might not be time to regret later. You owe it to the people of this country, to Shaheed Israrullah Gandapur, to the martyrs of Karsaz and all other attacks. You sirs, owe it to Shaheed BB and Mian Iftikhar Hussain.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2013.

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