A photo to remember

Photos that I took during mob attack on a Christian neighbourhood, Joseph Colony, proved to be defining moment for me

I have covered scores of demonstrations and clashes on the streets of Lahore since I started working as a photojournalist 26 years ago.

Till 2013, I would refer to my photos of the unrest in the city over the demolition of Babri Masjid in the early 1990s and the clashes between police and Jamaat-i-Islami activists during then Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpai’s visit. I felt that these photographs had brought me recognition as a photojournalist.

However, a series of photographs that I took during the mob attack on a Christian neighbourhood, Joseph Colony, where more than 170 houses were burnt in 2013, proved to be a defining moment for me. It showed a man trying to raise a cross to throw it into a fire. But he was unable to muster up the strength to throw it down and the cross fell on his back instead. The photo generated public debate. The following day, panelists at talk shows at prime time slots referred to it. Some denounced it as provocative. They said it could incite religious fervor amongst people who considered the cross a sacred religious symbol. Others, however, referred to it in a positive tone. For me, what mattered most was that my work had led people to think, in multiple ways, about the tragedy that befell the Christian residents of the neighbourhood.